Tarryl Clark's Midsession Update

Senator Clark on the State Budget and Public Safety

We're not going anywhere soon...

Caught the Startribune story on the House DFL budget proposal this morning.

To say the least, I'm not impressed.

House Democrats would raise taxes by $1.5 billion over the next two years, cut spending by $843 million and employ a larger accounting shift than Gov. Tim Pawlenty proposes in an effort to balance the state's budget without resorting to borrowing.

Note the "larger accounting shift than Gov. Tim Pawlenty".

More budget gimmicks? Surely this is the equivalent of another "shot fired across the bow" but where is the leadership here?

We learned that when Governor Pawlenty called his new taxes fee's that regardless of the rhetoric, the burden fell back on working and middle class Minnesotans.

Stop the rhetoric. If we're going to raise taxes, tell us we need to raise taxes and give us the "who, what, when, where, why and how".

As we know the state constitution limits the Legislature to meeting 120 legislative days during each biennium. In addition, the Legislature may not meet in regular session after the first Monday following the third Saturday in May of any year.

The clock is ticking...lets get something done!

Barkley on the budget woes

From the Startribune

The Legislature and the Governor have been playing "budget games" with Minnesota's budget since 2002. The last Governor that proposed a real budget fix was Governor Ventura. Sadly, his proposal was ignored by the Democrats and Republicans in 2002 and the state has been playing the shift and borrow games for seven years. Maybe our elected leaders will actually do something this year that will bring about a long term solution.

The piece of the puzzle that was ignored in 2002 was Ventura's proposal to broaden the sales tax to services. Service have become a larger part of our economy every year but we refuse to adjust our tax policy to reflect this reality. The first thing that I would do would be to expand the sales tax to services.

The next thing that needs to be done is to do an across the board reduction of 5%. We have all had to cut back our spending in this economy and it is about time the State Government followed suit.

The shift is the payments to schools should be used. Yes, this is an accounting gimmick but it is the one gimmick that I can live with.

We should then restore the income tax level for the upper wage earners to its 1999 level.

This would be a great way to actually provide a more stable income source to balance our budget not only for the next two years but into the future.

Would $140 million on hurricane monitoring be ok though?

After Governor Jindal's speech last night, Governor Pawlenty became the happiest Republican in their party. He just joined Sarah Palin at the top of the 2012 GOP Presidential list. Minnesotans should send Jindal a thank you card for helping us get rid of Pawlenty.

I was thinking about the Jindal speech last night...it made me think of a former CD 6 candidate...

Anyway, his rant on volcano monitoring made little sense to me.

I lived in Washington State for nearly 5 years and have visited Mt. St. Helens on numerous occasions. I am always amazed at the beauty of the mountain. Each time I visited, I became more and more fascinated.

Mt. Rainier is a stratovolcano about an hour away from Seattle. Mt. Rainier always loomed large on the horizon for those of us in the Seattle/Tacoma area. Places like Puyallup and other places located along the rivers that run from Mt. Rainer are adorned with "Volcano Evacuation Route" signs.

I've seen books and other sources that describe what would happen if a Mt. St. Helens type volcanic explosion would occur at Mt. Rainier. The pyroclastic flow would quickly envelop Seattle. Mud flows would virtually wipe out large portions of the downtown area. Millions of people would be impacted by a Mt. Rainier eruption.

So, Jindal doesn't really care about $140 million for volcano monitoring. But the risk is real.

Perhaps we should cut funding for hurricane monitoring.

JINDAL: While some of the projects in the bill make sense, their legislation is larded with wasteful spending. It includes $300 million to buy new cars for the government. $8 billion for high speed rail projects such as magnetic levitation line from Las Vegas to Disney Land. And $140 million for something called ‘volcano monitoring.’

Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, DC.

And Jindal did nothing during his time in Congress to curb spending in Washington.

So, last night was a eye opener of sorts. It's clear that Jindal simply read the speech given to him, poorly at that. It's also clear that 34 months before the first 2012 primaries and caucuses, Jindal is done.

