Munson not leaving vets out in the cold

I am a registered Democrat, but I have never hesitated to support State Rep. Ruth Munson. She has proved beyond question to be a person of integrity, devoted to answering the real needs and concerns of her constituents.

For that reason, I was immediately suspicious when the state Democratic Party (Read the very small print!) began mailing out a raft of full-color mailings accusing her of gross failures to support, for example, our wounded veterans, the elderly, the poor in need of housing, crime prevention especially among the young.

But, you ask, don't the expensive placards you've received accuse her of the opposite and even give the sources of their information as the Illinois General Assembly Voting Records? The designers of these placards have chosen not to send you, from those same records, absolute evidence that Munson has worked to pass legislation in behalf of our wounded veterans, the elderly, the poor in need of housing, crime prevention especially among the young. She has worked against legislation offering solutions that are not real solutions. For example, she opposed asking the poor to pay for $300 worth of financial counseling before they can begin negotiations to buy a house. Clearly unrealistic. She offers other means to provide the counseling and protect the buyers.

So what specific information are these placards referring to? Periodically, the General Assembly must vote to accept or reject a proposed budget covering all of the bills passed during a year or session. An oath taken when sworn into office obliges our representatives and senators to vote against budgets that are grossly out of proportion to the moneys available to them.

A negative vote on a given budget does not mean that any member of the assembly (Munson, for example) has withdrawn support for any of the individual items in the budget. It simply means that the body has to work out a more reasonable distribution of funds, must not accrue unrealistic, even impossible debts.

The election is still two weeks away. If you receive any more expensively produced placards in Farnham's behalf, put them in the waste basket with its predecessors. If you have any further questions, call Munson or her campaign headquarters to get the truth of the matter.

Sue Greer Lamie

Carpentersville