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State Representative Duane Quam
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-9236
For more information contact: Jason Wenisch 651-296-2317
NEWS COLUMN
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE HOUSE REPUBLICAN BUDGET PROPOSAL
Now that the Minnesota House has approved each of its omnibus bills, which would eliminate Minnesota’s projected $5.1 billion budget deficit, there have been many sound bites, accusations, and outright falsehoods being shared by Democratic lawmakers.
Most of them want you to believe that life as you know it will cease to exist because Republicans have followed through on their campaign promise to reduce out-of-control government spending. House Democrats are even travelling the state, along with partisan commissioners appointed by Governor Mark Dayton, to bash on Republicans for daring to prioritize state spending and attempting to actually make government more efficient.
Instead of whining about our insistence to force state government to live within its means, I wish House Democrats would actually take an interest in balancing our budget and offer some solutions. To date, they’ve offered no budget plan and I have my doubts that they will, because it’s much easier to complain about a problem than to try and solve it.
So while the Democrats continue to complain that Republicans aren’t spending enough of your tax dollars, I thought it would be appropriate to give an update on some of our omnibus spending bills and share a few details.
K-12 Education: Per-pupil funding is increased by $86 in years 2012-13 and $40 in 2014 under the K-12 finance proposal. The plan also contains a number of reforms that should give more flexibility to school districts, remove programs that aren’t working, and focus on ideas that would improve student achievements.
Higher Education: This bill focuses on students by increasing funding for programs that help them pay for college. It also creates controls to protect students from unreasonable tuition increases.
Public Safety: This legislation strives to keep residents safe by protecting core court services, preventing a reduction in criminal investigation, and increasing prison sentences for predatory sex offenders rather than move them to the expensive Sex Offender Treatment Program.
Health and Human Services: Despite the calls of “draconian cuts” in this area, our bill actually increases HHS spending by $520 million from the last budget cycle, and focuses on reforming an area of government where overall spending is on an unsustainable path. It also focuses on prioritized spending, and at the top of that list are our nursing homes, which are spared from across the board rate reductions.
Environment: This bill prioritizes funding on core functions to achieve clean air, water and land. It also reallocates funds from the Environmental and Natural Resource Trust Fund to address high priority emerging needs, including aquatic invasive species and chronic wasting disease. No tax or fee increases are included.
Transportation: State highway spending would increase by $120 million and local road investments would increase by over $126 million under this legislation.
Taxes: This proposal includes tax reductions for Minnesota’s lower and middle class residents, and Property tax relief for Minnesota’s Main Street business owners. Green Acres - a farmland conservation program that was altered in 2008 resulting in massive property tax increases for many farmers and rural landowners – is also restored to its original intent.
It’s worth noting that none of these omnibus proposals contain tax increases of any kind, and all of them force Minnesota’s government to live within its means – just as your family does every day.
In contrast, Governor Dayton continues his call to raise everyone’s taxes in order to grow and expand the budget, which I’m against. To me, enacting a $4 billion tax increase so government can grow at a 27 percent rate would be devastating to our economy.
As for the House Democrats, who knows what they want. They complain about budget reductions. They say we need to “bring real solutions forward.”
Then bring them up!
Instead of sitting on your hands, take an active role in the legislative process – which you were elected to do – and offer an idea or two. Maybe even put a budget proposal on paper so all Minnesotans can see exactly which taxes you’d like to raise and which spending you’d like to cut.
House Democrats have every right to dislike the way Republicans are showing leadership by forcing government to live within its means, but they’re also being hypocritical by constantly criticizing our plan and refusing to craft one of their own.
News Items
- Quam Statement on HF956 - Omnibus Energy Bill - (Posted: May 8 2013 9:14AM)
- Capitol Update from Rep. Duane Quam - (Posted: May 3 2013 12:00AM)
- House Moves Ahead with Damaging Changes to Education and Taxes - (Posted: Apr 26 2013 12:00AM)
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