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State Representative Jim Davnie
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-0173
For more information contact: Ted Modrich 651-296-5809
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Special Session Update
Dear friends,
Thank you for contacting me to express your views about the compromise budget agreement that passed the Republican-led Legislature—over my strong objections--and has been signed into law by Governor Mark Dayton. I appreciate and value your input.
While I am relieved that the state government shutdown has ended, I cannot begin to express my profound disappointment in the compromise forged between legislative Republicans and the Governor. The resulting 2012-2013 budget is a “beg, borrow, and steal" plan that shortchanges our schools, puts the state’s already shaky credit rating at even greater risk, and makes severe budget cuts to human service programs, crime victims, health care, transit service, and probation.
The legislative Republicans agreed to a $35.7 billion budget—a larger budget than they wanted by $1.4 billion—only if the additional revenue came from $780 million in school aid holdbacks and $640 million in tobacco bond loans--rather than increased taxes on very high income Minnesotans.
While it is hard to decide which part of this budget decision is the most troubling this is the first time in Minnesota history that we have resorted to deficit spending to balance the state budget. It is unclear exactly how much this borrowing will cost the state-we won’t know fully until the bonds are sold and the interest rate determined. Non-partisan legislative staff have estimated that borrowing total repayment costs could exceed $1 billion and may be as high as $1.3 billion. Those costs will haunt budget setting for the next twenty years.
While the compromise thankfully prevents adoption of even more draconian budget cuts and divisive social policies advocated by the Republicans, by resorting to continued borrowing and gimmicks it falls woefully short of addressing Minnesota’s long-term financial challenges. It is reminiscent of former Governor Pawlenty’s band-aid budgeting approaches, and is yet another short-term fix to a long term problem. Because of this compromise, we will be revisiting the deficit issue in 2013—a $2 billion shortfall is already projected for the 2014-2015 biennium (on top of the $2.2 billion holdback owed to school districts) after enactment of this budget--and beyond if we don’t get a handle on Minnesota’s ongoing structural deficit problem. We simply cannot continue to lurch from massive deficit to massive deficit—it is unsustainable and damaging to our state.
To make matters worse, the process used to arrive at this flawed and problematic compromise—meeting behind locked Capitol doors and banning DFL legislators and the public from participation—was highly unethical and a violation of the spirit of Minnesota’s Open Meeting Law.
The one silver lining to the budget compromise was passage of a $500 billion bonding bill that makes crucial investments in our public infrastructure and puts private sector construction workers back on the job. And in addition to the Governor’s stipulation that controversial social policy issues be excluded from the budget bills, the Governor insisted that arbitrary reductions in the state workforce be taken off the table.
Unfortunately, in the end this was probably the best deal the Governor could make with an inflexible Republican majority. The Republicans rejected seven separate offers by the Governor, and in the two weeks after the July 1 shutdown they offered absolutely nothing. While this was a budget compromise that I simply could not support, in light of the political climate at the Capitol it is understandable why the Governor reluctantly accepted this deal to end the shutdown and get Minnesota up and running again.
For my part, I will continue to be a strong advocate for the core DFL principles of economic fairness and protection of the more vulnerable members of our society. Until the Republicans are willing to enact fair tax reform that asks those fortunate enough to contribute more to actually do so, we regrettably should get used to this unending cycle of deficits and painful budget cuts.
Thank you again for your input. Please always feel free to contact me whenever I can be of assistance.
Sincerely,
Jim Davnie
State Representative
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