It is no secret that our past governor placed Minnesota in an extremely vulnerable position. First, he signed the “No New Tax Pledge.” Not only was that an irresponsible act, it made negotiating incredibly difficult from the start. For the last few years of his term, he was mainly concentrating on political activities; McCain’s election, his presidential aspirations, etc. His unwillingness or inability to negotiate is well-known. Since he placed more emphasis on his media message than Minnesota’s future, there was little incentive for him to work with the legislature to solve Minnesota’s problems. After the punitive measures handed out to the Republican legislators who finally voted for the Transportation override vote, it was also understandable that other Republican legislators were hesitant to cross their leaders’ positions.
My hope was that with a new governor, our state would finally settle down to working out budget problems in a rational manner. However, it seems the Republicans are still more interested in playing games than in solving problems in a manner that will use acceptable accounting principals. In the transportation bill, the Republicans wanted to take the money the counties collected for transit to fund state general fund transportation expenses. This is a tax that the county commissioners had approved and for which they take responsibility. That is extremely unethical. The raiding of various reserves to cover general fund expenses has been going on for some time to the extent that there is little left to raid. In the environment bill, cuts have been made and it looks like the Chair expects the Legacy funds to replace those cuts. The Constitutional Amendment specifically forbids that. Since the budget problems have been going on for the last decade, it is time to stop with excuses that these are extraordinary times. During the Pawlenty years, the legislature had to make do with shifts, fees, and other unacceptable accounting measures just to get through the budget process with a governor who refused to compromise or operate in an open manner. It now looks like Republicans want to continue down that same path even with new leadership. That is extremely disappointing!
The task at hand seems to be how to encourage legislators to work for the common good.