An amazing and unexpected turnaround
Published 7:59 am Sunday, January 8, 2012
Column: Capitol Conversations, by Rich Murray
I hope you and your families have had a wonderful holiday season. State lawmakers were lucky enough to receive an early Christmas present at the start of this month when economists projected an $876 million surplus for the state of Minnesota over the next year.
Lots of people were expecting a $500 million deficit, so I was pleasantly surprised to hear this good news.
This past session, the Legislature made it a priority to spend only the amount of revenue it was projected to collect. This is the main reason for our budget surplus — the first in several years. Tightening our belts in areas such as health and human services — where projected growth was well in the double digits — saved the taxpayers $348 million.
Lawmakers made a lot of tough decisions on this budget, and they’re not going to get any easier going forward. Just because we have a surplus now doesn’t mean there’s extra money to spend. We still have to pay back a school shift and replenish the reserve funds we have in this state. We can’t afford to go on a spending spree.
Under different legislative leadership four years ago, the majority was handed a $2 billion surplus. The decisions made at that time caused years of record budget deficits in Minnesota. This Legislature is going to learn from that mistake and will not repeat it.
Taking a $5.1 billion budget deficit and turning it into a nearly $1 billion surplus in just a few months time was certainly unexpected by almost everyone. But it shows that cutting the growth of government will help balance a budget and help Minnesota’s economy get back on its feet. Now that the groundwork has been laid, the Legislature needs to keep working hard and find even more ways to reduce spending and reform government.
Day care unionization raising questions
Day care providers and parents are likely wondering what the future holds since Gov. Mark Dayton signed an executive order calling for an election among private, in-home day care providers to determine if they should unionize.
As part of the order, the governor prohibited more than 60 percent of providers statewide from casting a ballot. Of the 11,000 providers across the state, Gov. Dayton limited this election to the 4,287 licensed in-home child care providers who currently receive state subsidies. This has many day care providers concerned as unionization may ultimately impact them in the future, yet they may not have a say in the matter.
To me, day care providers are small business owners. They decide what hours they put in, what kind of business they want to run, how many kids to take in, and whether or not to hire people. When is it appropriate for a governor to come in and say any small business must become part of a union?
Not long ago, some of these providers asked a judge to issue a temporary restraining order to halt the election. On Dec. 5, a judge ruled Gov. Dayton’s order was “unprecedented and lawless,” and exceeded his scope of authority. Because of this, the day care union election talk has been temporarily stopped until January.
If you have concerns with this process, I urge you to contact the governor at 800-657-3717 and express them.
Working to help small businesses
Recently, I’ve been working with a bipartisan group of lawmakers that have a goal of improving the business climate in Minnesota. The task of the Small Business Caucus is to help create jobs and to make our state more competitive in the marketplace.
We have begun to formulate an agenda for next session, which includes initiatives that will help entrepreneurs with startup costs, and to continue reforming our current laws to eliminate the red tape that hinders business in our state. As we move forward, I will be sure to keep you updated on the progress of the Small Business Caucus and the legislation we plan to support as the 2012 legislative session begins.
Rich Murray, R-Albert Lea, is the state representative for House District 27A.