Oh Bobby...

After watching Governor and Former Congressman Bobby Jindal I gotta say...

Wow.

What a frickin hypocrite.

In 2005 and 2006, then Congressman Jindal voted for EVERY spending bill in Congress except for one, and actually, that was an amendment. Yep, the staunch fiscal conservative who wants to lessen the burden on our kids, voted against an amendment that would restore funding for Public Radio.

That's it! There was no other wasteful spending in 2005 or 2006 other than an amendment to restore Public Radio funding?

The phrase "half of Louisiana being under water and the other half under indictment" comes to mind...

As a member of our Statewide Student Association, we actively lobbied against the Budget Reconciliation Act of 2005. Jindal voted for that too...and thus supported:

$11.4 Billion in cuts in Medicaid and SCHIP (State Children's Health Insurance Program)
$14.3 Billion in cuts in Student Loans
$1.8 Billion in cuts in Farm and conservation programs
$3.2 Billion from repeal of Byrd Amendment that provides aid to local employers hurt by foreign trade violators

After Democrats gained control of Congress after the 2006 elections Jindal's voting record took an interesting turn.

The man so worried about the burden on our nations kids, supported spending bills 9 times, opposed them 15 times, and had the courage to not even vote 29 times.

So while Republicans chastise President Obama for voting present on a handful of votes, their new poster child for fiscal conservatism, failed to even vote 29 times.

He failed to vote on 53% of spending bills in 2007.

And this is the guy the GOP sent up to scold Democrats?

Morbildly Obese Levels of Spending?

Congresswoman Bachmann dropped that bomb this morning on Fox news, describing the "Economic Surge" by saying it had "morbidly obese levels of spending".

She also discussed that it was difficult for her to look at 20 or 25 year old in the face and tell them that this package was good for them.

While I have some problems with the package, I do believe that we need to do something. We cannot collectively sit on our hands and hope that Adam Smith and his invisible hand rescue our troubled economy.

After 8 years (6 of which under strong Conservative control) of failed Bush foreign and domestic policy, corporate waste fraud and abuse, and no accountability, an invisible hand will do nothing to right this sinking vessel.

A strong and tight fist is what we need.

Now back to Congresswoman Bachmann...

She can't look a 20 or 25 year old in the face and tell them this is good for them. Gotcha Michele, although that's pretty hard when one rarely sees the Congresswoman in district and when she does come back, it's via a first class flight.

The hypocrisy kills me here...

So, spending nearly a trillion dollars in Iraq, first destroying it and now rebuilding it, meanwhile having no accountability for the Military Industrial Complex and it's war profiteer's Halliburton, Blackwater and other defense contractors is a good physically fit, fat free way of spending?

Spending money to create jobs and help Americans impacted by 8 years of failed Bush foreign and domestic policy is the fast food version, a "morbidly obese" way to spend?

Ok...

By the way, the next time Congresswoman Bachmann steps into the 6th to look a 20 or 25 year old in the face may well be here first!

On those kitchen table conversations...

A bunch of right wing groups have come together and put up a website to propose actions to fix our state's budget deficit.

It's a veritable who's who of Minnesota conservative organizations, headlined by Minnesota Majority, Minnesota Family Council, and the Taxpayers League.

The website has an excel function that allows you to cut each area of the state budget to trim down the $4.8 billion deficit.

We've heard numerous Republican legislators parrot Governor Pawlenty's line about families having tough conversations at the kitchen table.

That part is true, we are having those conversations. We're cutting back on eating out and other activities, relying on some of our savings as well.

But the Republican leadership fails to recognize the other part of the conversation.

We're looking at how to raise "revenue" as well. I'll work more hours at work or maybe take on some more part time work opportunities.

Increasing the revenue side of the picture has to be in play and the folks at Minnesota Budget Solutions refuse to even acknowledge that possibility.

I get it, you don't want to raise taxes, even for those in the Top 1%.

But please, don't play this silly game that real Minnesotans are only having conversations about what to cut.