Only a Few Years of Probation and Registration for Woodbury Man with Library of Child Porn

Steven Rask

In September of 2016, police conducted a search warrant of 9669 Bluegill Road Woodbury. The unassuming home near Target in Woodbury was owned and occupied by Steven Donald Rask. It is unknown if he continues to live here. The police found over 150 documents of child porn on multiple computers and hard drives. He appeared to cooperate with police and explained how he typically searched for his expanding collection of child porn on the dark web. The investigation took almost two years to go through all the child porn to determine the extent of the case. According to the criminal complaint, 41 of the child victims were recorded or known with the center for missing and exploited children. The child advocacy group Protect.org identifies Minnesota as a crisis area for child porn given the weakness of our current laws. Our recent article with them and their new safety tool for parents explains more how our weak laws feed this industry of child trafficking.  

In April of 2018 the Washington County prosecutors charged Steve Rask with only 3 counts of possessing child porn. The county has been known to charge with up to seven counts in one case in the last two years with a man that had hundreds and hundreds of files of child porn; however, as in this case, Pete Orput's County Attorney office gave the child predator a plea deal and all charges except one were dropped in exchange for one guilty plea. In December he was sentenced to just 5 years of probation and if he follows the terms of probation he will only do two thirds of the sentence. Is a few years probation enough? Is only a few years on the predatory offender registration going to keep the public safe? 

The fact is the predatory offender registration list is not public in Minnesota and the maximum time on the offender list is only 10 years. In extremely rare cases offenders are registered for life as a level three sex offenders, but are still held privately on the list with where their address is. Level one and two offenders can't even be looked up by the public and only two other states (Maine and D.C.) have laws that weak. But these states don't have over 20,000 sex offenders like MN. 

To see dozens of examples in the last two years of insane plea deals from Washington County prosecutors and the weak MN sex offender law letting the public down see: http://wcwatchdog.com/local-sex-offender-articles/

In Minnesota, law makers and prosecutors believe child rapists can be "rehabilitated," do not need to be monitored, and can become good members of society. The evidence is the fact no bill has passed to make sex offender law more tough in the last two years. Also, Only several hundred of the over 20,000 convicted rapists in Minnesota are confined in prison. Most only do a couple years and then are released. More information here:

Watchdog Review of Each of the Fifty States Sex Offender Laws Finds Minnesota Ranked the Most Unsafe  

If you hope to see any law change, continue to contact law makers, especially Senator Warren Limmer who has refused to pass the sex offender bills in his key special committee in the Senate. 

Find your legislator here: https://www.leg.state.mn.us/leg/districtfinder

It's clear that just because a child rapist is charged or convicted, doesn't mean justice will be served after sentencing if convicted. Therefore, if the punishment for ALL criminal sexual conduct crimes is raised than weak charges and convictions will be stronger. With the raised bar there won't be a thing as an outrageous plea deal to lesser rape charges or a weak sentence.

Tell legislators to also make the sex offender list public like nearly every other State in the Country does. All but MN, DC, and Maine have public lists. Maine only has 2,700 sex offenders in their state though. Compared to over 20,000 in MN. 

DATE: 4/19/2018 

DEFENDANT: Steven Donald Rask 

DOB: 2/28/1950 

CITY/RESIDENCE:

9669 Bluegill Road Woodbury, MN 55125

MN AGENCY: Woodbury Police Department 

CHARGE: 

I: Possess Pornographic Work-Computer Disk/Electronic/Magnetic/Optical Image w/Porn; 

II: Possess Pornographic Work-Computer Disk/Electronic/Magnetic/Optical Image w/Porn; 

III: Possess Pornographic WorkComputer Disk/Electronic/Magnetic/Optical Image w/Porn 

DATE: 12/13/2018  

CONVICTION: Possess Child Porn 

SENTENCE: Stay of imposition; 5 years of probation; 45 days jail with 1 days credited

*In no way do we wish harm to the convicted sex offenders outside the judgement of the law. Posting each criminal's public data anyone can get allows the public to decide from the evidence if they appreciate knowing such data. Such as what these sex offender's last known address is. No representation is made that the individuals listed here are currently on the state's offenders registry. All names presented here were gathered at a past date. Some persons listed might no longer be registered offenders and others might have been added. Some addresses or other data might no longer be current. Owners of Washington County Watchdog assume no responsibility (and expressly disclaim responsibility) for updating this site to keep information current or to ensure the accuracy or completeness of any posted information. All data was only accurate at the time of posting per Government sources provided. Accordingly, you should confirm the accuracy and completeness of all posted information before making any decision related to any data presented on this site. The information on this web site is made available solely to protect the public. Anyone who uses this information to commit a crime or to harass an offender or his or her family is subject to criminal prosecution and civil liability. Message us if you can verify us of an address or change in data.  Washington County Watchdog is not responsible for the accuracy of the content shared, refer to our linked government sources.       

