Letter: Garofalo voted against property tax relief

To the editor,

Rep. Pat Garofalo is being very quiet about his vote against giving property tax relief to the people of his district. The Omnibus Tax Bill was passed before the session ended on Sunday and our representative voted: 1. Against direct property tax relief through the Property Tax Relief Refund, 2. Against increases in local government aid, which add to city and township revenues and reduce property tax levies, 3. Against closing FOC loopholes to prevent corporations from shielding income from taxation in foreign entities and 4.Against increased accountability to the governor's controversial JOBZ program.

Is this the same Garofalo who was yelling about protecting his people from taxes for transit options for Farmington and other district citizens? We lost out on a terrific deal that the Met Council offered Lakeville, but not us, because of Garofalo and mayor Kevan Soderberg's ranting. If our tax rates are of grave concern to him and he professes to work for lowering them, where was his Yes vote on this opportunity to provide some property tax relief for our families? The hard working middle class in our cities, towns and townships are fortunate there were enough representatives from other districts who saw this long awaited need and took the steps to give some remedy to the economic squeeze we are all feeling. How do you explain that?

Laura Frerichs

Farmington

Tags: pat, opinion, garofalo, property, tax