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State Representative Kelby Woodard
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-7065
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Email update
Budget update
Dear Neighbors,
I write to update you on the status of the government shutdown. I appreciate you sharing your thoughts with me over the past few weeks and agree with most Minnesotans that this shutdown is unnecessary.
As you know, the Legislature passed our budget bills and had them available for the Governor's input nearly six weeks prior to the end of session. After the Governor requested we send the bills to him for his consideration in the final days of the session, he vetoed all of them with the exception of the Agriculture budget. The result was a shutdown of state government on July 1. The $34.2 billion budget we proposed included a 6-percent increase in spending and is the largest in our state's history. Most importantly they included vital reforms to end the unsustainable double-digit increases in spending we have experienced in Minnesota.
Since the vetoes by the Governor, we have further compromised and agreed to the spending targets proposed by the Governor in key areas including education, the courts, and public safety in an attempt to break the impasse. We also took our middle-class tax cut off the table to pay for more spending. All of these compromises were put forth in an effort to leverage a window of opportunity before a government shutdown and were summarily dismissed by the Governor.
Despite the 6-percent increase in spending contained in our budget, the Governor continues to insist upon a $1.8 billion tax increase with none of our reforms. He has yet to detail where this additional revenue would be spent. The proposed tax rate on the top 2 percent of wage earners would give Minnesota the second-highest tax bracket in the country. The Governor has recently revised his tax proposal to also include the creation of a tax on professional services such as accounting and legal services, another increase in cigarette taxes, and more healthcare surcharges. I do not agree that raising taxes on Minnesotans will result in the revenue the Governor is expecting or that it will result in greater job creation. Minnesota should instead strive for tax reform that attracts taxpayers and encourages our snowbirds to stay in our great state.
As a small businessman myself, I understand the argument that increasing revenues can be an option for dealing with budget issues. In this case however, our state is already at the top end of what our customers (taxpayers) will bear. I believe Minnesota must attract more taxpayers to our state...not drive them out. Beyond the issue of spending and taxation, a final budget agreement must also include expanding economic freedom for Minnesotans and true 21st century reforms in education, health and human services, and our state government as a whole.
Legislative leaders and the Governor continue negotiations, but have not reached a final agreement and the government largely remains in shutdown. Only Governor Dayton can call us back into special session. In fact this is the first time in Minnesota history that a Governor did not call the Legislature into special session when a budget had not been agreed upon. I hope you will join me in calling upon the Governor to call us back and at least sign a lights-on bill to continue government operations at 2010/2011 levels.
I remain optimistic that the Governor will agree to a lights-on budget or sign what he has termed the “popular” budget bills so that we can get the government back to work.
In the meantime, I hope you will find this link with a list of what’s open and what’s closed helpful: http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2011/07/03/shutdown-latest-whats-staying-open-whats-closed/.
Again, this shutdown is unnecessary and I will continue to work on finding that common ground that can end it.
Warm regards,
Kelby
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