Informational interview with Rep. Steve Drazkowski (R-Mazeppa)

Well I'm a father and a husband. We live in Mazeppa, population 842, small town. We love it there. I'm right on the edge of town next to the country. My wife likes to have good pavement to get to work easily and quickly, and I like to be as close to the woods and the farmland as I can because I grew up a farm boy. So that's kind of what I am, kind of outdoors type, agriculture, hunting, fishing type person. In terms of my pursuits and my endeavors, I also own a small business in Winona, our family shoe store. It's called Baker Shoes, and actually just inherited that in the last years. My mom passed away, but my mom's maiden name was Baker, and the business has been in the family since 1927. So my great granddad started the business way back then. So managing that, and still also have another job. I work with a graphics design marketing company.

You know, I'm fortunate and honored to be chair of the House Property Tax Committee. So I have spent a lot of time not only when we're in session here at the Capitol working with that committee to help bring forward some of the priorities of people in Minnesota, but also very active in going out and listening to what people have to say. Property tax levels are very much a concern with Minnesotans in both rural and metro Minnesota. But last year I began the session by going out to a dozen or more, might have been 13 or 14 locations throughout Minnesota, to listen to what they had to say and what were their exact concerns about property taxes. We took a flip chart and listened to them, came back, assimilated that information together, and distilled it out into what the top issues were across Minnesota. So our committee then brought forward many of those ideas, and there were other ideas that came from outside of that process. We went forward and had a bunch of bills. We heard a bunch of different ideas, and a lot of them were tax relief type provisions that did things like removing the very oppressive state-only property tax on small businesses and seasonal recreational property owners throughout the state, gave relief to our family farmers who have been struggling with the very high cost of escalating property taxes on school construction levies. So did that last year and passed those bills. We passed them through the House, and then most recently went back this year to many of those same communities and reported back to them about what it is that we did pass through the House and placed in the House tax bill, and get their reaction feedback and any additional thoughts they have. So I've been doing a lot of travel in the state in that role as well. But the priorities are for us to do the things that Minnesotans want. And Minnesotans really believe it's their turn, as the people who are paying the taxes for this very large government that we have here in the state of Minnesota, that it's their turn to get some relief from those very, very oppressive taxes that they're paying. So that's the priority I have going into this session, is to do what we can to make certain that they get that relief and to start to bring the state government to yield again to the people in the state of Minnesota.

We do have, just as I mentioned, sir, just a very big and encompassing government that isn't always responsive to the people. I think the biggest challenge is to bring our government to be listening more to those people and to be responsive to their needs. Or that of government. It seems that the focus here at the Capitol always seems to be on the health and well-being of the state and in local units of government, and it's always a government-centric discussion. I think the biggest problem facing Minnesota is for the people to actually be heard, that we start doing things that enact the will of the people rather than the will of the government.

I think the most rewarding aspect is the interaction with people of all sorts, whether it's constituents at the door, at community meetings, town hall meetings, those type of things, or legislators at the Capitol, or other people who come here or that you see through all your travels. So I think that's the most rewarding part: the people.

You know, I've been helping the Ted Cruz campaign for the presidency, and he's somebody who I seemed to really gravitate towards and somebody who really inspires me. He's somebody who learned the US Constitution memorized at age 13. He's very, very intelligent and very committed to the founding documents of our country in the Constitution and the meaning that it brings and the meaning it has for not only the history of our country but for what hangs in the balance of the future of our country. So I'm inspired by his leadership, his ability to focus the discussion in that presidential campaign and bring the people to rally around not only the protections but the defenses of their freedoms that are outlined in what was originally intended for our country as we go forward. So Senator Cruz is an amazing individual.