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State Representative Tim Sanders
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-4226
For more information contact: House GOP Communications 651-296-5520
NEWS COLUMN
The Budget Bill, Part 1
Earlier this week the House took its first step in balancing the
state’s budget deficit. Facing a $5.8 billion structural deficit
through 2012-13, this was the first opportunity we had to make real
reforms to how the government does business. There is a lot of room to
positively affect the role of government while still reducing its size.
On Monday the House passed its first “budget balancing” bill.
Unfortunately, the majority pushed this through without any type of
framework for balancing the entire $994 million deficit. Nonetheless,
my House Republican colleagues and I attempted to make this bill better
by amending on real reforms. These would have improved Minnesota’s
short and long-term fiscal stability.
Initially, it appeared the majority would be open to our ideas. Our
first proposed amendment was a common-sense measure adopting
“zero-based” budgeting. This would require each agency to start
from zero, justify every penny of their budget each biennium, and
validate every increase – potentially saving taxpayers millions of
dollars each budget cycle. Hopefully the House and Senate conference
committee will keep this reform in the final version of the bill.
Unfortunately the majority’s willingness to consider ideas on a
bipartisan basis did not continue. The majority voted down or refused
to vote on the rest of our amendments, including ones which would reduce
the size of the state government workforce and institute a Sunset
Commission. Plans to restructure government were called inapplicable to
a bill which dealt directly with state government.
While the bill does contain some cost cutting measures, it lacks real
reforms to alleviate future shortfalls. First, there is too much
dependence on federal money. The bill is also overly reliant on
one-time cuts which do nothing to address the $5.8 billion structural
deficit. Finally, the majority used taxpayer money to sue to reverse
Governor Pawlenty’s unallotments, yet they fail to account for the
additional $2.7 billion shortfall the lawsuit would create if
successful.
Minnesotans deserve better leadership. Our reforms showed a commitment
to innovative ideas to reduce the cost of government while promoting
efficiency and results. There is much more work to be done on the
budget. I will continue to work for the common sense solutions to bring
responsibility back to government and prosperity back to Minnesota.
Until next time,
Tim
News Items
- 2013 Legislative Survey Results - (Posted: May 14 2013 10:16AM)
- Legislative Update from Rep. Sanders - (Posted: Mar 14 2013 12:00AM)
- Budget Outlook Improves - (Posted: Mar 1 2013 5:38PM)
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