State Representative David Bly, MN District 25B

A thorough and informative article was published by Doug Grow from Minnpost.com titled “Budget forecast highlights the vastly different federal stimulus views of Pawlenty and state economist.” 

As it states in the article, Gov. Pawlenty has been in “attack mode” regarding almost everything the Obama administration has been doing including the federal stimulus money.  However, quietly praising his approval of what Washington has done is Minnesota’s own State Economist Tom Stinson.  Even Pawlenty’s commissioner of the Office of Budget and Management, Tom Hanson, agrees that the feds’ stimulus money has had a positive impact on putting signs of life back into Minnesota’s economy.

 Stinson noted that economic signs now are far better than those seen last summer and credits the Federal stimulus as a spending tool that has had a big impact on turning the economy around.  He further stated that “without federal action we’d be losing jobs big time.  The recession would have been extended for a year, at least.”

 Also in the article Gov. Pawlenty is quoted as saying “My critique of stimulus spending is that it should have been focused differently.”  A favorite plan promoted by Pawlenty is reducing taxes for corporations and small businesses in order to hire more workers.  A video interview with business icon Warren Buffett contradicts this suggestion, when he says more money to people like him will not increase the spending he already does.  More money to the middle class will promote spending, thus promoting demand, thus promoting jobs.  A similar message is penned in today’s column by Paul Krugman in the New York Times.  “.. the Congressional Budget Office says that aid to the unemployed is one of the most effective forms of economic stimulus, as measured by jobs created per dollar of outlay.”

The Star Tribune reported on the failure of the legislature to override a veto of a bill which would have stopped the transfer of 32,000 people from General Assistance Medicare to MinnesotaCare.  Since many of those covered by GAMC are veterans, or homeless, or people who suffer from mental illness, MinnesotaCare may not adequately address their needs.  The legislation would have addressed needed reforms to GAMC and these have also been vetoed. A chart is linked here to view the issues.  As reported in the article, House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher and House Minority Leader Kurt Zellers will continue to work on a better solution than the automatic transfer which is scheduled to take place on April 1.

On Monday, March 15, at 9:00 AM the Minnesota Supreme Court will address the arguments for and against the unallotments made to the budget by Governor Pawlenty.

In a Friend of the Court Brief from the League of Minnesota Cities, an argument is made that the legislature, when passing the unallotment statute in 1939, does not intend a result that is absurd or unreasonable. Basically, courts shouldn’t allow an absurd interpretation of legislation when a reasonable one can be applied. Quoting from page 23 of the brief:

if unallotment authority can be triggered based on purely subjective standards, a governor could hypothetically choose to unallot an appropriation that he first rejected using his line-item veto even after the legislature has voted to override that veto. Or a governor could hypothetically choose to unallot and reorder appropriation priorities based on any type of report demonstrating a decline in receipts by as little as $ 1. Finally, it is truly absurd to think that the legislature would have ever intended to relinquish its constitutional power of appropriation to the executive branch at the beginning of the biennium when there has simply been a breakdown in budget negotiations.

In another Friend of the Court brief filed by the Minnesota House of Representatives, the argument is made that the Governor exceeded his constitutional authority. Page 18 quotes the Constitution:

Because the power to veto is located in article IV, the power “is an exception to the authority granted to the legislature” and “must be narrowly construed to prevent an unwarranted usurpation by the executive powers granted the legislature in the first instance.”

The brief filed on behalf of the Governor argues in turn that

At their core, these arguments attempt to impose requirements – such as the statute only applies to small, unanticipated deficits arising late in the biennium – found nowhere in section l6A.152. Respondents and amici rely on purported conditions in the statute that simply do not exist.

The Sustainable Farming Association of Minnesota held its 19th annual conference at St. Olaf College on Saturday, February 20th.  SFA’s mission is to support the development and enhancement of sustainable farming systems through innovation, demonstration, education, and farmer-to-farmer networking.  Mark Richie, Minnesota Secretary of State gave the keynote address “Farming 2020, A Sustainable Vision.”  The conference theme was Sustainable Farming 2020: What does it look like?  How do we get there? I participated in the panel discussion entitled “Ten Years On: Climate Change, Peak Oil and the Sustainable Farm.”

