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While the governor dropped his “no new taxes” pledge in 2006, he has not dropped it as a slogan, neither has he changed the way his administration does business.
Now, look at what six years of saying no has bought us: A state that has become mediocre in education; a state that struggles to keep up with health and human services; a state that has crumbling bridges and roads; a state that has used up what goodwill and good governance had put up for store in the cupboard of government, and now, those shelves are bare.
When Pawlenty unveiled his budget on Friday, contained within it were a lot of “nos.” The Pawlenty administration appears to be saying “no” to higher education, even though just a couple of years ago Pawlenty had been touting free higher education in the state of Minnesota as a means to combating the “brain drain” that seems to pull Minnesota’s best and brightest high school students out of state for good.
He’s said no to health and human services, even though the number of uninsured continues to rise, making healthcare less and less affordable for everyone. And, he’s said no to the already backlogged, overworked court system.
When the budget rolled out, everyone knew there’d be some belt-tightening and cuts. What we didn’t expect is the governor to make a bad situation even worse. As Rep. Ken Tschumper, DFL-La Crescent, rightly suggested, it seems like Pawlenty is playing revenge politics after the transportation bill override. Hanging in the balance are the state agencies.
Pawlenty asked the Legislature to ease up on the state sales tax — reduce it by one-eighth of 1 percent. If passed, this would mean the state would be another $77 million in the hole.
In this case, the governor would also do well to remember the word “no.”
No one has asked nor is anyone calling on reducing the state sales tax.
And, no one will notice the reduction, which means about three cents on every $20 spent. It means about two-tenths of a mile of gas in a car that gets 30 miles per gallon. It means you’d have to spend $800 before you’d see your savings move from the cents to the dollar category.
No one — except for Pawlenty — seems to believe that you can get out of an economic hole by digging deeper. And, reducing the sales tax would only be driving the state farther into debt.
But we also like the word “no.”
We say “no” to the governor’s idea of how to cure the state shortfall. No to the idea of using one-time state reserves to balance a budget. That money won’t be there next year and it only delays what could be the inevitable one more year. By that time, with Pawlenty’s rumored vice-presidential run, Tim could be long-gone, but we’ll be in the same old mess.
We say “no” to cutting a tax that no one feels. To believe the insignificant one-eighth of 1 cent will somehow ease pressure on families is a dream of an overactive imagination. It means that a household spending $80,000 a year would get $100 in return. Not exactly big relief.
It’s no way to deal with the present and even less of a way to fund the future.
What we’re seeing around the state is not just the product of cooling economic times. What we’re seeing is the legacy of no. No new taxes really means no new roads, no new education funding, no new help to those who really need it and no new innovative ideas from the state that seemed to coin the word progressive and define quality of life.
By Darrell Ehrlick, editor, on behalf of the Winona Daily News editorial board, which also includes publisher Rusty Cunningham and online editor Jerome Christenson. To comment, call (507) 453-3507 or send e-mail to letters@winonadailynews.com.
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