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By Doug Grow | Published Thu, Mar 19 2009 6:13 pm
Minnesota has one, big budget problem – and now three different proposed solutions.
The state’s House DFLers weighed in with their approach this afternoon, proposing a general outline but few details on their plan to balance the budget. Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher said it would entail a combination of tax increases, spending cuts and an accounting shift in school payments.
Left to be decided is the mix of taxes, although it was clear that some income tax hike would be involved, which Kelliher said was the most progressive tax to rely on. The House Tax Committee is expected to review a variety of other tax possibilities.
Late last week, of course, Senate DFLers came up with their approach to deal with the state’s budget deficit, which is either $4.6 billion or closer to $6.2 billion, depending on whether you count the one-time federal stimulus money. Senate DFLers called for an approach that would call for across-the-board 7 percent cuts in all areas of state funding, including K-12 education. The Senate’s DFL caucus plan also calls for about $2 billion in mostly unspecified forms of tax increases.
Pawlenty has weighed in twice with budget proposals. In both cases, the governor insisted there be no tax increases. His revised budget calls for heavy use of one-time money in the 2009-10 biennium and then major cuts in the health and human services budget in the following biennium.
Unlike the Senate “share the pain’’ budget plan, Pawlenty says his plan “prioritizes” how money should be spent. He’s calling, for example for additions to the K-12 budget. However, the governor would hit human services to the tune of about 35 percent, according to DFLers, in an effort to balance the budget.
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