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| Affiliation | Democratic-Farmer-Labor |
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| Name | Michael J. Katch |
| Address |
Minneapolis, Minnesota , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | [Link] |
| Born |
August 16, 1961
(63 years)
|
| Contributor | The Oncoming Storm |
| Last Modifed | Juan Croniqueur
Apr 12, 2024 01:48pm |
| Tags |
Jewish -
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| Info | As the son and first born in a middle class Jewish family, I grew up thinking that life was full of opportunity. My father owned a men's clothing store, he was at work 14 hours a day, 6 days a week, and I certainly believed that was what men did. My life changed when adversity struck my family. My father's business failed in a fight that separated my immediate family from my extended family. This had been the family business that had lasted 3 generations and I was to be the 4th.
Only a few years after that, I found myself suffering a disabling injury from an accident. I was a pedestrian and the other party happened to be an alcoholic truck driver. My parents were unable to cope with these circumstances and did not have the emotional resources to take care of me, so, as many do, I found myself on the streets. My wife Peggy, who at that time also happened to be my best friend, brought me home with her, and she rented a room over an antique shop. One thing led to another, and soon she was pregnant with my daughter. My parents could not handle me with my injury, and they absolutely could not cope with my wife's pregnancy, so I was further isolated from the support I had known throughout my life. Despite all this, given the values that I was raised with, I married Peggy and raised a successful young woman named Hillary, who will be 21 years old on August 13.
Throughout the journey that I have called my life, certain social injustices have been shown clearly to me. Our welfare system deprives those who need it the most the dignity and respect that all citizens deserve. In my experience no one seeks help from the state except out of desperation. I too received emergency relief in the darkest hours of my past. I have at times lived in my car, and thanked God that I still had a car to sleep in. I have driven a taxi, traded wheat at the Minneapolis Grain Exchange, dispatched for several cab companies, and owned a cab company with my wife. As sheltered as my childhood was, as an adult I have witnessed the cold realities of the world we live in. That's why today I seek elective office, so that I may smooth the path of those who follow down the path of life. It has been said too many times by those individuals who either lack the resources to make a change or the capacity and the willingness to make a change that life is unfair and unjust, and I believe it can be if we let things stand as they are. My run for office is my attempt to correct this attitude. Life does not have to be unfair.
Hi, my name is Michael Katch and I have taken up the gauntlet and challenged Augustine Willie Domingues for the DFL line on the ballot in the September 12th Primary.
I have taken this task on because I believe that an injustice has occurred in the Senate District 58B DFL convention where Mr Domingues was anointed with the DFL endorsement. Although I was not in attendance due to my past experiences with the DFL convention and caucus structure, I feel it my duty as a life-long Democrat to give our neighbors a choice as to who should be their representative on the both the ballot in November and in St Paul for the next two years.
First I would like to share my views on the caucus and convention process. I believe that these forums are an excellent way to define what we are as a party and discuss what we believe. These conventions should be about platform building and setting the standards that we expect that our candidates should abide by. These conventions fail on the level of endorsing candidates and that process should always remain at the primary election level where all Democrats have an equal voice and vote.
As a previously loyal Democrat and liberal, my first goal if elected to the state legislature is to make sure that all Minnesotans have Universal Health Insurance. This insurance must include preventative and prenatal health care as well as dental and eye care. Minnesotacare was a groundbreaking experiment which covered more of the uninsured than ever before. It is time to expand this service, so that not only can we ensure the health of our children, but also their hardworking parents who are self-employed or independent contractors. Taxi drivers, waitresses and hair dressers are just a few examples of members of our community who work very hard but do not receive the care they need and deserve. I believe the Massachusetts legislature may have provided us with a formula to be sure that every member of our society has access to the services they need. Lack of health benefits may not be the top priority in the state of Minnesota, but in 58B it is one of my top three goals to accomplish if I am elected. I myself know first hand what it is when the emergency room is your only health care option. It is expensive for the state as those of us who don't have the coverage due to our employment status wait until the last minute to seek treatment and usually need more treatment as a result of our advanced condition. I will try and create a State Health Care administrator as a part of the Minnesota Care Unit, who will take open bids and purchase plans for our non- and under- insured citizens. According to the information that I have read in the Washington Post and on NPR's website, the top end premiums in Massachusetts are to run no more than $295 per year, with the state subsidizing any additional cost. This program is not revenue neutral at first glance, but will save the state money in the long run as healthier Minnesotans no longer wait until they need to be hospitalized before obtaining much needed medical services.
