My Point of View by Shannon Savick

Editor’s note: The My Point of View column, an alternating column by local Democrats and Republicans, normally prints on Tuesdays. It will return to Tuesday next week. 

A recent column writer took a pessimistic view of Minnesota’s economy and used some inaccurate information to make her case. I wanted to correct some of the facts and talk about the important work we are doing to keep making progress for our community and state.

I am proud of our work at the state Legislature to once again make education a top priority. We’ve been able to reverse a decade of cuts and shifts and pay back all of the money borrowed from our schools by the previous Legislature.

And while the previous column seemed to imply that funding would go down after this year, the exact opposite is true. Schools in our district will receive $5.2 million in new funding over this two-year budget. That will be a 3.5 percent increase after years of cuts and shifts. That funding will help fund all-day kindergarten for the first time in Minnesota history.

The column writer also included some misleading information about taxes and our budget. We balanced last year’s budget with some new tax revenue — but it was almost entirely through closing corporate tax loopholes, cigarette taxes and income taxes on the top 2 percent of income earners in Minnesota.

In Freeborn County, that means 117 individuals who are earning over $150,000 per year on their own or more than $250,000 as a couple will pay a little more in income taxes. The benefits of last year’s budget will be felt by so many more.

It will be felt by families sending their children to fully funded all-day kindergarten or to a college with frozen tuition. It will be felt by workers who are getting much needed job training through state funded programs at our tech schools. And we were able to balance our budget honestly and pay back our schools.

Perhaps most notably, since we are talking about taxes, we are actually cutting taxes for hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of middle-class Minnesotans. Statewide, property taxes are going down this year for the first time in more than a decade, in large part because the Legislature provided new resources to property tax refunds for homeowners and renters.

And with our budget surplus this year, we followed up with more middle-class tax cuts. We believe reducing tax burdens on middle-class families will help our economy and state grow. It is certainly better tax policy for our area than the tax policy from the previous Legislature, which protected the wealthiest few while raising property taxes on most Minnesotans.

Lastly, I’d like to respond to the doom-and-gloom notion that Minnesota’s economy is not doing well or that jobs are fleeing our state. The truth is that Minnesota’s economy is growing. Since last year, we have created about 50,000 jobs. In Freeborn County, our employment has dropped from 6.7 percent in January 2013 down to 5.7 percent now. Just this week, it was announced that Minnesota’s labor force had grown to 3 million Minnesotans — an all-time high.

I have confidence and faith in Minnesota’s businesses and hard-working Minnesotans who have helped Minnesota’s economy grow. I am glad we are seeing progress and we should continue to work at the Legislature to help us build on this momentum.

In the final weeks of the session, I am hopeful we can pass a strong bonding bill for our community, and I am also hopeful we can pass a budget bill that funds job creation, property tax relief for family farmers and tax cuts for the Minnesota families and businesses who drive our economy forward.

In our community and throughout the state, I believe brighter times are ahead.

 

Shannon Savick, DFL-Wells, is the state representative for District 27A, which includes Freeborn County, the eastern tier of townships in Faribault County, Blooming Prairie and small portions of Dodge and Mower counties.