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| Our State Representatives and Senator |
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| Prepared by Friends of Senate District 27 |
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| Minnesota Senate District 27 |
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| PUBLIC INPUT ESSENTIAL IN ADDRESSING STATE BUDGET DEFICIT Throughout the summer and fall, when meeting with groups and visiting with individuals, I gave the same message regarding Minnesota’s potential budget deficit of $2 - $4 billion. By the time session started on January 6th, we knew the deficit for 2009-2010 was actually closer to $5 billion. Depending on how strong or weak our economy is, the total number of Minnesotans who are unemployed and factoring in inflation, this number could grow to as much as $5 to $7 billion. This historic deficit comes on top of a budget shortfall of $426 million for the 2008-2009 biennium. The Governor addressed this imbalance in December by using the process of "unallotment", which allows him to determine what funds to pull back or not release to state agencies, institutions or payees. Already our local community has been hit. Riverland Community College has been notified it must absorb a substantial base cut during the 2008-2009 academic year. The city of Austin lost close to $300 thousand in Local Government Aid, and Mower County funding was cut by $950 thousand. These cuts are only the beginning. By May 21st, 2009, the Minnesota legislature and Governor must set the budget for the next biennium, which includes addressing this significant deficit. There is no simple way out of the budget deficit. Our debt is being attributed to revenue shortfalls not spending problems. So cutting "excess" spending is not going to be the answer to this multi-billion dollar deficit. We will need to make cuts that threaten our core services and quality of life. To meet this economic crisis, the House DFL caucus will be introducing bills throughout the session. Our message will be Recovery, Responsibility and Results. Recovery: Job creation and retention is key to getting out of the deficit the state and nation faces. The House will consider new ideas, including green job initiatives and research and development of bio-sciences, areas well suited to our region. We will ask and answer the questions that will lead to economic recovery, such as: how do we help small businesses grow? How do we encourage entrepreneurs to create? How do we keep fully employed people on the payroll? When should government intervene and when should we back off? Responsibility: Balancing the budget in such harsh economic times will be difficult and painful. We must find the right balance between fixing the problem in the short term and investing for the long term. Citizens must be engaged and communicate their needs and expectations. Legislators must listen and respond. Together we will travel the journey and in the end we will know we have done the best we could do. Results: We will balance the state budget. We will fund education. We will manage and survive this crisis. We may not agree along the way. We may be frustrated and feel as though we are challenged beyond our limits but we will seek to affirm our values and sustain our quality of life. Throughout this process, I believe the public must be told the truth and be involved in the tough decisions that must be made. I encourage you to contact me with your questions and your feedback. I can be reached by phone at 1-888-682-3180 or 1-651-296-4193, by mail at 487 State Office Building, 100 Martin Luther King Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55155 or via e-mail at rep.jeanne.poppe@house.mn. If you would like to stay more closely in touch with what is happening at the legislature, visit my website at http://www.house.mn/27B or the House of Representatives website at www.house.mn. |
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| Governor’s budget lacks long-term economic solutions
The legislature’s main goal this year is to craft a budget for the state to work under for the upcoming two years. That process always begins with the Governor’s release of his budget proposal, which happened Tuesday. Governor Tim Pawlenty gave legislators details of how he’d like to solve the $4.8 billion deficit and balance the budget for the next two years; it is now up to legislators to thumb through that plan and find areas of agreement and areas for improvement. We knew the Governor’s budget proposal would be drastic. The state is facing a massive shortfall, which is going to require serious cuts and a reassessment of the state’s spending priorities. We all know we have to work together in order to solve this problem, which is why I don’t want to be too quick to disregard any of the Governor’s ideas. I think it’s important to thoroughly review every idea because in this economy, we need all options to be on the table. There are a few fundamental portions of the Governor’s budget, however, that we know we must improve upon if we’re going to get Minnesota moving toward a successful economic future. First is his lack of long-term planning. His budget uses many funding shifts and severe budget cuts to fill the current budget deficit, but he largely ignores the expected ongoing deficit. We know this economic recession is not over and that our financial situation probably will not improve for several months. Yet the Governor doesn’t acknowledge that using $1 billion in one-time bond sales, for instance, to fill today’s budget gap will only leave us $1 billion short once again two years from now. We