True North

As I said yesterday, I invited various leaders at Gov. Pawlenty's State of the State Address to respond. I just got this email response from House Majority Leader Tony Sertich:

Gary:

It was good to meet you in St Cloud yesterday. Thank you for the opportunity to respond to the Governor's State of the State address. I do appreciate your desire to print responses verbatim.

It was good to be invited to the great city of St. Cloud for the State of the State address. It is a growing and important regional hub with a rich history. As a representative from greater Minnesota, I appreciate the Governor's desire to bring our state government to places around our state.

One of the single greatest concerns of Minnesotan's today is the struggling economy and its impacts on our daily business and personal lives. I was disappointed the Governor did not make growing jobs and higher wages a centerpiece of his address. Last year alone, we lost over 23,000 jobs and we are lagging behind the national economy.

For this reason, you will continue to hear from the leaders of the Minnesota House that our work will be focused on improving our state's economy, creating job growth, protection of existing jobs, higher wages, more affordable health care and economic development by investing in our transportation systems,

higher education institutions, natural resources, and community infrastructures.

Thank you again for the opportunity to respond.

Tony

I appreciate Leader Sertich for taking the time from his busy schedule to personally respond. This email is posted verbatim, just as I promised.

Comments welcomed at LFR.