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> Representative Isaacson thank you for joining us. >> I'm happy to be
>> here> what do you do for professional career and what can you share about your life outside
the capital? >> sure, a teacher at Century college. My
career progression is been related to working in education and I'm passionate about working
in community colleges are oftentimes think to been to college is a last line of defense
for the middle class and gives them a real chance to retool especially as we went through
this recession. Also wonderful place to go to help folks who may be left high school
and in the college was for the mayor not coming back court trying to figure things out so
it's a real great place to help turn some people around and get focused on a possible
career and a lot but I also do consulting on the side for communications any type of
messaging and that sort of thing. And my personal life I have a newborn and home who is absolutely
amazing my wife and I are very lucky and I'd like to fish a lot.
>> can you describe the District you represent and tell us what your constituents care about
as? >> I route represent 42 be the northeast corner
of Roseville, southern shore to all little Canada that aside and Jim Lake Balaton between
Vadnais-White Bear Lake Erie my constituents are is a suburban district with a lot of folks
in the area who probably commute to Minneapolis St. Paul Park businesses in the area we do
have a wealth of businesses in our area as well some Fortune 500 companies even. When
you look at St. Jude Medical and some other groups like Westinghouse there's a lot of
really great and won and opportunities and great technology going on in my district.
Is a conglomeration of three different school districts Roseville, mounds View and White
Bear Lake all three of them have some really wonderful opportunities for students to be
successful and they're very well thought out and my constituents seemed very concerned
about a lot of things Senate hopefully have been able to mirror myself and they're really
concerned about taking care people, they're concerned about providing opportunity for
success, and making sure people the chance to be successful in helping them do that and
I think because I have five legs in my district I believe that a pretty strong environmental
awareness not only just and is taking care of our water but also managing the property
and making sure my area stays worth something and the likes are clean and the air is clean
and that kind of stuff. >> what legislation have worked on in the
past that you are most of? at >> I would say when we're looking at the accomplishment
or feel legislation action resulted in tangible effects my housing bill that put forward that
brought $22 million more into the base of working with people who are homeless or in
efforts to prevent homelessness in a wide a variety of homes for all coalition came
together and did a wonderful job putting together a package forced to seek a bigger picture
and to see them collaborate that way was really what we hope in our constituents and so a
bill that came forth and addressed all kinds of aspects of housing market in terms of not
just homelessness but how we repair state buildings that provide services to people
and making sure we allow for places like Brainerd Minnesota at has a housing crisis because
I don't have enough housing to support as well and I think the housing bill is something
on the most proud of in terms of the work we did last session.
>> what do you see as the biggest challenge the state will face in the next 10 years?
>> you can break it down by category because each person's category seems very important
them. I think you could start with the environment and making sure our lakes and water stays
clear and plentiful as we have a problem with invasive species as you know by looking at
the situation White Bear Lake with a problem with printing some of our offers and that
would be a big one if I had it narrowed down the biggest other than to of course being
competitive globally with education and I think we're looking at the problem of the
spend down and what we're doing with our senior population and work on an unsustainable course
right now in terms of how we're spending our money and taking care of folks as that bloom
in the population size of the baby boomers begin to retire. We need to find a more sustainable
ways to provide support to those folks meanwhile maintaining the Minnesota quality of living
that we have grown to love and I think that's coin to be one of the biggest financial challenges
were gonna be facing of the next 10 maybe even longer years.
>> if given the chance, who would like to be for a day or who would like to? change
roles to >> Canada today also are not? and I could
pick today also a would-be Thomas Jefferson and heartbeat.
>> why Thomas Jefferson's? >> when you look at the intellectual structure
and an enormous recall is the basic rules of society that would take for granted, he
invented them. It was is pushing of many things if you look the way he wrote the Declaration
of Independence the way he did a lot of the he didn't have the best life style necessarily
but when it comes to having a keen understanding of intent, most of it starts and ends with
him. He was in many ways the brains behind a lot of the founding principles of our country
on some levels to be him for a day from the time of the signing of the Declaration of
independence would be pretty unbelievable. . .