Bob Barrett - State Representative for Minnesota House District 17B

BARRETT IS CHANGE

About Bob Barrett

Personal - Work - Volunteer - Political Beliefs - Important Issues

Personal

Bob lives in Lindstrom with his wife (Judi) and two teenage daughters who attend Chisago Lakes High School
Active member of Living Branch Lutheran Church, North Branch, MN (LCMS)
Bachelor of Arts in Accounting from Minnesota State University, Mankato
Passed CPA (Certified Public Accountant) Exam in 1992

Work

A Director at a Major Non-Profit Foundation (employed there, for 17+ years)
10 year local baseball umpire, basketball and football referee (if you have a child in sports, I probably officiated their game)
Over 20 years experience in budgeting and finance

Volunteer

Member of Chisago Lakes School District Community Finance Committee
Student Mentor - Chisago Lakes School District
Former Treasurer - Living Branch Lutheran Church, Living Branch Kids Carnival volunteer
Formerly Church Elder, Vacation Bible School Director, Sunday School Teacher
Testified with Michelle Bachmann at MN Senate Education Committee regarding Profiles of Learning

Political Beliefs

Government needs to become more efficient
Common sense conservatism
Lend people who are hurting a hand up, not a hand out
School tenure needs to be reformed, putting children first
Repeal the state law that fines school districts when teacher contracts are not finalized by January 15
Minnesota’s business taxes are too high and need to be reduced to promote private sector job growth
Cut government spending to promote private sector growth
Repeal "Green Acres" tax increases
Strongly Pro-life.

Important Issues

>>> Education

In our country's history, few men accomplished so much with their lives as Benjamin Franklin did. His achievements were extraordinary. His understanding of education and true learning were incomparable.

"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn."
--Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

I love this quote because it acknowledges that education should be about the goal of learning instead of the bureaucracy of teaching or telling. Education needs to be "about the kids" and not about teachers, unions or administrators.

Unfortunately, the public education bureaucracy in Minnesota today, too often, puts the wants and needs of adults ahead of the educational needs of our children. Proof that this occurs is all around us.

One example is that we have a state law that penalizes only the school district ($25 per student) when the district and teacher's union don't settle on a teacher's contract by January 15. In 2010, this law resulted in over 200 of the state's 342 districts, under threat of impending fine, settling contracts with the teacher's union just prior to this Jan 15 deadline. The result was hundreds of millions of dollars in extra expenses for schools at a time when the state of Minnesota has a $1 billion dollar budget deficit and flat education funding. Now, teachers will have to be laid off to pay for these increases. Does this put kids first?

Another example of putting adults ahead of children is what happened in one of one of Minnesota's school districts in 2009. A star teacher, universally loved by students and parents alike, was bumped out of a job during budget cuts in favor of someone else in the district whose non-teaching position was being eliminated. Unfair you say? This person had tenure, whereas the star teacher didn't. In an environment where the needs of kids are always put first, this wouldn't be allowed to happen.

If you have been following the US Department of Education "Race to the Top" funding that Minnesota was recently rejected for, you know that there is a high level of dysfunction in Minnesota's education bureaucracy. This dysfunction is a barrier that prevents our kids from achieving a high quality education. We cannot continue to whitewash this dysfunction by throwing more money at K-12 education in this state. In fact, it's time to allow parents to take their tax dollars with them when they choose to send their kids to private school or to home school.

I have two children who attend high school in the Chisago Lakes School District. I currently serve on the Chisago Lakes School District Community Finance Committee. I've been a student mentor for the last five years at both the middle school and high school. I have also officiated varsity basketball games in North Branch as well as hundreds of youth football, basketball and baseball games all around Chisago County. My position at Hazelden involves working to implement violence and bullying prevention curricula in schools all across this country. I care about improving education for all of our kids. I am convinced that the way to do this is by changing the culture of the education bureaucracy by putting the needs of our kids first.

If you have any questions for me, please give me a call (651-253-6114)

>>> Government

"Government is not the solution to the problem, government IS the problem!" declared Ronald Reagan at his 1981 inauguration. Twenty-nine years later, Obamacare has proven just how right President Reagan was.

As your state representative, these four issues will be my top priority:

Reduce the size and influence of government
Improve productivity in K-12 education
Promote private sector jobs by creating a competitive business climate
Protecting human life from conception until natural death

Today, I'd like to discuss how we can reduce the size and influence of government.

