Last Years’ Model

I talked with a MN state legislator last night. It was a Republican from the western suburbs of the Twin Cities, by the way, although not one who is regarded as among the most conservative of the lot (and before anyone asks, it was not Rep. Banaian).

Being somewhat new to having interest in the budget process, I wanted to know more about the “Fiscal Notes” that the Democrats are yapping about.

Is the GOP bypassing them because they are products of Minnesota Management and Budget (MMB), which is a partisan office (its head, Jim Schowalter, was appointed by Gov. Dayton, who can also remove him).

“That’s part of it”, the legislator responded. But there’s more.

More important than the partisanship is the fact, says the legislator, that MMB’s modeling does not account for savings to be realized by budget changes. The models they use for calculating costs of budget iteams, in addition to being weighted toward racking up costs, do not (says the legislator) account for the money to be saved by the changes. For example, MMB’s response to the GOP’s plan to consolidate the state’s Information Technology (IT) operations, in addition to the absurd cost projections (ten people, tens of millions of dollars), ignored the savings the consolidation would cause.

Now – did the savings get ignored because the MMB’s process isn’t designed to find them, or did they get ignored because MMB is run by a Dayton appointee whose employment depends on keeping his boss happy, ergo defeating the GOP?

Distinction without a difference, I say.

Posted

April 7, 2011

Minnesota Politics, MN Legislature, The Incredible Shrinking Governor

Mitch Berg

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Comments

6 responses to “Last Years’ Model”

Kermit

April 7, 2011

Wow, ten people, tens of millions of dollars for an IT project? $500,000 per FTE over a biennium? Man, I’d do it for a paltry $300,000.
Terry

April 7, 2011

In my state the democrat governor and the democrat legislature are voting today to increase the sales tax from 4% to 5%.
The sales tax in Hawaii is really an excise tax. It is applied to everything — food, clothing, even doctors visits and medical prescriptions.
The tax is very regressive. It hits the poor, the working class and the middle class much, much harder than it hits the rich.
Never forget that the party of government wants YOUR money. They would take every penny of it if they could.
bosshoss429

April 7, 2011

“The tax is very regressive. It hits the poor, the working class and the middle class much, much harder than it hits the rich.”

And yet, the useful idiots keep voting DemonRAT. Classic!
Kermit

April 7, 2011

It hits the poor, the working class and the middle class
Dirty little secret: Democrats don’t give a shit about the poor, the working class and the middle class. As long as they keep voting Democrat. When they stop, they get called “teabaggers”.
Terry

April 7, 2011

You can tell what the state legislature is going to do here by watching the public employee unions. They know that their income depends on state revenue, and they know that state revenue is going to be flat or decrease for the foreseeable future. They have been calling for an increase in the GET for two years; they know that is the only way to avoid pay cuts and head count cuts for their members.
“Solidarity” is one way street for American unions; that’s why any working guy who is not a union member would be a fool to support them. Unions will screw a dollar out of poor and working people if by doing so they can make a nickel for their members. When they have to they will screw the least powerful members of the union to benefit the more powerful members. There is no “fairness” about it.
Shot in the Dark » Blog Archive » Chanting Points Memo: How Are They Bogus? Let Us Count The Ways

April 13, 2011

[…] is a billion dollars short – based on numbers from Minnesota Management and Budget. As we pointed out the other day, MMB is run by Commissioner Schowalter, who was appointed by Governor Dayton and serves at his […]