This seems to be a theme taken to heart by the governor and Legislature recently when the state's projected $856 million budget surplus is discussed.

The governor and Republican leadership are sharing the vision that the entire surplus must be returned to the people of the state post haste, while the Democrats, prior to last Wednesday's new budget forecast, were seeking to dedicate half of the surplus to transportation needs while returning the rest to taxpayers in the form of rebate checks.

Each member of the Legislature was elected because we thought they would serve well in plotting a future for the state. By taking the stance that short-term gains (rebate checks) are more important than long-term vision, they are telling us they lack the ability to see past the next election cycle.

I credit the Democrats with recognizing the seriousness of the transportation issues we face, but the act is really like walking up to the scene of a car accident and stepping over mangled bodies to screw the license plate back on. With many economic indicators now projecting that the once sizzling American economy is on the cusp of a slowdown, now is the time we need leaders who can think past the next election cycle to determine what is best for the state in the long run.

Why is it that legislators today live in such fear of long-term planning? The most recent census found that a full 65 percent of Minnesotans now live in the seven county metro area, Duluth, Rochester and St. Cloud. This is up 10 percent over the previous census. As outstate Minnesota continues to donate its people to the metro areas not only as workers, but also as added motorists on the already clogged highways and residents taxing the tight housing market, someone must ask:

Would a period of surplus be the right time to begin addressing the economic development needs of rural Minnesota?

Offering tax incentives for the creation of livable wage jobs in rural areas would allow more people to work closer to where they choose to live, and, in so doing, help decrease some of the congestion of the state's urban areas.

Education spending is another topic that is near and dear to my heart. My mother serves on a school board in Sandstone. The district has just been informed by the state that its entire collection of school buildings now fails, or soon will fail, to meet state standards for structural suitability.

Citing past lean budgets when a hole in the roof competed with teacher salaries, the district -- like many others, I am sure -- has long been forced to put off needed work in hopes that future administrations would help them out. The help never came, and now the district is looking at the specter of replacing all three of its school buildings.

While I realize the current system of school financing puts that cost primarily on the residents of the district, a time of surplus is when we need the state to take a strong stand that education remains an important issue. By providing even a small amount of funding for the school districts across the state, it could help decrease the overall burden on taxpayers for many years to come.

As a recent college grad who is literally swimming in debt as I try to get my own company off the ground, I am keenly aware than an extra couple of hundred dollars would look really nice in my checkbook right now. But I realize it would come at the cost of others.

The college students who see their tuition increase astronomically to meet the lean educational budget the governor has put forth; the single parent seeking some form of government assistance to meet the rising cost of child care; the actors and artists who are watching their state support swirl down a drain that some call fiscal responsibility -- these are the people that Minnesotans once valued. Now they are no more than obstacles that need to be cleared by a greedy governor and his legislative henchmen on the way to a fat tax rebate check.

Call me a left-wing fanatic if you will, but I still cling to the belief that we can go a lot further as a collective of people than as individuals looking out for our personal best interests. I don't believe we need to follow the path of least resistance now just to find ourselves repenting later.