Oakdale Man Charged With Rape of Six Year Old Child and Released, Less Than 3 Year Sentence Likely

Darius Antonnee Smith of Oakdale has been charged with 1st degree child rape. According to the criminal complaint the victim was 6 years old at the time of the first of many apparent rapes between March and June 2017. The mother became aware of the signs of the abuse when she witnessed the child victim attempting a sexual act on another child. When the mother asked the child where they learned this the child explained she learned it from the accused Darius Smith. 

(If you'd like to stay informed on the latest sex offenders charged and convicted in Washington County please subscribe to get our free emails.)  

Investigators brought the child in for questioning and to horrifying detail described many different sexual acts that she was apparently made to do with Darius Smith at his home.

Darius Antonnee Smith

Police had the young child tested for sexually transmitted diseases and several private areas tested positive, perhaps indicating the child was raped and contracted the disease.

One may think because Smith has been charged with this serious crime at a first degree level that he'd be held in Jail until trial and if convicted spend many years in prison. The fact is he was only held on a 36 hour hold and appeared to be released from the Washington County Jail on October 26th. 

Based on examples below of those charged with 1st degree child rape they serve the same weak sentence of about three years in Jail. That's only if the County Prosecutors don't give the defendant a plea deal to lesser charges which is often the case to prevent the victim from having to take the stand. In the end, it's not the judges fault for the weak sentences. It's all on the ridiculously weak MN law and the weak sentencing guidelines.

See some of the many cases in the last couple years of those convicted of supposedly harsh 1st or 2nd degree rape from Washington County:

Homicidal Rapist in Forest Lake Found With Child Porn Who Self Recorded Rape Now Convicted, Only 4 years  

Only 30 Days in Jail and Probation for Child Molester Who Had Sex with Lake Elmo Child 

Only a Year in Jail for Man who Gang Raped 14 Year Old Child in Woodbury

Man Who Repeatedly Raped a Child in Oakdale, Raped another Child While on Probation and Will be Out in 2 Years 

No Mandated Jail time for Convicted St Paul Park Man who Sexually Assaulted a Child  

Man Who Gang Raped Woodbury Child Only Gets 5 years Probation and 10 Months Prison 

Only 3.5 Years for Man Who Held Down & Raped Bayport Child While Taunting Her 

To see dozens of examples in the last two years of insane plea deals from Washington County prosecutors and the weak MN sex offender law letting the public down see: http://wcwatchdog.com/local-sex-offender-articles/

In Minnesota, law makers and prosecutors believe child rapists can be "rehabilitated," do not need to be monitored, and can become good members of society. The evidence is the fact no bill has passed to make sex offender law more tough in the last two years. Also, Only several hundred of the over 20,000 convicted rapists in Minnesota are confined in prison. Most only do a couple years and then are released. More information here:

Watchdog Review of Each of the Fifty States Sex Offender Laws Finds Minnesota Ranked the Most Unsafe  

If you hope to see any law change, continue to contact law makers, especially Senator Warren Limmer who has refused to pass the sex offender bills in his key special committee in the Senate. 

Find your legislator here: https://www.leg.state.mn.us/leg/districtfinder

It's clear that just because a child rapist is charged or convicted, doesn't mean justice will be served after sentencing if convicted. Therefore, if the punishment for ALL criminal sexual conduct crimes is raised than weak charges and convictions will be stronger. With the raised bar there won't be a thing as an outrageous plea deal to lesser rape charges or a weak sentence.

Tell legislators to also make the sex offender list public like nearly every other State in the Country does. All but MN, DC, and Maine have public lists. Maine only has 2,700 sex offenders in their state though. Compared to over 20,000 in MN. 

