“The pictures and videos cannot show the amount of devastation that’s up here,” said Borton, R-Gaylord. “I’ve talked to linemen who have worked across the country, and they’ve told me they’ve worked category five hurricanes that weren’t this bad. This widespread damage was unprecedented. We still have thousands of people who don’t have power and many who can’t get to their homes. There is so much debris that’s just been pushed into the right-of-way because there’s nowhere for it to go and no one to clean it up because we’re running out of funding. We’ve exhausted our resources to the point that it’s created a tinderbox we need to address immediately.”

“We’re in the middle of serious budget negotiations focused on making government more efficient through a series of targeted cuts. The DNR director wants to hike hunting and fishing licenses. The governor wants to raise taxes on businesses, and other department heads are falling right in line with those plans, just like they’re probably line dancing in some Irish bar with her right now.”