As an under-educated Minnesotan, I know first hand again that our schools must not be neglected. I attended college for two years and did not graduate, as I was involved in an accident that left me head -injured and since then I have fought to recover my faculties. From my experience a high school diploma will not unlock access to the jobs of the new millennium. We must stop thinking about funding K-12 education and start funding K-14 education. Every graduate of our Minnesota Public schools must either be on their way to a Bachelors degree or be trained in a trade or skill that will get them a living wage job upon graduation. I first will seek a partnership with our trade unions and our state's largest employers to design programs for our young people so that they can see the light of adulthood at the end of the tunnel. Our youth must be inspired by teachers who will seek out the answer to the only important question: What do you want to be when you grow up? Those teachers must and will put them on the path to success. This success will include full funding for the arts: Music, Painting, Sculpture, Photography, Drama, and Filmmaking are among the many paths that bring our society color. Who knows where the next Picasso or Spielberg may arise? Extra-curricular sports also must be fully funded, but with one caveat: If a school receives state funding they must observe a strict no-cut policy on any team. I personally rode the bench for two years on my High School Football team in Deerfield, Illinois and learned the value of team work and made many friends. I believe the values taught to us through these team endeavors teach our children far more than just simply playing the game. After-school programs help working families manage their ability to raise their children in a safe environment . I will also champion full funding for Early Childhood and Family Education,. My wife and I provided our daughter with these benefits and she is now a junior at American University in Washington DC. All of our children have great potential no matter how limited the resources of their families. I will oppose any school voucher program as it drains both the money and the best students away from our public school system. All of our children must have access to the best schools government can provide, not just a few lucky lottery winners.
I went to public school as did my wife and daughter; we need to support our public schools and those who teach in them by paying them appropriate salaries to do this most rewarding job. Bonuses must be available for teachers that spend extra time tutoring and catching up students who are struggling to learn the lessons being taught. I sought help in both geometry and algebra, and I am sure students to this day might still need a little coaching to pick up these concepts and others. Tutoring and mentoring programs need to be funded and instituted in our schools so that our children may have positive role models and be taught in such a way that they do not become discouraged with education.
Lastly on education, it must not only be reserved for our young but the adults in our community should and need to have a right to upgrade their skills so that they will be able to obtain living wage jobs. Government assistance in the form of grants should and need to be provided to our working families that are underemployed. This "budget breaker" is actually an investment in the future of Minnesota, as more employers rush to our state to hire our wealth of qualified citizens. The more qualified Minnesotans that are doing better paying jobs, the more revenue the state collects. We should think about funding education at this point as if we are taking out a collective student loan. Our better educated neighbors will be able to pay this state debt by using the skills we are giving them. I use the term grant as those underemployed must be able to continue to support their families while obtaining this education and most of our neighbors are already burdened by too much debt.
Immigrants' rights is next issue I wish to champion. My great-grandparents arrived at Ellis Island about 1909 and were documented as they arrived in the new world. In 2006 we need a new Ellis Island. Once our great land turned no one who sought refuge away, and it is once again time to open the golden door to all of those who seek freedom in our great nation and our great state of Minnesota. Exploitation of undocumented workers must end. Too many immigrants are being abused by working for substandard pay under the threat of deportation. In the fifteen years that I have lived in Minnesota, this has never been a Minnesota Value. We must address all of our neighbors, documented and undocumented, with the respect that we ourselves desire and deserve.
