Penny campaigns in New Ulm

IP candidate:

Budget,

transportation,

education are

key issues

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Hot on the Minnesota gubernatorial campaign trail and months of 18-hour work days, Independence Party candidate Tim Penny talked with citizens Saturday in downtown New Ulm.

Penny is living proof of a small town boy making good, thanks to hard work. He attended a country grade school in Mansfield Township east of Albert Lea. His Kiester High School graduation class had 38 students.

His father was president of the Parent Teacher Association. Penny was the only child of seven in his family to attend college. He graduated from Winona State University with a political science degree.

A Minnesota Congressman from 1983 through 1994, Penny teaches a political science night course at Metro State University while he's on the campaign trail.

He doesn't talk to students about his own campaign much. His class centers on federal campaigns like the Wellstone-Coleman race for U.S. Senate. Required reading for the course is Penny's 1998 book, "The 15 Biggest Lies in Politics."

Penny authored two other books -- "Common Cents" and "Payment Due."

He sees his three biggest issues as the budget, transportation and education.

"The budget is a mess. My two main opponents had a lot to do with it," Penny said. "My leadership style is best-suited to getting things done."

The only thing the Democrats and Republicans agreed upon in the 2002 legislative session was to plug the $2.3 billion budget hole by draining the state's reserves, delaying payments and using accounting gimmicks, smoke and mirrors, Penny said.

Minnesotans deserve permanent, not temporary solutions, to a budget deficit that could reach $3 billion, according to Penny.

His rules for fixing the budget mess:

* Don't put off tough decisions. It only makes the mess worse.

* Don't use accounting gimmicks or one-time money to hide long-term problems.

* Don't make promises you can't keep.

* Examine the entire budget.

* Don't create the budget in a back room.

* Don't spend more money than you receive.

* Remember bonding lets you spend today and pay tomorrow.

* Keep the price of government competitive.

Penny would raise the gasoline tax to get delayed highway projects under way, remove bottlenecks and improve regional corridors with light, commuter and high-speed rail and rural transit.

On education, Penny wants to get to the root of financing dilemmas, reduce state mandates and promote the notion that a one-size-fits-all approach will not work. He opposes vouchers.

The undecided voters are what Penny feels will swing the election his way. He said he has the support of 51 percent of the undecided voters while Tim Pawlenty has 20 percent and Roger Moe 10 percent.

Penny is a senior follow at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute School of Public Affairs, a senior counselor to the Minnesota-based public relations firm Himle Horner, is a board member and policy chair for the budget watchdog group The Concord Coalition and national spokesman for the Alliance to Improve Medicare (AIM) and the Healthcare Leadership Council.

Penny was a U.S. Navy Reserve Intelligence Officer in and around Washington, D.C. from 1986-1992.