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State Representative Tony Cornish
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-4240
For more information contact: Jason Wenisch 651-296-2317
NEWS RELEASE
REP. CORNISH OPPOSES HOUSE DEFICIT ELIMINATION PROPOSAL
ST. PAUL – Saying the proposal relies too much on one-time funding and accounting shifts and gimmicks, State Representative Tony Cornish (R-Good Thunder) voted against a Minnesota House plan that attempts to eliminate Minnesota’s nearly $1 billion budget deficit.
“The Twin Cities liberals have decided the best way to balance the budget is to raise taxes, max out the state’s credit card and deplete our savings accounts,” Cornish said. “Minnesota spends $34.5 billion each year, and the liberals could only manage to trim $128 million from the budget. And because they failed to do their job, we’ve now been told to expect a $2 billion deficit next year.”
Cornish said House leadership has chosen to raise revenues by a total of $232 million this biennium through a series of tax and fee increases, mainly on businesses. $350 million is taken from our cash flow account, and $250 million is used from our budget reserve. And overall government spending is only reduced by $128 million. Minnesota’s budget is $34.5 billion.
Cornish said typically when you attempt to reduce funding to an area of government, such as higher education for example, a higher education funding bill is brought to the floor and debated. In this case, House leadership rolled every area of government (education, jobs, health, etc.) into one 370 page bill and told members to vote it up or down. Cornish said such a move directly violates Minnesota’s Constitution.
“This is a liberal strategy that is not only unconstitutional because it deals with numerous subject areas, but is designed to make House Republicans take a bad vote,” Cornish said. “They’ve included a slight increase to the K-12 per pupil funding formula and nursing homes in the bill. So if I vote yes, they’ll label me as fiscally irresponsible because I’m voting to increase taxes by hundreds of millions. If I vote no, they’ll paint me as opposed to giving more money to schools and long-term care facilities.”
“I voted no because I believe we have to be more fiscally responsible, especially when facing a deficit,” Cornish said. “If they had adequately funded nursing homes and our schools in the first place, as opposed to adding tens of millions more to our welfare programs last year, they wouldn’t have needed to add those provisions to this proposal.”
“Cost of living increases for nursing homes and their workers are extremely important to me, and when this bill comes back it should reduce more of our wasteful spending and prioritize our nursing homes so they can get the raises they deserve,” Cornish concluded.
Cornish said Governor Pawlenty is likely to veto this bill because it’s a short term fix and does not address the future long-term spending problems the state is almost certain to face. You can view the 300+ page proposal at www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/bin/bldbill.php?bill=H1812.1.html&session=ls85.
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