They call it an “accounting shift,” but that sounds far too benign. Pawlenty’s gimmicks to make our state look solvent have serious consequences:
St. Paul, Minn. — A Minnesota Public Radio News analysis finds that more than a third of the school districts in the state have been forced to borrow to pay their bills.
In normal years, some school districts borrow money because of low cash flow but education experts say many more districts are borrowing this year because of Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s budget action.
Schools will be borrowing nearly $300 million, and the cost of the interest will be at least $2.75 million. One has to wonder, will the state be paying the schools back for the interest?
MPR has a full breakdown of the borrowing by district here.
Now in the interest of fairness, the DFL was planning on a shift like this as well. And in the interest of fairness, it was a dumb idea for them, too.
And no surprise, it’s picked up by MDE, who thoughtfully did not provide a link to the original item, so linking to him will have to do. Anyhoo, let’s get on to the lies, shall we?
Pawlenty did what he had to do to balance the budget.
Why?
Because state lawmakers were unable to muster the political courage to make the difficult cuts or increase taxes. In other words, as much as we disagreed with the programs Pawlenty cut, he took action, something the Legislature seemed unable to do for months. Leadership in both chambers of the Legislature was inept.
Wow. No, that’s just wrong. We can argue about whether the DFL’s solution — a mix of spending cuts, accounting shifts, and tax hikes — was the best possible solution, certainly. But there is no arguing with the plain facts: the DFL sent Pawlenty a balanced budget. The DFL sent Pawlenty appropriations bills to fund state services, and the revenue to pay for the appropriations.
A lot of people were obviously not happy about the increased taxes, but with our budget deficit only getting worse, it’s hard to see how we’re going to avoid them. So the DFL mustered the courage to increase taxes to raise revenues to decrease our budget shortfall. Now, not only have the DFLers seen their budget unconstitutionally altered by Tim Pawlenty, they’re taking flak for not having the “political courage” to do something that, in reality, they did.
What do you think Ronald Reagan meant when he said that someone who agreed with him 8 out of 10 times was his friend, and not his opponent? Because I took it as a very general philosophy which simply implied that Reagan did not want to impose an ideological purity test on his allies. So it strikes me as absurd that the Republican party is now using Reagan’s words to impose an ideological purity test on its candidates for office.
WHEREAS, President Ronald Reagan also believed the Republican Party should welcome those with diverse views; and
WHEREAS, President Ronald Reagan believed, as a result, that someone who agreed with him 8 out of 10 times was his friend, not his opponent…
[A list of policy positions that all Republicans must adhere to follows]
RESOLVED, that a candidate who disagrees with three or more of the above stated public policy position of the Republican National Committee, as identified by the voting record, public statements and/or signed questionnaire of the candidate, shall not be eligible for financial support and endorsement by the Republican National Committee
{facepalm}
Are you freakin’ kidding me here? Are Republicans so incapable of abstract thought that they really think that’s what Reagan meant when he espoused the “8 out of 10” principle? This explains so much…
You know, I think the policy itself is bad enough. I hope this will put to rest the debate over which party is the party of inclusion and which is the party of teabaggers. Once the GOP goes down the road of purity tests, I don’t believe they’ll come back. But the policy aside, it’s the logic behind this resolution that really hurts me. Do you know what happened to the party of Reagan, folks? It’s now run by yahoos who can’t even understand what Reagan was trying to tell them.
Just in case you were interested, the list of policy positions is below the break:
Here, for your reading pleasure, MNpublius presents a few selections from the MN House’s brief of amicus curiae (courtesy of Politics in Minnesota) in the unallotment lawsuit against Tim Pawlenty.
As I read it, there are two main issues. First, Pawlenty’s actions stretched far beyond what is allowed by Minnesota’s unallotment law. His unallotments do not meet the legislature’s original intent for that law. Second, if the court finds that Pawlenty’s actions were legal under the unallotment law, that would mean that unallotment itself is unconstitutional, as it turns the separation of powers on its head. Budgeting is strictly a legislative role, not an executive one.
Once again, I’d like to point out how crucial this decision will be for our legislature now and in the future. Even Republican lawmakers should be supporting the House’s amicus brief. While they might want the Governor, a fellow Republican, to prevail for policy reasons, in the long run Republican legislators will be better off ensuring that the power of the legislature is not crippled by unallotment.
