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|  | | | Key concept in balancing the budget is balance
Between now and the constitutionally mandated end of the legislative session on May 18, the Legislature and the governor need to balance a state budget that is projected to come up short by $6.4 billion. That's an amount equal to $1,200 for every person living in Minnesota.
It's a deficit with such implications for Minnesota's future that the Senate and House took it on the road to hear from citizens across the state about their ideas for fixing the budget.
Their advice? Reduce costs. Eliminate unneeded state mandates on schools, counties, cities, and township governments. Justify expenditures. Don't play favorites with the politically or financially powerful. Raise revenue if needed, but do it fairly. Take a balanced approach that shares the burden of the deficit across all sectors of the state.
In the Minnesota Senate, we're taking that advice to heart. We're proposing a budget that is honest and provides long-term fiscal stability. We believe that the time to bite the bullet and implement genuine reform of Minnesota's budget is now.
The key idea in addressing this crisis is balance.
The Senate DFL plan contains cuts to virtually every area of state government—because with a deficit this large, we have to. In addition to painful, but manageable cuts in health and human services, education, and local government aid, we also propose raising revenues—because with a deficit this large, we have to as well. In doing so, we are trying to raise money in a manner that is sustainable and shares the burden with those sectors of the state's economy that are not as likely to be affected by the big cuts in state government services. Finally, we have already passed sweeping legislation that eliminates or reforms scores of burdensome state government mandates.
Contrast this solution to Gov. Pawlenty's scheme. Under his plan, Minnesota taxpayers borrow money to pay off debt, just like taking out a high-interest payday loan. People are cut off from their health insurance policies so that health care funds can be raided. Thousands of private-sector jobs serving people in nursing homes, hospitals, and home health agencies are eliminated. Financial obligations are shifted into the future when they will become even more expensive and help create the deficits of tomorrow.
Instead of balancing the state's budget for four years like the Senate, the governor's proposal creates a new $2.6 billion deficit in as little as 18 months. Rather than perpetuating an endless cycle of deficits, cuts, and hidden revenue increases that have marked Gov. Pawlenty's governorship, we propose a sustainable budget that can better weather the economic storms of the future, and will be able to make needed timely investments in Minnesota's future.
We have about a month in which to solve this budget problem. It will require cooperation and courage to make tough decisions. We shouldn't be pushed to take the "easy" road, which involves raiding funds, more debt, deceptive accounting, and bigger problems in the near future. Instead, the Senate DFL will be advocating balance and a mix of revenues and cuts to fix the problem the right way, right now.
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