Booking #: 1810504
Darius Antonnee Smith
DOB: 06/23/1993

location: 3883 Granada Ave Oakdale , MN  

Arresting Officer(s): 161 Olson 

36 Hour Hold: ct 1: 36 hr exp: 10/26/18 @ 1200 

Charges: 609.342.1 Criminal Sexual Conduct-1st Degree-Penetration or Contact with Person Under 13 

 Arrest Location: transported from hcso Minneapolis 

Arrest Date Time: 10/24/2018 12:00:00 AM 

*In no way do we wish harm to the convicted sex offenders outside the judgement of the law. Posting each criminal's public data anyone can get allows the public to decide from the evidence if they appreciate knowing such data. Such as what these sex offender's last known address is. No representation is made that the individuals listed here are currently on the state's offenders registry. All names presented here were gathered at a past date. Some persons listed might no longer be registered offenders and others might have been added. Some addresses or other data might no longer be current. Owners of Washington County Watchdog assume no responsibility (and expressly disclaim responsibility) for updating this site to keep information current or to ensure the accuracy or completeness of any posted information. All data was only accurate at the time of posting per Government sources provided. Accordingly, you should confirm the accuracy and completeness of all posted information before making any decision related to any data presented on this site. The information on this web site is made available solely to protect the public. Anyone who uses this information to commit a crime or to harass an offender or his or her family is subject to criminal prosecution and civil liability. Message us if you can verify us of an address or change in data.  Washington County Watchdog is not responsible for the accuracy of the content shared, refer to our linked government sources.   

Another Year of Bonding and Spending! It's time for Accountability

In response to this year's disappointing $1.5 billion dollar debt and spending bill that passed in the last hours of the 2018 session when our State has nearly a $50 billion dollar budget: The List: Hundreds of Millions of Pork in the $1.5 Billion 2018 Final Spending Bill only 7 Republicans Voted No

More spending, more spending, more spending! Another year of bonding and spending! Another year of expanding government programs and demanding more education spending! When will someone be willing to starting yelling, ENOUGH SPENDING and DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY OF WHAT IS BEING SPENT?

When will the citizens of Minnesota wake up to the fact we once again have taxation without representation (the Republican legislators have left the conservative movement). Didn't we as a country already have this fight? When will the citizens of Minnesota start to question why government is taking over all aspects of our lives and demanding we pay for our own destruction. This destruction has to stop before we become a country with no rights as citizens. And why is Comrade Governor Dayton telling us HIS priorities are the only ones that must be acted on? Did we elect a dictator or a narcissist who wants to be a dictator?

You would think all citizens of Minnesota were heirs to a department store fortune and are able to keep their money in another state to stop the stealing (via taxation) of their hard earned monies. Many citizens of Minnesota made a choice to leave and reside in a state with a taxing system lower than Minnesota's. If enough leave, who pays the government bills? Will the legislators just keep raising the tax rate to compensate? That worked so well in Venezuela, Cuba and the USSR. By the way, where is the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics? I guess socialism/communism didn't work so well.

Anyone have any money left after Legislators day, April 15th?

Steve Ellenwood
Woodbury

Only 30 Days in Jail and Probation for Child Molester Who Had Sex with Lake Elmo Child

In March of 2017 a Lake Elmo mother reported to police her child was possibly having a sexual relationship with an "older adult." In the criminal complaint she explained she had found her child's iPad showed sexual communication between the two. Detectives went to an inpatient treatment facility to talk to the child who was being treated there for depression and self harm.

Child Predator Jeff Fesler

The child victim stated, in the criminal complaint, Jeff Fesler, age 61, had been communicating; apparently showing the officer the evidence on the iPad. In May of 2016, Fesler picked the child up from their home in Lake Elmo and went to the Hilton Garden Inn in Oakdale where the two had sex. The child was 15 at the time.  

Detectives went to the house of Jeffrey Lampert Fesler. He invited them in and explained he had met the victim several times in Stillwater and they had sex once. He thought the child was over 18. Fesler said he works at One Twelve Treatment center in Minnetonka and knew the child was now being treated for depression and self harm because he had communicated with the child recently.

