The Governor's Budget Hurts Those in the Greatest Need
To get our state back on track, we need a comprehensive budget-balancing solution that puts middle class families first by focusing on the right priorities. That means putting everything on the kitchen table – like making our tax system more fair -- and Governor Pawlenty refuses to do that.
Governor Pawlenty is proposing drastic, irresponsible and unnecessary cuts to our most important basic services, like health care, education and food stamps for low-income families – victims of our poor economy – that have an unemployed adult in the household. These proposals will cut the ground out from beneath families struggling in this economy.
Hurting those that are most in need of help
At a time when more and more people are losing their jobs and are unable to pay for healthcare, Tim Pawlenty wants to make deep cuts to Minnesota Care. Pawlenty has proposed cutting healthcare provided to Minnesotans without jobs when more Minnesotans than ever need this vital service.
Cutting thousands of middle class jobs
The Governor’s budget cuts will hurt middle class families, small businesses and the economy. His plan will cut the amount of money the state provides to cities and counties – that means cuts to government in all areas including education, public safety and healthcare.
Paying a high cost to support a partisan agenda
The Governors plan borrows $983 million against Minnesota's tobacco settlement payments at a $1.6 billion cost. This budget proves he is so focused on his political future, he lets politics get in the way of moving Minnesota forward by using accounting that use extremely high cost financial instruments just to avoid a modest tax increase.
Like George W. Bush, Tim Pawlenty is trying to outsource jobs.
Tim Pawlenty wants to outsource state services like prisons, maintenance work and the state lottery. This is a big mistake. As we’ve seen over the past eight years of the Bush Administration, contracting out state services to private businesses leaves too much room for corruption, has little accountability and wastes tax dollars. Given our current budget deficit, we simply can’t trust private contractors to spend our tax dollars wisely.
Minnesota has the opportunity, and the capacity, to solve the myriad of problems we face.
Click here to read the Recipe for Economic Security, Fairness & Opportunity.