As property values rise and rents also rise, we must regulate the amount that rents can rise in order to protect our underemployed neighbors from being pushed out of their homes and having to leave their neighborhoods. The need for rent control has been too long overlooked in this state we call home. Families must not be forced from their homes due to the highly inflated real estate market. Our children need a stable safe environment to grow up in so they may be valued citizens in our community. We will also need to cap mortgage rates so that our middle class families may also be protected from the predatory practice of lenders. We also need to continue and expand the state's first time home buyer program and include financing to cover the cost of rehabbing the property so that the homes in our neighborhoods are habitable.
One further note on the stability of our neighborhoods: When seniors go onto social security they should not be forced to pay high property taxes. Rather, they should be able to simply allow the state to lien the property so they may continue to live in their homes no matter how the real estate gains in value over the remainder of their lives.
Allowing anything short of equal rights for our homosexual community is in itself a hate crime and has no place in the state of Minnesota. Gay marriage or the union of a man and a man or a woman and woman is none of the business of anyone outside of this couple as long as these two people are consenting adults. The right to privacy in Minnesota will not be abridged on my watch, and I will be very outspoken on this issue if elected.
A woman's right to choose is also in this same category for me as gay rights. I personally do not agree with abortion but I am not in the businesses of judging others. Since we as a state don't have the resources to take care of every unwanted child, the choice must be that of the expectant mother. In cases of rape and incest I believe that forcing a women to carry to term would be a crime in itself. Nobody chooses abortion as a first choice: any woman who feels driven to it should be respected. We should minimize abortions by promoting accessibility and use of contraception in our society and through our schools.
Racial profiling by our law enforcement community is unacceptable in the state of Minnesota and especially in Minneapolis. I will fight to see that this practice is defeated wherever I find it practiced. Our homes and neighborhoods need to be kept safe while our neighbors need to be treated with respect and dignity. We must not fear law enforcement, we pay them to serve our community. They must not discriminate against our neighbors in their endeavor to keep us safe from those who do not respect our laws or values.
My economic development plan is far down on my list because it may be the hardest thing here to accomplish. I believe that the state of Minnesota needs to create its own SBA ( small businesses administration). We need to be able to write high risk loans to local entrepreneurs . Those of us who haven't the credit or collateral to go into business for themselves but have the drive and ambition to create employment for their neighbors and a better life for themselves. It may be true that few of these businesses will succeed, but those that do will be the economic engines for our future.
On Public Transportation, I believe in expansion of both Bus Rapid Transit and Light Rail Transit. Members or our community must have the ability to access employment, educational, and entertainment opportunities all over the metro area without having to have the additional burden of owning and maintaining a car. Mobility is often lacking for the underprivileged and can set up economic road blocks for those who wish to study or work outside of their immediate neighborhood. If I am elected, I will set as a goal the expansion of mass transit services through our community and out to the suburbs where many of our states largest employers are located. The expansion of Public Transportation will hopefully take some of the traffic of our streets and reduce the emissions from car exhaust that we are breathing today. As a state we must have a dedicated source of funding for transit and have a transit first policy when it comes to mobility. I support the Motor Vehicle Sales Tax constitutional amendment that would guaranty at least 40% of all sales taxes collect on cars to be spent on public transportation. We need to spend more to both improve mobility of our neighbors and reduce the gridlock on our roads.
On the environment, I believe that we must invest in clean and renewable energy sources like ethanol and hydroelectric power stations. Our neighborhood borders the Mississippi river whose current surely can provide us with enough clean energy without the cost of burning coal or natural gas. New technologies must be employed to see to it that all of our energy needs are met in an efficient manner that perserves our health. Too many of our children have asthma due to our poor air quality and this is affecting their ability to learn.
One one last note, I believe that I am being called to public service, and even if my community does not elect me to the office I seek, I hope they will embrace the issues that I bring to the table. I believe the status quo is unacceptable for Senate District 58B, for Minneapolis, and for the state of Minnesota.
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