1) DOWNSIZE. Reducing the size means reducing the number of public employees. When state government is the largest employer in Minnesota and Hennepin County, the 17th largest employer in MN, has more employees than Best Buy, a company with annual sales of over $45 Billion, you know that government has too many people on its payroll.

2) REDUCE PUBLIC SECTOR BENEFITS. Aligning benefits that public sector employees receive with those typical in the private sector means moving to High Deductible Health Plans and "Defined Contribution" not "Defined Benefit" retirement plans for public sector employees.

3) AUDIT GOVERNMENT SPENDING. We should be auditing large public works projects to eliminate waste. From my days working in finance and passing the CPA exam, I know of ways to expose waste in government bidding so that we pay less for future bridge and road projects.

4) FLORIDA REPORT. The state of Florida just received a report by a tax watch group that highlighted over $3 Billion in savings that can be made in that state. We can use this report to reduce expenses in Minnesota.
http://www.floridataxwatch.org/resources/pdf/03042010FullReport.pdf

5) SANCTUARY CITIES. Illegal immigration takes jobs away from Minnesota citizens. It reduces public safety and it increases the costs associated with health care and education. I will work to eliminate sanctuary cities in Minnesota.

6) MINNESOTA BUDGET DEFICIT. The state budget deficit is projected to grow to almost $6 billion dollars next year. This provides an opportunity to reduce the size and influence of government while meeting our constitutional requirement of balancing our state budget.

If you have any questions for me, please give me a call (651-253-6114)

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Who is Bob Barrett?

Bob Barrett is the Republican endorsed candidate for state representative for House District 32b which encompasses most of Chisago County.

Bob is currently a Director at a Major Non-Profit Foundation in charge of Market Research and Marketing Analysis. Bob has spent 17+ years at this Foundation in various financial, analytical and operational leadership positions. Bob lives in Lindstrom with his wife (Judi) and two teenage daughters who attend Chisago Lakes High School. Bob graduated from Minnesota State University with a BA in Accounting in 1989, passed the Certified Public Accountancy exam in 1991 and has over 20 years experience helping private sector businesses make smart business and economic decisions.

The Barrett's are active members of Living Branch Lutheran Church (a member of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod) where Bob is a long time treasurer and member of the church leadership team. Bob is a former church elder, vacation bible school director and Sunday school teacher. Judi is a former youth group director and has twice traveled to the country of Latvia on church mission trips. Bob and Judi’s daughters are Sunday school teachers at Living Branch and have formerly directed the Sunday school Christmas program. Bob and family also help put on the wildly successful Living Branch Kid’s Carnival held each September at Central Park in North Branch where in 2009 members of Living Branch helped bring joy and happiness to over 2,000 Chisago County children for an afternoon.

Bob is active in the area schools where he is a member of the Chisago Lakes School District Finance Team (3 years) and is a mentor in the school district (5 years) and has officiated several hundred basketball, football, baseball and softball games in Chisago County over the past 10 years. If you have a child in any one of these Bob has probably officiated some of their games along the way (but he would like to ask that you don’t hold that against him on November 2…)

• I won the GOP endorsement for state as a private citizen over intense competition over 3 currently elected local officials that had already declared their candidacies.

Having jumped in against 3 currently elected officials to win the GOP endorsement is testimony to the fact that I passionately want to be your state representative. I want to serve in this position for the following reasons;

• To help balance the impending $5.8 billion dollar state budget deficit while eliminating the imbalance between the growth in government and the shrinking private sector.
• To create private sector jobs by transferring scarce resources back to the private sector doing this by lowering taxes and reducing government intrusion and bureaucracy.
• Put “Kids First” in education for once by repealing laws that are counter- productive to improving education ($25 per student fine on school districts when unions can’t agree with district on a contract as an example in modifying and improving teacher tenure in Minnesota)
• Reform education funding in MN so that schools like North Branch and Rush City aren’t left with leftovers from the $13 Billion dollar state education budget.
• Reduce small business taxes across the board (property and income taxes) to eliminate the advantage that low tax/low regulation border states like South Dakota and North Dakota have over high tax and high regulation Minnesota
• I am pro-life and will advocate strongly for the rights of the unborn.
• I will work tirelessly to repeal the Green Acres tax increases of 2008 and 2009.
• Cut spending and reduce state government so that it can focus on its core objective of providing for the "security, benefit and protection of the people" (Article 1, Section 1 of the MN constitution)

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