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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Joe Mullery (DFL)

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Governor's budget best plan for Northside

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Last week, we finally saw the budgets from the three powerful forces at the Capitol: the Governor, Senate Democrats and House Republicans. It appears the Governor’s proposal is the best option for the Northside.

The Governor's budget contains more money for Education, Higher Education, Health and Human Services. Public Safety, Job Growth, and the Environment than the Senate Democrats and far more than the House Republicans. 

 

There is a $1.9 billion surplus, and the Governor is using it all for helping people become successful. The Senate Democrats use most of the surplus in similar ways. But, the House Republicans give $2 billion for tax cuts, which will mostly go to the wealthy. Yes, they are going to have to cut from present programs to give more tax cuts than there is in surplus.

 

Despite a $2 billion surplus, the House Republicans are proposing less than a 1% increase for education. For every new $1 for education, the Republicans are giving $15 in new tax cuts. They are also proposing to cut more than $1 billion in Health and Human Services which are so important to the Northside.

 

A Republican friend and colleague on the Education Finance committee told me he hoped to secure around $300 million for early childhood. It looks like it will be vastly less than that.

 

Republicans are ignoring sound fiscal reasoning in their budgets. After decades of both parties using actual fiscal note estimates prepared by the executive departments with actual accounting, the last time the Republicans were in charge (2011-2012), they ignored the actual fiscal note estimates. In other words, they created their own estimates without any basis in facts.

Our state is one of the best in the nation economically under the Democrat ways of running government the last two years. The new House Republican majority wants to go back to cutting out the investments that made us such a strong state and rely on shifts and gimmicks to balance our budget. I will continue to push for sound economic practices as our budget is crafted over the next two months.