That didn’t happen. 

Instead, there were first tier reductions made in spending bills that the Governor signed; some promised revenue shifts and no new revenue sources to bridge the remaining gap. There is still a budget gap for the next biennium and we are now entering into territory never before experienced in Minnesota (or any other state that we could tell). The governor, with advice from his administrative leadership, needs to fill in the gap remaining by second tier cutting/slashing/slicing the spending side of ledger. We do know what the unallotment statutory authority says; what we don’t know today is who gets sliced and how badly. 

The small “no-new taxes” group at the Capitol on Monday was ecstatic even though they may not have thought through the consequences such as double digit hikes in college tuition, or lines out the door at hospital emergency rooms…. Most all other groups tied to education or most health and human services programs are holding their breath while closed door meetings are being held to discuss their fate. The governor said final decisions have not been made regarding possible impacts to state programs, but areas could include government-subsidized health care programs, welfare, and other social services; K-12 and higher education; and local government aid. 

The gap to be filled is about $2.7 billion, with about half of that “taken care of” through a date shift in payments to local schools. Moving the K-12 payment from June 30 to July 1, 2010 may help solve half of the gap for this biennium but it only delays the talks for another session. One of the reports indicates that $250 million of the reductions would need to come out of the health and human services arena; over $150 million from higher education, and the rest spread across other spending areas. Those reductions are on top of the reductions that have already been signed into law: nearly $1 billion out of the health and human services arena if you count the savings from the omnibus bill and the savings from the elimination of the general assistance medical care program the second half of the biennium.    

We are spending a lot of our time now asking questions and searching for answers. Here are a few on the question side of the ledger:   

Will we be cut (again) and how much? 

When will we know what our fate will be so we can begin planning? 

Can Governor Pawlenty legally make some/all of these spending cuts? 

Can my legislator at all influence this next step of the process? 

How could we be in a situation where one person could unilaterally cut out entire programs that serve a constituency reliant on these programs? 

Will the governor even consider new ideas at this stage of the session as he indicates on his website: “Governor Pawlenty and his cabinet are working to balance Minnesota's budget.  To send the Governor's Office an email with your budget balancing suggestions, please email budgetideas@state.mn.us. 

We have already done outreach to the administration and to legislative leaders sticking with the messages that have worked so far: economic impact for communities; access to care; and jobs, jobs, jobs. We continue to discuss next steps because we don’t want to be the “victims” when the plans for unallotment are made public—in other words, if we go down, we will go down fighting. 

If you have any ideas that you want me to forward to the administration on budget balancing feel free to email me or post on this blog.