Governor Pawlenty Accelerates Race to the Bottom
June 16th, 2009 at 3:07 pm By Nora FerrellMN2020: STATEMENT FROM JOHN VAN HECKE ON GOVERNOR’S OVERALL SERVICE CUTS
“Governor Pawlenty’s service cuts and budget shifts announced this afternoon will hurt Minnesotans for years to come. Higher education, public safety, community services, public education—all of these critical programs are on the chopping block. At a time of rising unemployment and increased demand in state services, families need the state’s help more than ever. These cuts take our state in the wrong direction. The governor says he wants to make Minnesota more competitive, but by underfunding our cities, towns and schools, we decrease Minnesota’s ability to produce smart, skilled workers and to compete for viable employers and good jobs down the road. ”
MN2020: STATEMENT FROM JOHN FITZGERALD ON EDUCATION CUTS
“Shifting state aid to public education from one year to the next is a devastating blow to Minnesota’s schools. Because of Gov. Pawlenty’s decision, those school districts that have a balanced budget will now have to borrow money to pay their bills and then have the additional burden of paying interest on that loan. Those school districts lucky enough to have a budget surplus will spend it on the governor’s budget adjustment and not put it in the classroom where it belongs.
Cuts of $100 million in the state higher education system will lead to higher tuition, which is exactly the opposite direction we need to head to make Minnesota a better state.”
MN2020: STATEMENT FROM JEFF VAN WYCHEN ON LGA CUTS
“Contrary to the governor’s assertions, local governments have cut more than state government in recent years. Governor Pawlenty’s $300 million cut to Local Government Aid (LGA) will hurt Minnesota communities. Citizens across Minnesota can count on increases in property taxes while seeing cuts to local services, like police, fire, and public parks. In short, Minnesotans will be paying more and getting less. Today’s unallotments are just more of the same. Despite what the governor says, these cuts will make Minnesota communities less safe and less competitive when it comes to attracting quality business and jobs.”
LikeTags: Budget, Unallotment
It’s more than Pawlenty and the Republicans…. it’s a way of life for the richest 2%ers that they will not give up their tax breaks and their entitled status in order to help the general welfare of our society. They want to be bailed out at every turn with public money (private health care industry, military-industrial complex, privatization of public functions, school vouchers, the “myth” of free enterprise and corporate welfare, and the myth that “they earned it on their own”) but they don’t want to pay their fair share. For me the bottom line, is that I won’t continue supporting politicians unless they insist that the richest 2%ers pay it all back (tax breaks from the state since 1998, tax breaks from Bush since 2001 with interest). It’s way past time that we make them pay.
I think you are all missing the big picture. Pawlenty has effectively become a dictator in Minnesota by totally undercutting the legislature. By using the unallotment process he made the legislature irrelavent once again. Stand up an be counted Minnesotans, Howdy Doody has taken complete control of your government.
We have gone from being a state of leaders like William Norris, Elmer Anderson, Hubert Humphrey, Norman Borlaug to being a dictatorship of boss Pawlenty (Howdy Doody)and his buddies Grover Norquist, Denny Hecker, Tom Petters and, of course, the queen of low humor Michelle Bachmann. Sad. When are the good people going to stand up and say “Enough is enough?” and run these clowns out of here?
MN2020 and your readers must ultimately ask the question of what drives economic growth, what drives investment growth and what drives job growth. You will find the states and cities with low taxes have economic, investment and job growth. The converse is true as well. Sometimes the truth hurts.
Mike,
Thank you for comments. You make several assertions in your post. I don’t think any reputable economist, including self-labeled liberals like Paul Krugman or J. Bradford Delong, disagree with the idea that investment, changes in technology, and the size of the labor force drive long-term economic growth and prosperity. The key words are “long term.” In the short-term, sticky wages and prices drive a wedge between aggregate demand and output. This creates the need for stabilization policies in the short-term. It is unlikely, even with lower interest rates, that we will have an investment led recovery because business and consumer confidence is low. Therefore, this creates the need for government spending in the short-term. All economists agree that tax increases and government spending increases tend to be a drag on long-term economic growth. In fact, Keynes himself said that a tax increase would produce a negative result in the short-term as well. However, Minnesota is required to balance its budget and a government spending increase accompanied by a tax increases produces a net positive gain in the short-term (albeit a smaller gain than just a government spending increase with no tax increase). A government spending decrease accompanied by a tax decrease produces a net negative result in the short-term. In sum, I agree with your assertions on a long term perspective. But we are dealing in the short-term here. I think from a anlytical and polcy standpoint it is critical to make the distinction between the long run and the short run.