The Washington County Attorney's office charged Jeff Fesler with weak 3rd degree criminal sexual conduct with a child age 13-15 a month later in April of 2017 because the crime happened here. Typically child rapists convicted of 3rd degree CSC have very weak sentences for example:

Only 3.5 Years for Man Who Held Down and Raped Bayport Child While Taunting Her 

Hennepin County Prosecutors charged Fesler with sexual communication with a minor as that crime was committed in their jurisdiction. Neither county asked for him to be detained so he remained free in the public until he was convicted a year later it appears. This is evidenced in the criminal complaint with the "summons to appear", the court documents, and at sentencing recorded from the BCA. If he did serve jail time before conviction he'd been awarded credit for the number of days detained. He was given one day credit (below). He plead guilty to both charges it appears.

Side note: The attorney who defended this now convicted child rapist was Lauren Campoli it appears. Her office appears to commonly defend child rapists: https://campolidefense.com/practice-areas/sex-crimes/

Some would say he raped the child as by definition it is sex, with or without force with someone without their consent. Children do not have the capacity to consent. Either way, for this sex crime on this 15 year old child who apparently went into severe depression to the point of self harm, Jeff Fesler is only serving 30 days in jail and 15 years of probation it appears. The max length on the sex offender registry is only 10 years. He can appeal to lower the length of time on probation. The list is NOT public. There are nearly 20,000 registered sex offenders in MN and only about 700 are level 3 offenders that you occasionally hear about moving into the "general area" of a city.

Last year and this year not one sex offender bill passed. Half the bills to make stronger sex offender laws were held back in the house. Senator Warren Limmer called them "non starters." The rest were killed in the Senate by the lead of Senator Limmer and Julie Rosen in conference committee. Both refused to comment.

If you hope to see any law change continue to contact law makers, especially Warren Limmer. 

Find your legislator here: https://www.leg.state.mn.us/leg/districtfinder

The problem is further explained in our related article: Watchdog Review of Each of the Fifty States Sex Offender Laws Finds Minnesota Ranked the Most Unsafe

It's clear that just because a rapist is convicted with level 3 child rape does not mean they'll serve prison time. Therefore, if the punishment for ALL criminal sexual conduct crimes is raised than plea deals will be less weak. 

Tell legislators to also make the sex offender list public like nearly every other State in the County does. All but MN and Maine have public lists. Maine only has 2,700 sex offenders in their state though. Compared to nearly 20,000 in MN. 

For the growing list of the last know location of convicted sex offenders in Washington County: 

Washington County Sex Offenders. Names, Photos, Addresses.

To subscribe for email updates on new offenders and rapist suspects added and other

updates go to: 

http://wcwatchdog.com/subscribe/

DATE: 3/8/2018 

DEFENDANT: Jeffrey Lampert Fesler 

DOB: 8/31/1954 

CITY/RESIDENCE:

1962 Malvern Street

#1

Lauderdale, MN 55113

MN AGENCY: Washington County Sheriff's Office 

JUDGE: John C. Hoffman 

CONVICTION(s):
1. Criminal Sex Conduct-3rd Degree-Victim 13-15 Actor greater than 24m older (Not applicable - GOC)
05/28/2016 (FEL) 609.344.1(b) (6093441b)
2. Prostitution-Actor Hires or Agrees to Hire and Reasonably Believes Under 18 but at least 16
11/01/2016 (FEL) 609.324.1(c)(3) (6093241c3)

SENTENCE: 30 days in Jail. 15 years of probation; Stay of imposition, 180 days jail with 1 days credited (serves 180 days if refuses to go to treatment) , 150 stayed until in sex offender treatment; $750 fine.

*In no way do we wish harm to the convicted sex offenders outside the judgement of the law. Posting each criminal's public data anyone can get allows the public to decide from the evidence if they appreciate knowing such data. Such as what these sex offender's last known address is. No representation is made that the individuals listed here are currently on the state's offenders registry. All names presented here were gathered at a past date. Some persons listed might no longer be registered offenders and others might have been added. Some addresses or other data might no longer be current. Owners of Washington County Watchdog assume no responsibility (and expressly disclaim responsibility) for updating this site to keep information current or to ensure the accuracy or completeness of any posted information. All data was only accurate at the time of posting per Government sources provided. Accordingly, you should confirm the accuracy and completeness of all posted information before making any decision related to any data presented on this site. The information on this web site is made available solely to protect the public. Anyone who uses this information to commit a crime or to harass an offender or his or her family is subject to criminal prosecution and civil liability. Message us if you can verify us of an address or change in data.  Washington County Watchdog is not responsible for the accuracy of the content shared, refer to our linked government sources.    

