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Legislators close session without budget deal
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By RUTH ANN HAGER
Staff Writer

WASECA — Lawmakers are back home in their districts but the full impact of the Minnesota legislative session that just ended remains unknown.

After months of committee meetings, hearings and votes in the House and Senate, the session ended at midnight Monday with no budget compromise. The projected state revenue is $3 billion less than the spending bills sent to the Governor Tim Pawlenty, who has said he intends to use unallotment to reach a balanced budget without legislative assistance.

He has promised no special session, government shut down or tax increases. He said areas to cut could include health care programs, welfare, other social services, k-12 and higher education and local government aid.

Rep. Kory Kath, DFL-Owatonna, said the Governor can unallot where he wants to and has a very large series of cuts to make.

Based on formulas and prior expenditures, the budget cuts could trim $1.7 million from the Waseca Medical Center, as well as Local Government Aid to cities, but the numbers are not yet firm.

“But it is going to come,” Kath said. While the Governor must alert legislators 20 days before any unallotment, they can’t do anything about it because session is over, Kath said.


“What we need to do is, come February, we’re ready to shore up any of the crisis created by the unallotments.”

Cuts to LGA are a “realty” for Pawlenty, Kath said.

“It frightens me and it’s exactly why I ran [for the House]. I wanted to protect LGA. Our communities count on this money and this is important to our small communities.”

Waseca City Manager Crystal Prentice said Waseca’s LGA cuts could be $311,350 in 2009 and $650,154 in 2010 if the Governor’s January plan is followed. In Janesville, according to Rep. Tony Cornish, R-Good Thunder, LGA could be cut $150,000 to $200,000 unless smaller cities are spared by the unallotment formula.

If cities want to continue the services they now offer, residents may see property tax increases because of unallotment, Kath said.

“We want to keep taxes in check and not burden people in these tough economic times,” said Kath, who calls himself a fiscal moderate.

Sen. Dick Day, R-Owatonna, said he is not yet sure what the session will mean to his constituents.

The Governor has already cut $381 million used to reimburse hospitals for the care of low income Minnesotans. By the time that cut goes into effect in 2011, Day said, more people will have moved to Minnesota Care.

And because cuts to LGA are not finalized, “We don’t know how bad that will be.”

But Day said more people in his district have lost their jobs in the past three or four months than in the 15 years he has been in office. And the state is doing the opposite of what the federal government is doing, he said.

While President Obama said 95 percent of the people would get a tax cut, the DFL tax bill would have increased taxes on 85 percent of Minnesotans, Day said.

“It’s just not a good time to tax people. We need to put people back to work.”

He is happy with the commitment to complete Highway 14 studies and hopes for stimulus money to keep building when the Waseca to Owatonna stretch of the road is complete.

Day thinks cities and counties are “a year or so away” from coming out of the present economy.

“We’ll work our way through all this. It affects Waseca and Owatonna just the same; we’ve got major problems but we’ll row together.”

Day said he gained 10 more supporters of his racino proposal to raise state revenue and he’ll likely try it again next year.

“In my district, they’re all going down to Iowa to gamble,” he said.

“We’ll find out where the Governor is cutting and whether there are things we can weigh in on and help solve. We’re going through tough times but I’m still optimistic,” Day said. “In the next week, we should find out a lot more detail.”

Kath said he is disappointed with the way the session ended.

“I really wanted to come to a compromise and walk out with our heads held high; now we’re left with uncertainty for the coming months,” he said. “But I am so honored to have served and to have been a strong voice for southern Minnesota.”

He is proud of seven bills carrying his name that will become law, including help for teachers to obtain re-licensure, funding for the Waseca wastewater treatment plant and Farmamerica and a bill guaranteeing completion of environmental studies for the next phases of Highway 14.

“The Governor signed all of our bills; he liked our framework and accepted our policy. In the end it came down to where additional cuts need to be made.”



Ruth Ann Hager is at 507- 837-5446 or rhager@wasecacountynews.com.

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Welcome to the Waseca County News community. Please keep your comments civil. Don't attack other readers personally and keep your language decent. We reserve the right to delete comments at any time.

Member Opinions:
By: needtoknow on 5/23/09
Does Day really believe Obama when he says 95% of the people will have a tax cut? I haven't seen anything encouraging coming out of Washington. There is so much dishonesty and there is nothing bipartisan.
What is going to happen to America?

By: Caddyman on 5/20/09
Well the other thing is this, for the economic situation we are in there were a few pork projects that should have been left out. Indigenous earthkeepers, earthworm funding???? Also its my understanding that the cuts were a decrease in the increased funding. To me that says ok timmy last year we gave you 5 dollars a week allowance and maybe next year you'll get 8 dollars a week, ffwd a year, well its only going to be 7 dollars instead of the 8 we talked about. I commend the Governor, he was probably watching the coverage on TV as many of us were and was most likely disgusted at the way things were handled in the Senate and the House.

By: needtoknow on 5/20/09
If the lawmakers don't like the way the session ended, they should get their work done on time. It seems that every year it's the same story and ends in a special session with the cost to the taxpayer. If they can't get their work done on time which they know from day one, they should have to stay and finish without extra pay. Then just once they might get done on time with all work done.



 
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