need a plan that will address our underlying budget problems so we can stop bouncing from deficit to deficit every two years. I also worry about the long-term effects of his cuts to cities and counties. In 2003, facing a similar budget deficit, the Governor also proposed cutting millions of dollars from state aid to local governments. As a result, property taxes across the state skyrocketed over the next three or four years. The fact is, local governments still have the responsibility of providing vital services such as police and fire relief, snow-plowing, or water and sewer maintenance. They can cut their budgets to the core but if there isn’t money left over to continue these essential services, they’re forced to ask property tax payers to chip in. I just don’t think it’s wise, in this economy, to again ask working Minnesotans and small businesses to take on the state’s budget problems through higher taxes. The same can be said for higher education and health care. The Governor’s budget relies heavily on an 11 percent cut to higher education and eliminating health care for 84,000 working Minnesotans. These are short-term fixes. Increasing tuition for our students will make higher education less accessible, which will make our workforce less attractive for potential new businesses. As I said, it’s imperative that we all work together on moving ahead on our areas of agreement and finding compromise where we disagree. The Senate will be spending the next two months asking citizens of Minnesota to comment on the Governor’s plan – what you think are important priorities, and what you think we may be spending too much money on. I will keep you posted as details become available for these meetings. It’s so important that we have the input of everyone impacted by these budget actions before we make any final decisions. As always, please feel free to contact me at 651-296-9247; sen.dan.sparks@senate.mn; or 317 State Capitol, St. Paul, MN 55155. |
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| GOVERNOR’S BUDGET PROVIDES GOOD STARTING POINT
With the 2009 legislative session now in full swing, this week we got our first look at the Governor’s plan to balance our state budget. There are certainly things in his plan that I find encouraging, such as the additional funding for K-12 schools, but there are also things I am concerned about. What is clear, however, is that with a budget deficit of this size, there can be no new money for anyone, or new tax cuts or credits, without something else being cut. These are the details we’ll have to consider as we move forward. One of my concerns about the Governor’s proposal is that he once again cuts Local Government Aid (LGA) to help balance the budget. This state funding is distributed to cities and townships based on need and past aid levels. Some communities rely on this funding for as much as 60% of their budget to pay for services such as road maintenance, police and fire departments, parks and lakes upkeep – all of the things that make our towns good and safe places to live. LGA was cut in both 2003 and 2008 to help fill state budget deficits. City officials make adjustments by cutting back on some services, putting off improvement projects, and raising property taxes as a result of the lack of funding. In fact, property taxes statewide have increased by $3 billion since 2002, in part because of the cuts to LGA. This week, LGA was once again targeted. If the Governor’s current budget proposal passes, the city of Albert Lea will lose $1.7 million over the next two years. Needless to say, pulling this much money out of an already lean budget will be painful; property taxes could go up again, and we could lose many important services. There are already towns in Minnesota that can only afford to plow the streets after every other snowstorm. These additional cuts will once again create significant challenges for local governments. I do like to hear the Governor cite education as a top priority. He offered some new funding for schools, but because it is linked to performance, not every school will receive it. I certainly like to see schools that are succeeding get rewarded with more money, but what about the schools in our state who struggle to hit these marks? If we truly want every student in our state to succeed, additional funding should be available to every school. The Governor’s plan also includes a $1.3 billion shift in school funding. Shifts such as this are especially hard on districts that don’t have adequate reserves. Oftentimes, borrowing is their only option to be able to meet their obligations. Shifts also add to the total cost for schools. In this case, they can expect to pay 5% more as a result of getting delayed payments from the state. As is the case every budget year, the Governor’s proposal is only a starting point and I expect a lot to change between now and the time we pass the final budget. In February, members of the House and Senate will be traveling the state, including Albert Lea, to get ideas from citizens about how they believe this budget deficit should be solved. We’ll consider what we learn at those meetings as we craft our budget, as well as what we hear from testifiers in committees, the numbers House research provides for us, and any other input we get from the people who will be affected by this budget. We are all in this together, and it’s important that the final plan works for all of us. As always, I am honored to serve. Please continue to be a part of the process by contacting me with your concerns and suggestions. I can be reached at 507-438-9086, or by email at rep.robin.brown@house.mn.. |