Contact The Five Senators Who Will decide if MN Gets Tougher on Child Rapists. Last Year They Said No.

Update: All the sex offender bills were killed in the Senate. Awaiting comment from the 5 members for upcoming article.

With about a week left in the 2018 legislative session it looks like the important sex offender bills that did not pass last year, will likely again fail to pass. Several (below) have died already. The fate of the remaining bills rests in the hands of 5 State Senators on whether or not they will agree to include the bills that passed in the House version of the public safety omnibus bill. As with all bills, both the house and senate versions have to pass matching before going to the Governor to potentially sign. Each committee chooses members from their group to go to conference and negotiate the differences.

Last year Senator Limmer, chair of the senate public safety committee, refused to pass the public safety omnibus bill with all the sex offender bills saying they were "too sweeping," but did not work on the bills when they sat ready for the senate to review for months. From what we're heard it doesn't look like the Senate is going to cooperate yet again for this same reason. Clearly, there are other interests likely at play and not the excuse the bills are "too sweeping". In a recent article we covered why this accusation is anything but true and explain the real local consequences of what is happening because these bills did not become law:

Predator Who Went to Hotel to Rape Two Children Will Walk With a Clean Record Because Representative Grossell’s Bill Did Not Pass 

The reason for this article is a plea to voters to call and email these five Senators ASAP and tell them to include all the bi-partisan sex offender reform bills that passed in the house. We know it sounds cliche' and it often falls on deaf ears. Many people assume that other people will take the time to contact the legislators; or that there can't be much of a difference if one person calls. The fact is, the legislators who are trying to get these bills passed tell us the resounding problem on why the bills don't get further is the opposition is so strong. The special interest groups like the County Attorney's Association (prosecutors) call the weak sex offender laws "tools for prosecution." The defense lawyers for sex offenders lobby that sex offender laws are too severe. On and on there are groups who are fighting against tougher laws and in the absence of facts and opposition the law makers don't agree and the laws don't pass. The truth is Minnesota has the weakest sex offender laws in the Country:  Watchdog Review of Each of the Fifty States Sex Offender Laws Finds Minnesota Ranked the Most Unsafe

Meanwhile, in the real world, nearly an article a month comes out from our page about a child rapist walking with little to no prison time and probation. This is just from Washington County, let alone what's happening in the other 86 Counties in the State. At the end of the post we list some of these articles. For the complete list follow: 

http://wcwatchdog.com/local-sex-offender-articles/

Another reason this is so important you contact these five Senators is prosecutors are giving weak charges; offering insane plea deals to avoid trial; and sentencing guidelines are so weak for sex crime that this rapist (for example) served more time (23 months) for burglary than he did for holding, beating, and raping a woman (15 months):

Man Who Held Woodbury Woman Captive 2 Days and Raped her Released After 15 Months and Now Charged With Stillwater Sexual Assault  

Call and email the legislators and tell them in your own words why these bills need to pass ASAP, there are only days left in session. If you need help thinking of more reasons just browse the titles of the articles below. You can copy and paste the list of emails into your "to" for the recipients of the email:

sen.warren.limmer@senate.mn;  sen.scott.newman@senate.mn; sen.mary.kiffmeyer@senate.mn; sen.julie.rosen@senate.mn; sen.michelle.benson@senate.mn 

Remember, this isn't a republican vs democrat issue because republicans and democrats in the Senate don't want to pass this. Representative Matt Grossell is a republican and he's the only one who's writing sex offender bills the last couple sessions. 

It's so hard to pass good sex offender bills because of the opposition. Here are the bills that died in the House this session when Senator Warren Limmer refused to discuss them calling the "non-starters":

HF2944 Sex offenders required to serve 50-year conditional release or probation terms, and intensive probation for sex offenders established.

HF2943 Reunification of parents and children after the parent sexually abuses a child restricted.

HF2905 Criminal sexual conduct prosecution team established in the Office of the Attorney General.

A really great sex offender bill died last session when it reached the senate:
The bill was HF1572/ SF1895 sponsored by Representative Matt Grossell and had over 30 other legislator co-signers combined. It eliminated the loop hole called Stays of adjudication and stays of imposition in criminal sexual conduct cases, sex offenders required to serve lifetime conditional release or probation, intensive probation for sex offenders established, child pornography penalties increased, mandatory minimum sentences created, and Sentencing Guidelines Commission directed to modify the sex offender grid.

