After Governor Tim Pawlenty vetoed the Legislature’s huge compromise of scaled back temporary income tax increases on the wealthy to pay for education and health care, the Governor countered with an underwhelming offer.  It’s almost as if the Legislature moved a mile, while the Governor nudged an inch.  He took the worst ideas from all three plans (Governor, House, and Senate) and calls it a compromise. Don’t take my word for it, let’s go to his proposal.

• Half a billion in borrowing against future tobacco settlement payments: Aside from JG Wentworthing future payments from the tobacco industry, getting less than what we’re owed, the Governor is pushing future debt on our kids. Taking out a payday loan to balance the budget puts Minnesota in danger.

• No budget reserves: While the Senate budget didn’t include reserves, it didn’t necessarily have to. The permanent revenue generated by progressive tax increases would have kept the state on strong fiscal ground. The governor now wants to balance the budget on a one-time loan with nothing in the bank when the budget goes south two years from now.

• Nearly $2 billion in IOUs for schools: The House’s plan to delay payments to schools takes new, ongoing revenue into account. How does the Governor expect to pay schools back without a new, ongoing revenue source?

Like his previous proposals, the Governor’s budget sets the state up for another meltdown two years from now.  We can’t move Minnesota forward on issues like education, health care, transportation, and green jobs if we have budget deficits year after year. Is that the conservative aim?

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Tags: Budget, Governor Pawlenty, School Funding, Tobacco Money

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 10:24 am and is filed under Budget, Education, Taxation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.