Politic Run Amok

This is the sad story of how partisan politics hurt everyone equally across the board. We all know about the party driven political gridlock of 2011 that led to the shutdown of Minnesota’s government for 20 days. What you may not know is the truth behind the so-called “solution” to that embarrassing episode and how it is crushing our state. It went like this: To close the budget gap the legislative leadership borrowed $2.4 billion from the education budget. Minnesota is only one of two states, the other being California (and we all know how bad off California is financially) following this short sighted economic path. $2.4 billion represents 40% of Minnesota’s education budget, more than twice what California borrowed from its education budget. The government reopened, citizens went back to work and construction on public projects began in earnest. And Minnesota’s coveted AAA bond rating dropped to AA+. A report from Fitch Ratings says the downgrade was a result of the state's "reliance on non-recurring gap-closing measures over the course of the recession," the "contentious budgeting environment" over the past few years, and the likelihood that the eventual solution will not be a permanent fix to the state budget problems. What does this mean to Minnesota? It will be harder for the state and cities to borrow money and more expensive. In trickle down terms, this means it is now harder for small businesses to sustain jobs and large employers to have comfort in our state's fiscal security. Equally as important, this means our schools have been robbed of essential funding with no apparent fiscally sound way to pay this money back. And, not surprisingly, our budget problems still have not been fixed. This abject failure to place real Minnesotan's interests first rests solely on the shoulders of the legislative leadership. They are not listening to you. Partisan politics still abound. Enough is enough. If elected I will go to St. Paul and foster the open conversations vital for the creation of permanent solutions.