Dear Neighbor,
Another week of the 2013 session is coming to a close in St. Paul. Here are a few items which made news this week:
COMMITTEES ANALYZE DAYTON’S BUDGET
This week, the Minnesota House Taxes and Ways and Means committees began scrutinizing Gov. Mark Dayton’s budget proposal and determining what it means for Minnesotans. The plan, which increases state spending by $2.5 billion and increase taxes on Minnesotans by nearly $3.7 billion, would negatively impact the working poor and the middle class through a radical sales tax expansion on goods and services.
Through lengthy question and answer periods, lawmakers learned that Governor Dayton’s “balanced” budget approach didn’t quite live up to its name. While crafting what would be a $38 billion budget, it was discovered that the governor only reduced spending by $225 million. In other words, for every $16 in spending increases, his budget contains $1 in spending reductions.
His new business to business sales tax proposal was also debated. This regressive idea would not only decrease profit margins for businesses, but would also lead to reduced wages and reduced employment opportunities for hard working Minnesotans as business owners tried to make up for the added expense.
FLESHING OUT GOV'S K-12 BUDGET
The governor's recently issued budget proposal increases K-12 funding by $344 million over the base budget, including a $52 increase in the per-pupil formula. This is roughly half of the commitment Republicans made to education in 2011 by increasing the education budget by $675 million, with a $100 increase to the per-pupil formula spanning fiscal years 2012 and 2013. The governor's plan does not pay off the remaining $1.1 billion in delayed K-12 payments until 2017.
It is inexcusable for the governor to propose record tax increases and bring state spending to unprecedented heights while putting our schools on the back burner. It would cost us $150 million more to delay repayment until 2017, as the governor proposes. Republicans authored a bill (H.F. 134) this session to fully repay the remaining K-12 balance now.
DAIRY DAY AT THE CAPITOL
Dairy Day was Wednesday at the Capitol, providing an opportunity to highlight how important this industry - and agriculture in general - is to Minnesota's economy. Dairy production was up 4 percent last year, even though we experienced drought conditions. There are 455,000 cows in Minnesota on 3,900 licensed dairy farms. Each provides about 25,000 of economic activity to the state and Minnesota exported $218 million in dairy products last year, 13 percent of the national total.
Dairy is a huge component of Minnesota's agriculture industry and a key driver of our economy. It helped buoy our state during the recession. This makes the Democrats' decision to eliminate the Agriculture Finance Committee as a stand-alone panel all the more perplexing. Farmers already are dealing with high feed costs, low milk prices and a sometimes overwhelming permitting process.
We should be looking for ways to encourage expansion in agriculture areas such as dairy. Instead, Democrats are minimizing this sector's importance by disbanding an important committee and putting ag decisions in the hands of a Minneapolis environmentalist's panel.
Sincerely,
Mark