No negotiations, but panel airs budget beefs

Posted at 2:53 PM on June 9, 2011 by Tim Pugmire (3 Comments)
Filed under: MN Legislature, Mark Dayton

There were no private budget meetings today between DFL Governor Mark Dayton and GOP legislative leaders, even though a potential government shutdown is just three weeks away.

Republicans instead held a public meeting of the Legislative Commission on Planning and Fiscal Policy to try to poke holes in Dayton's proposal to raise income taxes on the top two percent of earners. Sen. Julianne Ortman, R-Chanhassen, chair of the Senate tax committee, questioned the need for a tax increase.

"I mean it's one thing to take all those risks and put our economy in jeopardy," Ortman said. "But to do it for no reason other than the fact that the governor just wants what looks like a political win is not going to be done. It's not going to happen."

Dayton's revenue commissioner, Myron Frans, defended the tax increase as a necessary step in difficult times. Frans said no one wants to increase taxes unless they have to.

Comments (3)

It is mind-boggling how far away Sen. Ortman is from even understanding Gov. Dayton and Democrats, much less agreeing with them. It is ludicrous that Dayton and Democrats just want a political win. They (and I) think that keeping health care and other safety net programs are life and death issues. They think that spending on infrastructure, education, and environment will make the economy better, not worse. It is frightening how democrats and republicans seem to live on two different planets.

Posted by Susan | June 9, 2011 3:54 PM

I've lamented the same thing, Susan. I can't see how there is a way to compromise with such wildly different world views and values --except for just giving up things that are really, critically important to each side.

Mark Dayton started the whole process with his first budget proposal which cut a lot more funding than he wanted to do. He said it was an awful process to come up with the first proposal -- he was already compromising on what he (and most of the rest of us progressive people) wanted. Then of course, he compromised (gave up stuff) twice more after that.

And now, I think it was Ortman who claimed today that Dayton thinks the Republican proposal is draconian and if we just add a mere $1.8 billion more, it will be roses and rainbows (or something - from the radio report). Well, of course Dayton does not think that. He has really made three serious compromises to get to that $1.8 billion difference. He knew from the beginning that it would NEVER be roses and rainbows. It is typical and despicable for Republicans to come up with talking points (a.k.a. lies) like Ortman's, including the above accusation that he is just interested in a political win.

Posted by Jamie | June 9, 2011 5:52 PM

I have to comment also on MPR's coverage. It's very much like the rest of the corporate news media. "Side A says XYZ, and side B says ABC." And they often do it in such a way that a Republican-framed impression is left with the listener/reader. This story is a good example. In the radio report, they had a sound-byte of Ortman making her outrageous claim, with absolutely no analysis of it, and nothing from a Democratic point of view on her rhetoric.

In addition, MPR's point of view on stories like this is often the same or close to the Republican point of view, or with Republican framing (they even use Republican language). You don't hear for example about how the state's needs have grown enough that holding the line on the last biennium's budget IS cutting the budget, or that we need to raise funding for many of the state's services if we want to meet those needs, and that raising taxes on the rich, at least to the degree that they're paying their fair share, is necessary. We just hear about how Republicans frame the issues and how Democrats respond to their framing, and how a Dayton commissioner says that nobody wants to raise taxes.

NOBODY WANTING TO RAISING TAXES is the default position, probably MPR's idea of a nuetral approach to these stories.

Posted by Jamie | June 9, 2011 6:10 PM

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