When you call and email you are still fighting to pass what did survive. If we don't convince them there's no telling if the bills will get a second chance next session. Matt Grossell is up for re-election, if he is not re-elected there is little indication that anyone will step up and write sex offender bills and fight for them to pass as hard as he does. 

The bills that need the approval of the five state senators:

HF2906  Closes the loop hole that allows convicted sex offenders to obtain a clean record after probation

HF2934  For those who have gone through the loop hole, their records must show their offenses on background checks and they must not be allowed to be bus drivers

HF2904 Child pornography offenses penalties increased, mandatory minimum sentences created, and Sentencing Guidelines commission directed to modify the sex offender grid.

We will have a follow up article on how each of the five legislators handled these bills... who was pushing to include the bills, if senator Limmer again made every excuse possible to push back or further scale back the reform of the bills even more than they've already been.

Here's the info to contact each of the five legislators:

Warren Limmer (34, R) 3221 Minnesota Senate Bldg. 651-296-2159 E-mail: sen.warren.limmer@senate.mn

Scott J. Newman (18, R) 3105 Minnesota Senate Bldg. 651-296-4131 E-mail: sen.scott.newman@senate.mn

Mary Kiffmeyer (30, R) 3103 Minnesota Senate Bldg. 651-296-5655 E-mail: sen.mary.kiffmeyer@senate.mn

Julie A. Rosen (23, R) 3235 Minnesota Senate Bldg. 651-296-5713 E-mail: sen.julie.rosen@senate.mn

Michelle R. Benson (31, R)  3109 Minnesota Senate Bldg.  651-296-3219  E-mail: sen.michelle.benson@senate.mn

To subscribe for email updates on new offenders and rapist suspects added and other updates go to: 

http://wcwatchdog.com/subscribe/

Rampant Sex Crime on Children. In Just 2 years, 10 Cases From County Alone, 8 Simple Laws to Update

Watchdog Review of Each of the Fifty States Sex Offender Laws Finds Minnesota Ranked the Most Unsafe

local offender articles by date:

2016:

First Two Men Convicted from Child Trafficking Sting Walk with a Misdemeanor and Just Probation

2017:

Fleet Farm Fondler Convicted of Groping 13 y/o. In Rare Occurrence, No Plea Deal but Sentence Still Weak

No Mandated Jail time for Convicted St Paul Park Man who Sexually Assaulted a Child

Child Predator by Forest Lake Public School Convicted on Stiffer Charges, Sentence Still Weak

Serial Rapist Caught Living in Woodbury. Broken MN Law Only Requires Him to Register until 2020

Three Time Convicted Rapist in Woodbury Now Convicted of Trying to Meet Child for Sex. Will be Released Next Year.

Three Years to Charge Cottage Grove Man Caught with “Library” of Child Rape Videos and Child Porn, No Jail Time Likely

Man Who Gang Raped Woodbury Child Only Gets 5 years Probation and 10 Months Prison

Only 3.5 Years for Man Who Held Down & Raped Bayport Child While Taunting Her

2018:

Predator Who Went to Hotel to Rape Two Children Will Walk With a Clean Record Because Representative Grossell’s Bill Did Not Pass

Man Who Repeatedly Raped a Child in Oakdale, Raped another Child While on Probation and Will be Out in 2 Years

Fleet Farm Fondler Convicted of Groping 13 y/o, Gets Weak Sentence

Fugitive Child Predator Who Police Report Says Was Caught With Pants Down and About to Rape Child, Found Living at Woodbury Hotel

Man Who Tried to Have Sex with 14 and 12 year old at Lake Elmo Park, Only gets a Year in Prison and 5 years Probation

Only a Year in Jail for Man who Gang Raped 14 Year Old Child in Woodbury

No Justice: Man Who Held Woodbury Woman Captive 2 Days and Raped her Released After 15 Months and Now Charged With Stillwater Sexual Assault 

The Hundreds of Millions in Pork in the 2018 Capital Investment Omnibus

All this spending eventually passed when rolled into a $1.5 billion dollar omnibus bill. Plus more:  The List: Hundreds of Millions of Pork in the $1.5 Billion 2018 Final Spending Bill only 7 Republicans Voted No

It was nearly 4pm yesterday when tax payers who subscribe to the Senate Capital Investment Committee got notified on what was in the Capital Investment omnibus bill. We are all notified that we can submit a short two minute testimony for AFTER session today.  

