Tearing down Traditional
Values
From: In the Long Run Some of
Last Year's Cuts Will Prove Pound Foolish
By Dave Hage, Star Tribune 2-1-04
"Last year… the Legislature
kicked thousands of people off subsidized health insurance, eliminated
Head Start slots for hundreds of poor children, decimated a pioneering
program to improve child-care quality and pulled the plug on a successful
campaign to reduce youth smoking….
The 2003 Legislature …
represented an abrupt departure from 30 years of bipartisan, long-term
thinking that had made Minnesota one of the healthiest and most prosperous
states in the nation.
Minnesota will pay for these
decisions -- in sicker people, weaker schools, a less competitive
workforce. Indeed, the state already is paying a price
[The] no-taxes solution [was]
a path that departed sharply from the pragmatic tradition that had
dominated Minnesota politics for more than a generation…
When Republican Gov. Al Quie
faced the last comparable deficit, in the early 1980s, he accepted
temporary tax increases as part of the solution. So did his successor,
DFLer Rudy Perpich. When Republican Arne Carlson faced a deficit caused by
the 1991 recession, he agreed to raise the state sales tax as part of a
deficit-reduction package.
Governors like Quie and
Carlson [were] descended from a long tradition of Minnesota moderates who
had designed elegant but tough-minded programs that saved money over the
long run and built a better state for their children….
Minnesota spends less per
capita on health care than the national average, even though it provides
coverage to more of its citizens than any other state. It posted sharp
declines in teen tobacco use while Ventura's Target Market campaign was on
the air. Minnesota ranks near the top among states in high school
graduation rates, student test scores and college attendance -- factors
that help explain its No. 7 national ranking in personal income.
When last year's Legislature
convened, conservatives argued that these much-admired programs had become
unaffordable…. But the "unsustainable" charge doesn't square with the
facts. The price of government -- state and local taxes as a share of
Minnesota income -- has been falling, not rising, for a decade. By 2003 it
had reached its lowest level in 13 years. Five years ago -- before a
series of permanent tax cuts and a national recession -- Minnesota was
operating the very same programs, yet racking up huge budget surpluses and
sending rebate checks to taxpayers.
[T]he cuts of 2003 went far
beyond pruning. They broke faith with a long and successful Minnesota
tradition of investing for the long run. The question is not whether
Minnesota could afford that tradition, but whether it can afford to
abandon it."
Full
text is available at:
http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/4349496.html
Dave Hage is a Star Tribune editorial writer