Below are a few excerpts from the brief supporting both of the House’s main arguments. I’ve stitched a number of small pieces together, and not necessarily in order, to try to give a relatively concise view of the arguments. All emphasis is mine. If you don’t think I’ve done it justice, leave your interpretation in the comments.
A Republican with deep ties to the Minnesota business community has decided against a run for governor next year.
Minnesota Business Partnership Executive Director Charlie Weaver said today he won’t get into the wide-open race. Weaver had been mulling a campaign since incumbent GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty ruled out a third-term bid.
Weaver is a former state legislator, state agency commissioner and chief of staff to Pawlenty.
I don’t know if he could have gotten the GOP nomination, but Weaver would have been a very strong general election candidate for the Republicans. He’s a moderate and has a strong base in Anoka County, a key battleground in statewide elections. You can add Weaver to the list of potentially strong Republican candidates (Pawlenty, Coleman, Sviggum, Sullivan, etc…) who have passed on this race. Every day it looks more and more likely that Marty Siefert will be the Republican nominee, and that makes every day a good day for Democrats.
UPDATE: For those who think I’m crazy when I say Weaver would have been a strong candidate, check out this “top ten reasons I won’t be running for Governor” that he released today…
1. The Governor’s Residence is nice, but it ain’t Anoka;
2. Old streaking ” incident” makes endorsement unlikely;
3. Has only raised $25.13 so far;
4. Discovered that he has to pay for personal parties at the Residence;
5. Thinks unallotment is a board game;
6. Troopers told him he couldn’t wander the Residence in his underwear;
7. Friends are too “busy” to attend convention;
8. Gift ban makes it harder to get free stuff;
9. Not interested in all those boring budget meetings; and
10. Recent polling reveals he would lose to the intoxicated motorized LazyBoy guy.
…when “victory” is a vote narrowly agreeing to open debate on healthcare. Not to close debate, mind you, and not to pass the bill, but just to bring the bill to the floor at all. Here’s what the NY Times says about the vote:
The 60-to-39 vote, along party lines, clears the way for weeks of rowdy floor proceedings that will begin after Thanksgiving and last through much of December.
So it took all the Democrats’ power to get the bill to a point where a circus-like debate will now ensue, and where the bill may or may not ever pass.
I suppose we can call this a victory for Harry Reid, but let’s hope his subsequent victories are a bit more impressive.
The 60-to-39 vote, along party lines, clears the way for weeks of rowdy floor proceedings that will begin after Thanksgiving and last through much of December.
Sorry for my absence over the past couple of days. I was extraordinarily busy, but perhaps even more importantly, ACORN wouldn’t let me blog. My Internet connection was down, and although I don’t have any proof whatsoever, I’m pretty positive it was ACORN’s doing. Yes, ACORN has become so insidious and evil over the past year, they seem to have their hands in just about every evil in this world: From my hectic schedule, to my Internet connectivity problems, to stealing elections like NY-23:
Former GOP state Rep. Ron Erhardt of Edina is exploring a run for his old House seat as a Democrat.
“I’m looking to run. I raised money earlier in the year,” said Erhardt today in a telephone interview with PIM…
…Erhardt said it appears his chances of winning are strongest by running as a Democrat.
“I’m exploring the possibility to run as a Democrat. If that doesn’t work I’ll run as an independent,” Erhardt said.
Sounds like Erhardt is pretty committed to running, he’s just trying to figure out which party label to run under. If he decides to run as a Democrat, however, he’ll have competition. 2008 DFL endorsed candidate Kevin Staunton is running again.
Looks like Edina is going to be a critical battleground once again in 2010.
Once the Vikings move to Los Angeles, what will happen to the Metrodome? Look at what happened this week in Michigan:
The Pontiac Silverdome, site of countless amazing runs by Lions great Barry Sanders and MHSAA football championship games, has depreciated in value.
A lot.
An unidentified Toronto-based group submitted the winning bid for the property with a paltry offer of $583,000. It’s pretty minuscule when you consider that the Silverdome cost $55.7 million to build.
The rest of the world probably thinks that the dumbest decision made in professional football this week was the New England Patriots going for it on fourth and two on their own 28. I beg to differ.
Minnesota Vikings owners Zygi and Mark Wilf today said the team is breaking off relations with the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission until the commission loosens the purse strings in its Metrodome lease and helps it build a new stadium in downtown Minneapolis.