Why Thank you Minnesota legislators for the convoluted system where citizens can know what you're doing after you've made your back room deals for the last few months to get the monster omnibus bill where it is today. Like there's any hope something will get removed 11 days before session ends. No wonder tax and spending is so out of hand.  This omnibus has 85 pages of spending and over 3/4 of it is so horrible it would never pass if there was a floor vote and short discussion on every project. Here's my testimony I submitted with less than 24 hours to write where I picked out the most "what the hell are you thinking?" spending items: 

How wonderful to finally find out what's in this "Capital Investment" omnibus bill 11 days before session ends and get two minutes to testify after it looks like there is no hope to get any pork removed without risking it not passing for the 1/4 that is good (ie: spending for veterans and infrastructure). Last year (non-bonding year) you passed a billion dollar bonding bill. This 2018 CIP bill is no different. $1.18 billion in spending with most of it as debt. It's ridiculous the amount of insane projects are thrown into this free for all bill. Projects that local tax payers, not State tax payers should be funding if they are so desperately needed. That's the check and balance to unneeded spending. That, and the MN constitution that states to have one bill, one vote. No unconstitutional multi-subject bills like this.

It's appalling that so called fiscal conservative republican legislators would join the democrats on the smash and grab by adding and approving pet projects to this unsustainable reckless omnibus. It's one of many just like it with different titles to total over $40 billion dollars every two years. It's no wonder MN is the 2nd least tax friendly state.

Please read through what I consider the worst of the spending in your Capital Investment bill. You could start by axing the $25 million blank check you write to the un-elected Met Council... That's not including the over $200 million the transportation omnibus is accustomed to paying so they can back door fund light rail and other failed Mass transit corridors. Let cities plan their own sewers, parks, and transit... and let them pay for it too!

• scs4013a-1 (PDF)
• SF4013 Spreadsheet (PDF)

The List: 

-UofM $95.4 million yet tuition remains high and students are stuck with $1,000+ a month payments 

-$6.5 million to put solar panels on the University of Mankato and some renovations 

-Tens of million in trails locals should pay for. Just a few for example: 

          -$200k for a blufflands trail by the Iowa border

          -$2.5 for a Chester woods trail outside Rochester

          -$1.3 million for rec area in Babbitt (population 1,500)

          -$2.5 million for part three of trail in middle of nowhere La Crescent (population 4,800)

-$3,000,000 for the Minnesota Zoo Garden!

-$1 million for Amateur sports center in Blaine... seriously? that's a core function of Gov?

-$2.5 million dollar bus garage in Rochester

-$2 million dollar pedestrian/Bike bridge in the city of Rogers (pop. 11,000)

-$10 million to the unelected Met Council to build parks and trails as they want

-$2.5 to build facilities for park on Lake Waconia

-$2 million for swimming pool in New Hope

-$3 million Nature Sanctuary Visitor Center

-$4.4 million White Bear Lake trail around the lake an area with more millionaires concentrated around the lake than any other area in the County... but the State has to pay for it? 

-$8,800,000 for Sex offenders in St. Peter to pay for the second of unknown number of phases to renovate the campus, put in brand new air conditioning, new windows, remodeling, etc... how about let them stay in tents outside like military men and women have to abroad? 

-$18,000,000 for Brooklyn Park to build a food shelf (what a precedent, so every city getting one?)

-$5 million for Duluth trails 

-$12 million for Minneapolis to redevelop a Harbor Terminal for the public

-$4.4 million community center in Perham (pop. 3,000)

-$3 million for a food shelf in Crookston (pop. 7,900)

-$5 million St. Paul River Centre parking lot

-$5.5 million Southeast Asian Language Job Training Facility 

-$8.1 million for Wabasha to expand the Eagle Center (sounds like a city investment)

-$5 million dollar open air stage in Waite Park

-$18 million to renovate one visitor building (#18) in Fort Snelling

-$26 million for airports (yes, because millionaire airplane owners need assistance)

-$18 million to expand remote trails at some rural state parks

-$750,000 pedestrian bridge in Grand rapids 

-$6 million St. Paul MN museum of American Art

There's dozens and dozens of other projects... those are just a sample of what stood out to me.