Minnesotans, is there hope for the future?

[Deja Q]

http://www.carvercodfl.org/articles/strib_budget06_15_03.htm


7. State taxes didn't increase, but there's $400 million in new fees. Most of that is for health care and court services. The state's also "means testing" more services, which means higher payments are required from people with more ability to pay.

8. Projected spending for 2006-07 is understated by as much as $1 billion. The state counts inflation in the revenue forecast, but ignores it in the spending forecast. That camouflages the real future cost of meeting current program commitments.

9. The next budget is based on unrealistic assumptions. Education and health care are two-thirds of the budget, and typically account for all the growth. Despite the lack of meaningful cost reform, human services is projected to grow at half its historical rate, and school funding is projected to actually decline.

10. They didn't fix the problem. Almost two-thirds of the solutions for last year and this year rely on one-time reserves and accounting shifts, so ongoing revenue and spending are not balanced. The state will spend nearly $1 million a day more than it will take in during 2004-05, and that imbalance doesn't get much better in the next biennium. That means even more program cuts, regardless of what happens with the economy.


(read the article for #s 1-6, which are also pretty nasty...)

Hey Pawlenty, you did not inherit a problem. Your 5 years of straight tax cuts gave us the original massive deficit. Your smoke and mirrors shifting of one-time funds, half a bil in new fees (which is just another word for "taxes" if government is charging for the dough), is going to make you look bad when the next shortfall happens... How are you going to spin it this time? Fool us once, shame on us. Fool us twice, you're an idiot for thinking you could get away with it. Here's an idea: Put higher taxes on corporations who outsource. As a result, the corporate traitors will hire in the USA again with similarly paying jobs, which means more people get on the payroll which means more of us can pay taxes which help out EVERYBODY.

:scared: