To the editor,
Gov. Mark Dayton gave his State of the State Address this week. It came across as more pandering to fellow Democrats than an update of our state’s condition.
I found it interesting how the governor took credit for turning a $6 billion state budget shortfall into a $1 billion surplus. Back in July of 2011, Dayton said Republicans will have to take responsibility for future budget problems that arise from the budget they crafted. In reality, decisions Republicans made that year got our economy on the right track and now Dayton is trying to take credit for a budget he previously said he did not support.
The governor also is trying to trumpet the fact Democrats cut taxes for the middle class by $508 million. The math just doesn’t jive when you consider they raised taxes and fees by $2.4 million just last year. We pushed back and this year the House voted to repeal Democrats’ new taxes on warehousing, telecommunications and commercial equipment repairs – but many other tax increases they passed remain on the books.
There also was mention of the so-called “Unesession” in the governor’s speech. I fully support this approach if it means getting a grip on government spending and eliminating wasteful state practices. But, as I have said before, there has been little to no headway in this project this year. We have not eliminated unnecessary boards or commissions, minimal tax dollars will be saved and, in fact, the Legislature has introduced more than 1,500 bills to create more laws this year.
Dayton also talked about how we have made historic investments in education and made all-day kindergarten available for all Minnesota children. What he neglected to mention is Minnesota has the worst achievement gap and not enough has been done to fix that problem. Instead, Democrats eliminated graduation standards for high schoolers. They also weakened accountability for teachers by allowing them to enter the classroom before they pass a basic skills test and are delaying the implementation of teacher evaluations.
One of the last big bills we expect to consider in the Legislature this year is a capital investment bill which borrows to pay for construction projects. There was a deal made last year to set the dollar amount at around $850 million this year. Dayton said he now wants to bump that up to $1.2 billion. It was interesting how one minute he touting construction that is underway for two sports stadiums in the metro and then, seemingly in the next breath, he was saying we need money for drinking water in southwest Minnesota.
Where are the priorities?
Sincerely,
Rep. Mark Anderson