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State Representative Tim Kelly
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-8635
For more information contact: Jason Wenisch 651-296-2317
NEWS COLUMN
HOW WILL MINNESOTA’S BUDGET DEFICIT AFFECT YOU?
Several months ago, I was talking with a gentleman from Lake City about the state legislature and he had an interesting comment: The legislature fails to bring their policies down to the level of the individual.
It’s a great point. The legislature constantly approves bills - some of them hundreds of pages long - yet it’s doubtful many lawmakers could point to the legislation and tell a resident “here is how this will affect you.”
I’m going to try and change that. Whether you’re an elderly widow in Lake City, a farmer in Cannon Falls or a business person in Wabasha - my goal is to make some of this incomprehensible legislation understandable, and let you know how you will be impacted.
The overwhelming topic of discussion at the State Capitol will be how to solve our state’s $5 billion budget deficit. Currently, Minnesota spends $5 billion more on state government programs than it collects through revenues such as income, business, and sales taxes.
We can solve this problem one of two ways: Raise taxes or reduce government spending. How does this affect you? You’ll either lose a greater percentage of your income in order to continue funding government programs at their current levels, or you’ll see a reduction or elimination of certain state government programs - programs which may or may not currently impact you.
I think it is vital to have guiding principles when solving a deficit of this magnitude. And to me, even though it sounds cliché, the principle has to be that state government should live within its means.
The lobbying efforts are in full force as special interest groups contact us on a daily basis, telling us they need more money and can’t make do with less. You may have seen ads on television from some of these groups urging folks to contact their lawmakers and tell them not to cut funding for specific needs. This is certainly an important part of the process but realistically we need to address the deficit problem and we do not have the funds to continue spending at the same level.
As an example, I have had many calls already wondering about my stance on school funding. I have not wavered on my opinion of K-12 education funding. As I stated many times, the issue with funding is not about more dollars but rather the equitable distribution of those dollars.
If the majority party chooses to look at K-12 education for spending cuts - and that’s a big if - I would argue that our rural districts should not have to share the same reduction percentages. Our rural schools have already been asked to do more with less due to the broken education funding formula that funnels a much higher percentage of dollars to the metro school districts. Throughout my campaign you heard me compare the per-pupil funding formulas to those of the Twin Cities. This has not changed. In all schools throughout our entire district, the difference is thousands of dollars per pupil less.
Simply put, we don’t share equal funding; we shouldn’t be sharing equal reductions if it comes to that.
As session moves forward, my guiding principle - regardless of the program - will be fiscal responsibility. We simply cannot spend more than we bring in. Nearly every resident in our district knows what it’s like to operate within budget constraints, and from what I’m hearing, they expect the same from their government.
News Items
- CONFERENCE COMMITTEES SHAPING IMPORTANT BILLS AT LEGISLATURE - (Posted: 2012-04-05 00:00:00)
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- MORE GOOD NEWS FOUND IN LATEST STATE BUDGET FORECAST - (Posted: 2012-03-06 00:00:00)
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