Open Letter to Gov. Pawlenty
By Mitch Berg
Well, it looks like you did it.
Unofficial estimates of the projected revenue surplus through June 2009 range up to $1.2 billion, a far cry from the $4.5 billion shortfall that greeted Gov. Tim Pawlenty and legislators in 2003, a hole the state has been digging out of practically ever since.
That heavy lifting has now been completed. More than $1 billion in state treasury reserves have been rebuilt from zero.
Some of the pundits were saying it was going to take a decade or more to unfuzzle the Ventura Deficit – the deficit that happened after a decade of cha-cha spending, including the madness of turning surpluses into permanent entitlement spending. When the recession of the early ’00s happened, it bit the government in the butt.
So now it’s time to open the checkbook and satisfy pent-up demand for government spending or tax cuts, right?
Not so fast, say some of the state’s fiscal guardians.
“There’s obviously going to be some good news in the forecast,” said state Finance Commissioner Peggy Ingison, who is scheduled to issue the much-anticipated figures at 10:30 a.m. today. “But we need to be prudent financial managers and increase our reserves so we protect ourselves against the potential downturn that could be just around the corner.”
While that might seem prudent on its face, it’s wrong; the “reserve” is the mass of unnecessary spending that clogs the state budget.
Governor Pawlenty; you need to move to give part of this surplus back to the people who paid it in. It might be impossible with the spendaholics in control of the Legislature this session.
All the more reason to try.
November 29th, 2006 at 12:06 pm
I would disagree to some extent. I think it makes sense to provide some of that surplus to fund the reserves that were raided in the past. I would also favor restoring some of the LGA to the cities, specifically to bolster the police budgets. They should also use some of the surplus to actually implement their solution to the 35/62 interchange. Lastly, they should use some of that money to help lower the college education costs that sky rocketed the past few years.
November 29th, 2006 at 9:28 pm
We can but hope.
You might point to any initiative of Timmy’s to reduce the headcount in any state program – I exclude the effect of cutting transfer payments to local government units. Of course, that’s their problem to layoff teachers and policemen. But where is one cut – just one – in his departments, one layoff, one cutback? Where, where, where?