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…um, scrap his first budget and start over.<\/p>\nAfter four months of demanding “details” from Tom Emmer, and a month of carping about the details that were actually released, Mark Dayton had to…<\/p>\n
…um, scrap his first budget and start over.<\/p>\n
The second try isn’t a whole lot better than the first.<\/p>\n
I’ll do a much more detailed analysis later, but at first blush, Dayton Dustbowl 2.0 isn’t much better than the first.<\/p>\n
Some key points:<\/p>\n
Shift This<\/strong>: Remember when Democrats, leftybloggers and the media (pardon the redundancy) excoriated Emmer for delaying repayment of “the shift” – the 1.4 billion of education budget pushed to future biennia in the last budget? \u00a0And now Dayton would never ever ever <\/em>do that? \u00a0Either do they; Dayton now puts delaying “repayment” on the table.<\/p>\n It’s Racist<\/strong>: We honkies took Minnesota from the Native Americans. \u00a0To give them a leg back up, the State of Minnesota has granted them an exclusive franchise on casinos. \u00a0Dayton wants to build a “racino” – a casino at the Canterbury Downs racetrack. In addition to breaking the state’s promise – “reparations”, if you will – with the victims of cracker perfidy, it’s likely the proposal to create such a casino would face huge legal and legislative hurdles. \u00a0It’s not so much a “plan” as it is “hope”. \u00a0Hope is not a plan. \u00a0And Dayton banks a lot <\/em>of money on this.<\/p>\n All Of The Worst Parts Of 1.0 – Still Right There!<\/strong>: It’s still going to jack up income taxes on upper-middle-class wage earners to almost 11 percent. \u00a0Not the “rich”, mind you – there’s nary a reference to trust funds anywhere in the budget. \u00a0It’s going to send more job creation out of state. \u00a0It’s going to send more than a few Minnesota businesses packing for more hospitable states. \u00a0It’s going to be a boon to South Dakota.<\/p>\n Some Of The “Savings” Aren’t<\/strong>: Dayton still claims that cutting state contractors will save hundreds of millions. \u00a0Of course, much of that work will sooner or later go to state employees, especially unionized ones. \u00a0Maybe not in the next biennium (maybe), but certainly the next one. \u00a0Today’s “cut” becomes tomorrow’s eternal entitlement.<\/p>\n It’s Still DOA<\/strong>: The legislature, as Phil Krinkie said, will never pass it. \u00a0In the last biennium, the legislature could only pass the current budget by one vote – that of Tarryl Clark. This with the DFL in control of two chambers of the Legislature, at the height of Obamamania. The next Legislature, with a chamber likely to flip and with the wind blowing against<\/em> profligate spending an taxing…<\/p>\n …well, you fill in the blanks.<\/p>\n