Shannon Savick ‘s evaluation of the last session has a few holes in it. The Republicans balanced the budget without tax increases and also tried to pay schools back for funds shifted by previous sessions including Democratic-controlled legislatures in the past. Gov. Mark Dayton vetoed the payback for political reasons. All-day kindergarten funding was mostly a shift of the money from higher grade levels to kindergarten with little net gain to the schools’ funding.

The Republican budget gave us the growth we see in the economy we have now. The next two years will show effects of the current budgets and their overreach of taxes; they have already seen the consequences of tax on repair of farm equipment, professional services taxes and their warehouse taxes. They may say they will correct these mistakes, but they will continue their “I’ve never seen a tax I didn’t like” attitude. The economic strength she talks about seems centered in the metro area where her political funding comes from, not in outstate Minnesota where her constituents live.

 

John Forman

Albert Lea