After weeks of endless whinging from the DFL (“where is the GOP’s budget?\u00a0 Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh?”), the GOP Senate Caucus released its budget targets…<\/p>\n
…weeks and weeks earlier than the DFL majorities did in the past two biennia.<\/p>\n
Here’s the press release:<\/p>\n
Leaders of the Senate Republican Majority Caucus have announced their budget targets for their forthcoming proposal to solve the state\u2019s budget deficit. The overall budget spending level is set at roughly $34 billion for the 2012-13 biennial budget.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur caucus is committed to living within our means and not raising taxes,\u201d said Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch (R-Buffalo).<\/p>\n
The targets announced by the Senate Republican Majority protect funding levels for education, health and human services and increases funding for the judiciary.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese targets protect the core constitutional requirements of state government. However, we absolutely have to scale back in the projected growth and spending,\u201d said Senator Claire Robling (R-Jordan).<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are appropriate spending levels for 21st Century state government,\u201d said Deputy Majority Leader Geoff Michel (R-Edina).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Scraaaaaaaaaatch<\/em><\/p>\n
Wait – Geoff Michel?<\/p>\n
I thought the GOP was ruthlessly excising dissenters?\u00a0 That’s what the DFL says!<\/p>\n
Of course, they also have spent the last two months chanting about an “all-cuts budget”.<\/p>\n
I guess everything the DFL says is suspect, huh?<\/p>\n
Back to the presser:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will be incorporating substantial, real reform measures in our budget package to meet these budget targets. It is imperative that we reform and change the way government operates in order to contain runaway, autopilot spending increases and grow the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moving forward, Senate Committees will continue hearing bills in a timely manner in order to meet the earliest committee deadlines in recent history. March 25 is the final date for finance committees and divisions to report appropriations bills. April 29th is set as the final date for committees to act favorable on bills in their house of origin and May 6th is the final date to advance bills or companions of bills that met the first deadline in the other house.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Here’s the big chart; today’s targets are blue, Dayton’s “Dustbowl” budget is red:<\/p>\n
\n\n
\n <\/td>\n Adjusted FY 2010-2011 (with Stimulus & Edu Shifts)<\/strong><\/td>\n FY 2012-2013 Proposed Spending – Feb. Forecast<\/strong><\/td>\n FY 2012-2013 Senate Proposed Spending Change<\/strong><\/td>\n FY 2012-2013 from Adjusted FY 2010-2011<\/strong><\/td>\n Governor Dayton Proposed Spending*<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Education<\/td>\n $13,812,526<\/td>\n $14,321,912<\/td>\n $14,297,039<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n 3.5%<\/td>\n $14,382,958<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Education Shifts<\/td>\n <\/td>\n $1,301,683<\/td>\n ($138,975)<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n <\/td>\n ($138,632)<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Education Net<\/td>\n $13,812,526<\/td>\n $15,623,595<\/td>\n $14,158,064<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n 2.5%<\/td>\n $14,244,326<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Higher Education<\/td>\n $2,982,217<\/td>\n $2,916,580<\/td>\n $2,505,518<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n -16.0%<\/td>\n $2,745,672<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Health & Human Services<\/td>\n $10,141,672<\/td>\n $12,337,837<\/td>\n $10,737,837<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n 5.9%<\/td>\n $12,189,349<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Agriculture & Rural Economies<\/td>\n $86,727<\/td>\n $89,396<\/td>\n $76,841<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n -11.4%<\/td>\n $78,162<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Environment, Energy, Commerce<\/td>\n $312,018<\/td>\n $293,463<\/td>\n $221,463<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n -29.0%<\/td>\n $268,314<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Jobs & Economic Growth $<\/td>\n 195,430<\/td>\n $168,246<\/td>\n $103,246
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n-47.2%<\/td>\n $166,822<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Transportation<\/td>\n $167,036<\/td>\n $180,158<\/td>\n $140,158<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n -16.1%<\/td>\n $177,804<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Judiciary & Public Safety<\/td>\n $1,858,125<\/td>\n $1,782,650<\/td>\n $1,792,650<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n -3.5% $<\/td>\n 1,821,988<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n State Government Innovation & Veterans<\/td>\n $884,330<\/td>\n $912,922<\/td>\n $412,922<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n -53.3%<\/td>\n $916,721<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Tax Aids & Credits Spending<\/td>\n $3,018,752<\/td>\n $3,507,726<\/td>\n $2,727,726<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n -9.6%<\/td>\n $3,507,934<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Debt Service, Capital Projects, Cancellations<\/td>\n $867,116 $<\/td>\n 1,208,994<\/td>\n $1,148,994
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n32.5%<\/td>\n $1,175,525<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Other\/Reserves<\/td>\n $274,665<\/td>\n <\/td>\n $242,262<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n <\/td>\n $138,665<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Total General Fund Spending<\/td>\n $34,600,614<\/strong><\/td>\n $39,021,567<\/strong><\/td>\n $34,267,681<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n -1.0%<\/strong><\/td>\n $37,431,282<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n You’ll note that it’s not an “all cuts” budget – the DFL meme that the compliant media has been going along and using for the past two months.\u00a0\u00a0 The Tea Party would have liked <\/em>to have seen some cuts – but the important part is, the budget lives within the government’s forecast revenue<\/em>.<\/p>\n
The other important part?\u00a0 This is just the beginning.\u00a0 Our government, as Amy Koch pointed out in her statement, needs to get away from its current funding model, with its “autopilot” spending increases.<\/p>\n
King Banaian’s bill, HF2, will be a big next step on that.\u00a0 As we get into the budget brouhaha, we’ll need people to start keeping the pressure up on their Reps and Senators to push this bill along – or we’ll just be repeating this past three biennia, with automatic forecasts being turned into bloated budgets and absurd deficits.<\/p>\n
There’s plenty of work to do, here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After weeks of endless whinging from the DFL (“where is the GOP’s budget?\u00a0 Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh?”), the GOP Senate Caucus released its budget targets… …weeks and weeks earlier than the DFL majorities did in the past two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[144,2,123],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-governor","category-minnesota-politics","category-taxes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18726"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18729,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18726\/revisions\/18729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}