On Friday I attended the Minnesota Renewable Energy Society 30th Anniversary Gala and Fundraiser at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in St. Paul.  The event Master of Ceremonies was Don Shelby from WCCO 4 News, music was provided by acoustic folk and jazzy reggae artist Michael Monroe and the food was locally grown.  The keynote speaker was Paul Hawken, environmentalist and author.  One of Paul’s books, Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution,  co-authored with Amory Lovins, was named one of the five most important books in the world by Bill Clinton. 

The purpose of the evening was to celebrate the past 30 years of accomplishments and to create progressive dialogue about the challenges we will be facing for the next thirty years.  Mr. Hawken’s message centers on the ongoing movement to partner with a diversity of organizations to work together towards a sustainable, energy-secure society.  An enlightening video of one of his speeches can be viewed online at FORAtv’s website.

Today chair of the Capital Investment committee, Rep. Alice Hausman presented the House Bonding Bill and I have been receiving e-mails about my coming vote on the bill. Most of them use a draft provided by the group Minnesota Majority. These drafts seem to confuse bonding and general fund expenditures.

I came upon a good explanation of the difference from Rep. Paul Gardner and thought I would share it with you:

A blurb about the bonding bill

Mid-February will see passage by the Minnesota House of the capital investment or “bonding” bill. I’m already getting a lot of e-mail (generated–I think–by a GOP or conservative group action alert) about the bill, so I thought it would be a good time to review what the bonding bill is.

Every two years the Legislature and Governor work on this bill to provide funding for publicly owned buildings, property, and land. In particular, state agencies have buildings or property that are in need of repair, renovation, or replacement. . . (read more)

Many writers also want to compare the state budget to their own family household budget and I found this editorial from the Winona paper really helpful in understanding the difference:

Darrell Ehrlick: State budget isn’t anything like my family’s

By Darrell Ehrlick / Winona Daily News | Posted: Sunday, February 7, 2010 12:20 am

“So, son, did you build a road today?” That’s a question Ward Cleaver never asked the Beav.

But it’s a question politicians are beginning to ask as an election year begins.

It seems that many politicians love the analogy of government’s revenue and spending plans being like a family budget.

And my response is: Government is nothing like a family budget.

Excuse me. I should say, there is a similarity: They both take money.

After that, the analogy ends. . . (read more)

Work is being done on repealing the Governor’s authority to delay payments to school districts. Bills sent to the K-12 Education Finance Committee (HF 2645 and HF 2783) would preclude future governors from using a 1986 law to borrow from school districts. So far the state has used the law to borrow over $400 million from schools as an interest free loan so the state could pay its bills.

According to a February 2, 2010, article in MinnPost.com, the National Conference of State Legislatures ranked Minnesota number two in states (behind Alaska) that relied most heavily on one-time solutions for budget gaps for 2010. MinnPost reported that the loan

“was a high-stakes bet on recovery from the recession, a strategy for buying time until revenues rebounded. Now it looks like a losing bet. The revenue nightmare persists in state after state along with stubbornly high unemployment. Indeed, rather than turning around as the recession ends, the revenue plunge continues in Minnesota and most other states.”

Please see the page called “Survey” in the sidebar to the immediate right. We’ve added a new survey. As always, Representative David Bly is glad to hear from constituents.

For your convenience, here’s the survey information:

Just print, fill in, and mail this NEW 2010 Top Issues Survey which asks for your opinion about important issues.

The Capital Investment Bill introduced on Thursday focuses on job creation, funding for Minnesota State colleges and universities and additional monies for buses and light rail. The HF2700 Bonding Bill Spreadsheet_1 presents a list of projects and proposed funding levels being considered. You can follow the progress of the Bill on the Minnesota House of Representatives’ website.