Former Gov. Arne Carlson, a Republican, has said the state’s budget will be an endless roller-coaster ride until the state revisits the 2000 tax changes that significantly reduced income taxes on the state’s wealthiest and took a major whack at the state’s tax revenue stream at the same time. Carlson’s diagnosis of the problem is correct, but neither facts nor logic seem able to penetrate the mind of our current governor, who appears blinded by his rigid ideology and equally blind to the pain he is causing to so many Minnesotans.

As poor and middle class Minnesotans have come to understand, the changes in the U.S. and global economy in recent years have produced a few big winners and many more losers. In a more just society, we might expect progressive taxation to require those winners to carry a bigger burden when it comes to paying for the benefits of the public sector. That’s the way it used to work in Minnesota.

But not today. In Gov. Pawlenty’s Minnesota, the wealthiest pay the smallest percentage of their income in taxes of any group and what benefits are provided to working families, students, the elderly, and the disabled are the first on the chopping block whenever times get tough.

With the state facing a billion dollar budget gap this year, Gov. Pawlenty has proposed more of the same, including:

‰ A $50 million cut to higher education. The governor’s proposal comes just as a new state report found that tuition at Minnesota’s public colleges and universities is already at twice the national average. It now costs more than $10,000 a year just in tuition and fees at the University of Minnesota. That’s shocking and it undercuts this state’s longstanding commitment to equal access to higher education. Yet Pawlenty’s draconian cuts will almost certainly send tuition costs, which have already spiraled upwards under this governor, higher still.

‰ A $180 million cut in health and human services programs, including a freeze on new applications for MinnesotaCare. Given recent job losses, the demand for state-subsidized health insurance is only going to increase. Apparently, the governor’s solution is to let them eat cake. And his solution for nursing homes is no more compassionate. Nursing homes have been a virtually permanent target of Pawlenty’s blood-letting and most are barely surviving as it is. Many rural nursing homes likely won’t make it if the Legislature goes along with the governor’s plans.

As usual in politics, budget decisions come down to priorities. In Pawlenty’s case, the priorities are clear cut. When faced with a choice between a slight tax hike for the state’s top earners, and health care for the newly-unemployed, Pawlenty sides with those at the top. It’s the same regardless of the question. Whether it’s students struggling to pay the nation’s second highest tuition rates, or elderly in our nursing homes, the answer is always the same with this governor.

The needs of the most vulnerable always play second fiddle to the needs of those who have much.