In a blistering letter sent this afternoon to Paul Thatcher, chairman of the commission’s Finance Committee, the Wilfs said they were “shocked, exasperated and extremely disappointed” by the committee’s proposal Tuesday to encourage the team to extend its Metrodome lease by two years.
The resolution, which will be on the full commission’s agenda Thursday, proposes awarding the team all post-season stadium revenues if they agree to a lease extension.
If the team refuses, the resolution proposes to start collecting $4 million a year from the Vikings — rent that it has forgiven the team since 2002 in an effort to help it stay competitive with better-positioned NFL teams.
Memo to the Sports Facilities Commission: you can’t negotiate if you don’t have leverage and the Vikings are holding all the cards. They have the country’s second largest media market and a brand new stadium waiting for them in L.A. There is ZERO chance that they will renew their lease and everybody knows it. So why on Earth would you attempt a stupid stunt like this? All you are going to do is push them into Ed Roski’s arms.
If anyone at the MSFC really thought that threatening the Vikings would persuade them to renew their lease, they should find a new line of work. I am honestly just astounded at the sheer stupidity of this move.
In an email sent out today, Senator Al Franken shows his support for Tarryl Clark’s bid for Congress by asking for donations to her campaign. The email lauds Clark’s accomplishments and her strengths as a legislator and campaigner. Senator Franken (I love saying that) could give Clark a big boost in this race, and an early start is a good indication of his intentions to help.
Craig Stellmacher is asking gubernatorial candidates “what is the greatest threat to Minnesota?” in an excellent series posted to YouTube. Tom Rukavina, in his response, had some excellent comments on unallotment and Tim Pawlenty’s style of governance (or rather, his absenteeism).
“It’s usurping the power of the legislature… Right now he’s actually writing laws,” he said. “I don’t know where’s he getting this authority, and nobody’s really taking him on.”
“Right now any governor — whether the governor is Tom Rukavina or Tim Pawlenty — can basically sign every spending bill and then decide to unallot,” he said.
This was my favorite line:
Right now, he’s borrowing against our kids’ future so he can have a political future.
For 2 1/4 years now I have been saying that there is no chance of a repeat of the Great Depression or anything like it — that we know what to do and how to do it and will do it if things turn south.
I don’t think I can say that anymore. In my estimation the chances of another big downward shock to the U.S. economy — a shock that would carry us from the 1/3-of-a-Great-Depression we have now to 2/3 or more — are about 5%. And it now looks very much as if if such a shock hits the U.S. government will be unable to do a d — — - thing about it.
Ugh.
Let this serve as a quick reminder that the stakes right now are incredibly high. We can certainly have debates over how our government can best stabilize the economy, but there can be no question that the government must still be actively engaged in making sure another “shock” to the economy doesn’t happen.
A number of conservatives have made the case that the US has the best health care system in the world, even if it does not have the best access to the health care system. Similarly, they’ve claimed that all Americans have access to care through emergency rooms, which are legally required to treat all patients who come to them, insured or not.
But the fact is that the uninsured have worse health outcomes, even in our emergency rooms. A new study in the Archives of Surgery shows that even when we look at trauma patients — in other words, cases which have little to do with a patient’s underlying health — uninsured patients at the emergency room are about twice as likely to die.
The fact is, even if the uninsured technically have some access to care via our emergency rooms, even that isn’t as effective for the uninsured as it is for the insured. In our system, if you don’t have health insurance, you don’t have access to quality care.
Conservative Doug Hoffman conceded the race in the 23rd Congressional District last week after receiving two pieces of grim news for his campaign: He was down 5,335 votes with 93 percent of the vote counted on election night…
Now a recanvassing in the 11-county district shows that Owens’ lead has narrowed to 3,026 votes over Hoffman, 66,698 to 63,672, according to the latest unofficial results from the state Board of Elections.
Outrageous! The fact that the numbers are moving in Hoffman’s favor during the standard process of recanvassing is clear evidence that the Republicans are stealing this election. Or, at least, that was the Republican party line during the Franken-Coleman recount a year ago. It’s funny that conservative partisans don’t seem to have a problem with the recanvassing process this time. In fact, they’re now encouraging Hoffman to “un-concede.” I guess it makes a big difference when the numbers are moving in the right direction.
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