Finally...

With 26 days left in the Legislative session (and with very little fanfare I might add), the House and Senate DFL majorities release their solution to the $6.4 billion dollar budget deficit. The Bemidji Pioneer reports...

ST. PAUL – Legislators arrived at the Minnesota Capitol in early January with five months to fix a multi-billion-dollar budget deficit.

Now, lawmakers are staring at the same massive budget problem and a deadline just three weeks out. And no one knows how the problem will be fixed.

Much of the Legislature’s heavy-lifting always occurs in the session’s final weeks – or, more accurately, days – as lawmakers scramble to pass a new two-year state budget, erasing a projected $4.6 billion deficit by the constitutional May 18 adjournment date.

Before we start looking at what the DFL led legislature finally proposed one has to point out again that they have had over 4 months to put forward a thoughtful solution to this bill. However, in their usual fashion, the DFL has pushed the state of Minnesota to the brink of a shutdown! It is no coincidence that this biennium budget, as with the 2005 budget bienium, happens to come on the political eve of a gubernatorial election.

After a year of knowing that there was a recordbreaking budget deficit (remember, the Legislature was told at the end of the LAST session that the deficit was going to be this bad) the DFL Legislature had all the time and resources that they needed to fix this pending crisis. Then when the took to the floor in January, the choose not to do anything. In fevruary, they choose not to do anything...March the same...Instead they spent that time writing legislation designed to blacklist and punish businesses that chose not to be unionized! It was not until April 21 that they introduced the first bill to try to fix the problem and their answer was predictable...they proposed tax increases on cigarettes, liquor and beer, snowmobiles, downloadable music (the so-called iTunes tax), clothing, food and gifts that you give to others (again). When they did finally decide to cut spending, the decided to cut school funding, public safety, hospital funding and veterans care funding. Meanwhile, Senators like St. Cloud's Tarryl Clark are sending out push polls to their constituents asking what "essential" services they would cut - even though the House and Senate proposals were already in committee (isn't it nice how they ask for your input AFTER THE FACT?). If the tax hikes (some quite regressive) aren't bad enough, the DFL Tax Bill repeals tax deductions for mortgage interest, charitable contributions (we can't have those charities competing for your tax dollars after all) and K-12 education expenses. The DFL's tax bill even takes away a gas tax credit that was designed to protect POOR PEOPLE from gas tax increases!

Even some DFLers were horrified by the increased taxes! Others came flat out and admitted what the rest of us have long said - increased taxes will push consumers to buy their goods elsewhere.

Senate Taxes Committee Chairman Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, said eliminating the current mortgage interest deduction could hurt Minnesota’s high rate of home ownership and higher alcohol taxes would drive some liquor shoppers across the Wisconsin border.

Emphasis mine....

There can be no mistaking the DFL's motive here. House Speaker Margaret Kelliher Anderson is toying with the idea of running for governor as is Senator Tom Bakk, former House Minority Leader Matt Entenza, Representative Joe Atkins and the aforemention Senator Clark from St. Cloud. All of these legislators have a stake in making Governor Pawlenty (if he runs for re-election) or any Republican Legislator who decides to run look bad by forcing another government shut-down. It is their hope that they can again (as they did in 2006) blame the Governor Pawlenty and the Republicans for this government shut down. Will the voters of Minnesota fall for this blatent ploy again? Only if the Republican Party runs the same kind of lame campaign that they did in 2006. Hopefully they have learned a lesson from the last two elections and will put together (either as a party or as individual candidates) a campaign that finally holds the DFL accountable for their deceptive actions. Remember - NOT ONE DFL candidate for the House ran on tax increases in 2008. As a matter of fact they all ran as "fiscal moderates" who were going to be respectful of the taxpayers resources. Now that they have shown their true colors, it is up to the Republican candidates and the Republilcan Party to take advantage of that - if they want to regain the House in 2010.