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State Representative Jeanne Poppe
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-4193
For more information contact: Sandy Connolly 651-296-8877
NEWS COLUMN
WHAT TYPE OF REVENUE SERVES MINNESOTA BEST
2009 is the first year of the two year legislative cycle, coming off November elections. The odd year of each biennium is known as the budget year and gives the newly elected legislature the opportunity to participate in the state’s budget planning process. Since the legislative session began in January, the legislature and the Governor have been preparing their plans to address our historic state budget deficit. As mandated by law, the Governor began by releasing his budget in late January, the February revenue forecast updated the deficit amount, and finally the majority caucuses of the Senate, then the House, unveiled their budget proposals. The legislature is preparing bills within the finance committees to meet the budget targets. The next steps are to pass final bills on the floor and send them on to the Governor.
$6.4 billion is a significant amount to take away from a $35 billion budget. In preparing the House DFL budget proposal, we first prepared a scenario showing what balancing the budget by cuts alone would look like. Reviewing this helped crystallize the serious harm that can confront us including, closing nursing homes and hospitals, state prisons, and crippling our schools.
I believe it is important to picture the level and severity of eliminating services, cutting programs, and ultimately considering what that does to reducing expectations. The plan the House DFL introduced last week uses a combination of strategic spending cuts - the largest percentage coming from state government – along with delayed payments to schools, federal stimulus money and a progressive revenue increase to make up the rest. The House proposal prioritizes education by protecting early childhood, K-12 and higher education from budget reductions, creates a small surplus for the next biennium, and replenishes the state’s depleted budget reserves.
When put into simple terms, the plan to balance the budget isn’t that different between the House DFL and the Governor. Both plans include significant cuts, a delayed payment to education, and filling the gap by putting in new money from an alternative source. The Governor’s choice is to borrow $1 billion from future state revenue and pay it back over 20 years. He also uses money from the Health Care Access Fund (HCAF), which is funded by the medical community and meant to be used for health care spending, and raises property taxes by over $600 million.
The long-term loan the Governor proposes will cost the state $600 million in interest, likely to be passed on to be paid by our children and grandchildren. He isn’t protecting the HCAF for its intended purpose – providing health insurance to working Minnesotans who cannot get it through their employer. Finally, property owners have told us they don’t want their taxes increased as they have paid $3.1 billion more since 2003.
The House plan also includes new money from an alternative source, in our case tax revenue. So, the difference of opinion on how to solve the state budget deficit doesn’t appear to be whether or not we need new revenue, it’s what type of revenue best meets the needs of our state and what is the most accepted of all alternatives. Minnesotans have told us they are willing to do their part to address this deficit, but they want both ends of the spectrum - cuts and new revenue - to be fair.
For many months I have stated we will be making harsh decisions which will create pain in many sectors of our state. With the proposals on the table, the timeline is now set as the state must balance the budget and finalize our plans. Tough choices will need to be made in the next two months to get us to our constitutional deadline of adjournment of May 18. Extending the discussion, debate and decisions only happens if no agreement is reached and the Governor calls us back for a special session. That is a scenario I would hope we can avoid as we have been elected to lead on behalf of Minnesotans. We will work for fairness, be honest about our plan, and strive to retain and create jobs as much as possible. In the end, all three bodies must be willing to compromise as we hammer out the best budget deal for the people of Minnesota.
Please continue to share with me your ideas for addressing our state budget deficit. I can be reached 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.
News Items
- POPPE SELECTED AS AGRICULTURE POLICY COMMITTEE CHAIR - (Posted: 2012-11-16 00:00:00)
- Rep. Jeanne Poppe Encourages High School Juniors to Apply for Minnesota House of Representatives Page Program - Application Deadline is November 19th - (Posted: 2012-11-12 00:00:00)
- HORMEL INSTITUTE EXPANSION SIGNED INTO LAW - 2012 legislative session adjourns sine die - (Posted: 2012-05-11 00:00:00)
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