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Minnesota House of Representatives

State Representative Kelby Woodard

221 State Office BuildingState Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
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Posted: 2011-02-02 00:00:00
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OP/ED COLUMN

Process of balancing budget begins

By Rep. Kelby Woodard

A good starting point for erasing our $6.2 billion budget shortfall is to embrace a pair of elements often lacking in government: Common sense and fiscal responsibility.

The first big bill we passed from the House floor this session includes both common sense and fiscal responsibility as it erases our shortfall by $1 billion. This Phase 1 budget-balancing bill includes a continuation of the “unallotments” which received bipartisan approval at the end of the 2010 session. The bill also reduces the deficit by removing $840 million of automatic increases set for next year, reduces funding for the Legislature and constitutional offices, and permanently eliminates the Political Contribution Refund that subsidizes political campaigns.

Local Government Aid provided to our area remains at current levels. There has been some confusion over this, but here’s the reality: Units of government within District 25B will receive the same amount of aid in 2011 as they received in 2010. They will not receive the increases for which some had hoped, but there will not be a reduction in funding from last year to this year.

Another measure in the bill gives the Minnesota Management and Budget commissioner the directive to reduce state agency spending by $200 million. The goal is to help bring an end to the practice of government offices spending unnecessarily at the end of a budget cycle in order to present a $0 balance and protect their future funding.

It’s important to remember we do have a $32 billion budget to work with in the upcoming biennium, a 5-percent increase over the current cycle. That is enough money to adequately support our priorities as long as we stop committing to spending money we don’t have in non-essential areas. That’s how we ended up with a multi-billion dollar shortfall in the upcoming cycle even though state revenue is expected to rise over the same period.

An updated budget forecast is due this month and that will help put the rest of our pieces in place. Whatever the new shortfall amount is, we know we are out of money now and must acknowledge the limits of our budget to live within our means down the road.

I welcome your input on this issue throughout the session and invite your e-mails at rep.kelby.woodard@house.mn.

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