Getting Things Back on Track
By Senator Steve Green

As I’m sure many have already heard, the Governor’s bonding and budget proposals have been released. In a previous column, I discussed at length what made them so troubling. To review: overspending, lack of accountability, and using our most vulnerable as scapegoats. To remind everyone, the budget proposal included tax “cuts” coupled with increased fees, and managed everything in a way that passes costs on to counties. That means higher taxes for everyone. The bonding proposal was very close to what was proposed last year. We have a $5.1 billion deficit ready to hit our state – it’s not the time to spend, spend, spend like Governor Walz has done in the past. We have to rein it in. That means getting our economy moving again.

One of the top ways we can do this is by eliminating mandates. The top area that comes to mind is education – the 60+ mandates Democrats placed on our schools over the past two years were crippling. During power-sharing, Republicans co-chaired committees, including our Education committees. We took that opportunity to invite schools in to speak about the mandates. Every single hearing amounted to 2+ hours of schools begging for help. Democrats didn’t listen to schools’ concerns before these mandates, and they certainly aren’t listening now. Instead, they are passing the blame onto the federal government. Dozens of schools have made their concerns clear. If they don’t get relief, there will either be cuts to staff and budgets, or the costs will be incurred at the local level. Our kids don’t deserve that.

It’s more than just the schools. We need mandate relief in ALL areas, too – county governments, private citizens, etc. They are all burdensome. Something has to be done. Government has grown too much. It’s unsustainable.

We also need to address permitting reform issues. Minnesota is far behind other states in this issue area. In fact, it’s made us lose business to other states like North and South Dakota. We are months behind other states when it comes to permitting reforms. We already have the resources and workforce, but our government is impeding progress. This is not an issue area Democrats are interested in touching, and I find that very disappointing. We should be doing all we can to grow the job market and make Minnesota a desirable place to do business in. It surely isn’t now.

Again, we have a $5 billion deficit on the horizon. We went from a historic surplus to a massive deficit in just a few short years. We need to get serious about getting our economy back on track and it needs to happen now.

If you are concerned with these issues, I’m asking you to reach out to legislators to voice your opinions. Democrats have not listened to Republicans’ concerns, but they deserve to know what folks in our state are thinking.