Secrets of the City

How many budget bills have already been sent to King Tim? He can’t unallot or line item veto if they don’t send him a bill. Couple that with refusing to send a “lights on” bill, wouldn’t that force him to chose either a shut down or calling a special session?

If they’ve already forwarded the bills, then I’m tempted to say let him cut $4.6 billion from the budget. He’ll own it. He (and the GOP) will own the consequences completely, and I don’t think most people are going to like the consequences of $4.6 billion in budget cuts. Timmy likes to talk about running Government by a “kitchen table” method, but most people I know when they run into a huge shortfall don’t simply slash their expenditures. They take a second (or third) job. A stay at home spouse goes to work. The kids get an after school job to pay for some of their own expenses.

Finally:

House Minority Leader Marty Seifert, R-Marshall, said Pawlenty’s backup plan can be avoided if the sides get back to the bargaining table.

“The door is open and the phone is on if the Democrats are interested in working on a balanced budget,” Seifert said.

Kind of hard to negotiate with someone whose position is to refuse to compromise at worst, or at best to say “Give me part of what I want, and I’ll give you nothing of what you want.”

See, if it were 1709 we could storm the governor’s mansion with torches and pitchforks and deal with this jackass.

… I’m tempted to say let him cut $4.6 billion from the budget. He’ll own it. He (and the GOP) will own the consequences completely.

I’m tempted to agree, mnblrmkr, but, sadly, any consequences won’t be limited to deteriorating highways, construction slow-downs, shuttered state parks or overworked bureaucrats. If T-Paw’s so brave, he should slash his own salary to $1. (He’d argue, though, that he has bills to pay. Duh! So does everyone else!)

All of the budget bills are on his desk, including the DFL’s Give Up Bill, which their apologists would call “lights on”. These bills were written and passed by Democrats.

When the governor offered to accept two of the Democrats’ proposals on Monday and they called it “not responsible” and a “step in the wrong direction” that pretty much signaled that they weren’t going to be reasonable at the negotiating table. It’s very hard to negotiate when the other side won’t even agree to the positions they’ve already passed.

Your not quite telling the whole picture, Kevin.

As former Gov. Carlson said on WCCO-AM, when you refuse to even consider raising revenue as one of the ways to reduce the gap and ballance the budget, you really are not “negotiating.”

There is blame enough for both sides. However, I think that even a skilled and likeable politician like T-Paw is going to have trouble getting out of this without some serious damage.

Kevin, King tim wants to solve the gap by whipping out the Tobacco money credit card. That’s not fiscal responsibility. That’s kicking the can down the road to a time where he thinks he’ll have moved on to something better.

Like I said, even at the “kitchen table” he likes to spew about, any family realizes that there’s a point where they can’t simply cut any more, and they have to come up with additional money.

nood’, you’re right. the human cost to this stunt is going to be massive. That’s why I said “tempted.” Unfortunately, since the DLF has already laid their cards on the table, I’m not sure what they can do other than capitulation to the king.

See, if it were 1709 we could storm the governor’s mansion with torches and pitchforks and deal with this jackass.

Today, I don’t think it would make a difference if we had a million people show up in St. Paul. The GOP demonstrated in 2002 that they don’t give a rat’s ass about the public.

The other thing I’d like to see is king tim required to personally meet with every individual whose medical care he will be eliminating. Force him to come face to face with the human cost of his actions.

Whattaya think the governor ought to do, Dave?

Mnblrmkr wants to party like it’s 1709.

Remember the immortal words of Inspector Kemp, “A riot is an ugly thing.”

Perhaps we should begin to consider who might be the next Governor of Minnesota. Does anyone know what party Goldie is a member of?

Well, you have to USE the pitchforks and torches.

To answer your question Rat. The governor ought to allow the Democrats to raise taxes. Pretty simple.

Both parties are unreasonable on this one. Obviously some increase in taxes will happen but cuts also need to be included in his plan. The biggest problem I see is that both the democrats and the republicans have a one pony show, tax hikes with more spending, tax cuts with no decrease in spending. We as a state are going broke and no one on either side will fix the problem. When the only choice is Limousine liberals and GOP robber barons that love Jesus of course nothing gets done. For god sake cut welfare and raise taxes that is the only way the budget will balance. That is the only choice this state has.

“The governor ought to allow the Democrats to raise taxes. Pretty simple.”

It makes sense now, but you’re saying this in a month I’m not writing out checks to pay taxes. My feelings about taxes tend to fluctuate financial quarter to financial quarter

Is the increase in the beer tax increase still in the bill?

swandog, the DFL budget plan DID contain significant spending cuts. Linda Berglin yesterday was talking about reworking the HHS bill to include additional cuts to try and get the King’s signature.

Rat, I want Timmy to sit down and get involved in honest, good faith negotiations. The solution has to involve all of us, not just the least of us (Perhaps Timmy can think about that while sitting in his pew on Sunday).

Kevin, King tim wants to solve the gap by whipping out the Tobacco money credit card.

There is no bill to do so on his desk.  He can only act on what the Legislature sends him. 

The question for Democrats to ponder is whether they want to make a stand against tobacco bonding if the result is no GAMC in 2011.  If it’s that important to them that the state not securitize the future tobacco revenues, then they’ll have to explain why not securitizing the future payments is more important than preserving GAMC.  That’s a tougher sell than not wanting to raise taxes.

Kevin, King tim wants to solve the gap by whipping out the Tobacco money credit card.

There is no bill to do so on his desk. He can only act on what the Legislature sends him.

That’s kind of my point. He’s saying “My way or nothing.” That’s not a negotiation. That’s an ultimatum.

The Democrats have offered some additional revenue, plus more cuts than they would probably like. They’ve also signaled that they are willing to consider additional cuts.

Tim just wants to kick the problem down the road until it’s no longer his problem to deal with.

Tempers are starting to flair: http://www.minnpost.com/politicalagenda/2009/05/15/8864/anger_flares_at_state_budget_meeting

Once again the GOP proves their douchbaggery.

Rep. Rod Hamilton was the worse. Resurrecting the brand-new-Cadillac driving welfare queen trope, ridiculing a program aimed to help raise Indian kids graduation rates and reduce their suicide rates (Republicans seem to delight in ridiculing the disabled and troubled), bitching about bills that never made it out of committee.

Rep. Beard wasn’t much better, waxing wistfully about the Supply Side Jesus he worships.

“ridiculing a program aimed to help raise Indian kids graduation rates and reduce their suicide rates”

Was he referring to the Indigenous Earthkeepers Program?

Calling Maz!

Yes, That is the program he was referring to.

First it was just a “secondary offense” but was that really the intent:

“The Minnesota House waited until the last day of the session to pass a bill that would allow police to stop vehicles solely for seat belt violations.

“The measure would make failure to wear a seat belt a primary offense, and would apply to anyone in a vehicle. The House passed the bill today by a vote of 73-60.”

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/05/18/seatbelt/