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Minnesota House of Representatives

State Representative John Ward

375 State Office BuildingState Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-4333

For more information contact: Sandy Connolly 651-296-8877

Posted: 2010-03-22 00:00:00
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HOUSE MAKES TOUGH DECISIONS ON BUDGET FIX



St. Paul, MN –The Minnesota House passed a budget bill today that will address approximately one-third of the $994 million state deficit. Every area of the state budget was designated for spending cuts, with the exception of K-12 Education and Health and Human Services.
State Rep. John Ward said the bill demonstrates painstaking work and tough decisions.
“Since 2002, our state has faced a budget deficit in every year but two," said Ward. “Everything from funding for local governments, schools, nursing homes, hospitals and public safety has been cut repeatedly. We made the tough decisions in this plan, but we worked hard to protect jobs, public safety and core services our residents depend on.”
Ward said the biggest difference between the House budget and the Governor’s plan is the difference in cuts to Local Government Aid (LGA). The House plan cuts $325 million over three years compared to $1.14 billion proposed by the Governor over the same time period. Members of the House limited those cuts, working to protect fire and police departments, city infrastructure, and property owners from more increases.
“The Brainerd City Council recently voted to eliminate their full-time fire department, largely because of repeated cuts to LGA,” said Ward. “Considering the $3 billion increase in property taxes since 2002, we just cannot go down the path of gutting LGA one more time and expect our cities and counties to maintain services and hold the line on property taxes.”
Under the House plan, the city of Brainerd would lose $287,000 in LGA in 2010, compared to $683,000 under the Governor’s plan. The Governor already cut $623,000 from LGA in his 2010 unallotments.
“These cuts are tough to make, but necessary,” said Ward. “Many of the cuts in the budget are similar to the Governor’s in dollar amount, but we worked hard to protect jobs and minimize harm.”
Another success, according to Ward, was that funding for veterans was actually increased slightly.
Ward said the plan to split the budget into segments was in part due to the uncertainty about federal money coming into the state as a result of the federal health care reform legislation. What’s remaining after federal dollars are calculated will be used to determine funding levels or cuts to schools and the human services budget.
“We got a lot of our work done today, but tough decisions remain,” said Ward. “The health care reform legislation Congress passed on Sunday night will help, as will the federal jobs bill that will provide just over $400 million in a Medical Assistance extension.
Until that money comes into the state, however, we need to make the cuts necessary to balance our state budget in a responsible and fair manner.”

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