Rybak rebukes lit piece

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak's campaign for governor is criticizing a campaign lit piece (read below) sent to DFL activists (the Star Tribune reports that groups are trying to figure out how the unions got the lists).

The piece, signed by five widows of Minneapolis police and fire fighters, said Rybak has "seriously damaged the livelihoods of retired firefighters, police officers, their surviving spouses and families. They are referring to a long-running lawsuit between the city and pension fund. A court ruled that the closed pension fund should reduce their claims against the city. Rybak used the money the city saved from the ruling to keep police officers on the payroll.

Rybak's campaign manager, Tina Smith, issued a statement criticizing the lit piece:

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Mayor Rybak and the City Council beat the high-priced lawyers and well-connected lobbyists that represent these funds that were overcharging Minneapolis taxpayers -- so now those lawyers and lobbyists are trying to fight back by misrepresenting the facts and spreading smears.

Here's the lit piece:

Here's the full statement from Rybak:

Over the past few days, a letter attacking Mayor R. T. Rybak for defending Minneapolis taxpayers has hit the mailboxes of likely DFL caucus attendees all over the state. Mayor Rybak is proud of his record of standing up for taxpayers, keeping costs down and keeping as many police and firefighters on the street as possible. This sets the facts straight.

Last fall, Mayor R.T. Rybak and the Minneapolis City Council went to bat for Minneapolis taxpayers and won $10 million in tax relief. For many years, city taxpayers were being overcharged millions of dollars to contribute to two pension funds that have been closed to new members for almost 30 years. No Minneapolis police officer or firefighter hired since 1980 draws any benefit from these funds -- but all Minneapolis taxpayers contribute to it.

Mayor Rybak and city leaders stepped up to put a stop to this overcharging after the State Auditor alerted them to it. They first tried working with the pension funds to find a solution. They also encouraged the Legislature to solve the problem by merging the old, closed funds into the funds that benefit current police and firefighters, but the Legislature did not take it up.

As a last result, the City Council unanimously backed Mayor Rybak in taking the pension funds to court -- and they won. A Hennepin County judge ruled that these pension funds had violated the law and overcharged Minneapolis taxpayers more than $50 million over several years. City taxpayers won back $10 million of the $50 million that they had overpaid.

Mayor Rybak and the City Council put every penny of the $10 million they won for taxpayers straight into property-tax relief.

Mayor Rybak takes seriously the City's obligation to make sure that people who worked hard for the City who are owed a pension, as well as their families, get the pension they deserve. But if Mayor Rybak hadn't taken on these closed pension funds, the funds would have continued to overcharge Minneapolis taxpayers. That would have meant more cuts to police, firefighters and other city services and higher property taxes for everyone.

Mayor Rybak and the City Council beat the high-priced lawyers and well-connected lobbyists that represent these funds that were overcharging Minneapolis taxpayers -- so now those lawyers and lobbyists are trying to fight back by misrepresenting the facts and spreading smears. But Mayor Rybak and City Council have always been prepared to take on waste and mismanagement in City government so that taxpayers save money and get better results. That's how they've balanced eight budgets in a row and kept spending down -- while investing in the future and making Minneapolis work better.