And Then There Is Minnesota...
I wrote earlier about what the Utah Legislature does right. As I was finishing that up, I got this in the in-box from the folks at MinnPost.
The longest and deepest recession since World War II may be history by several measures, but Minnesota's economy, as measured by state revenues, still is living the struggle.
The state's sales tax receipts for the quarter ending Sept. 30 were 13.5 percent below the sums received for the same quarter last year, according to an economic update [PDF] issued Monday by the office of Minnesota Management & Budget.
Individual income tax withholding, which closely tracks wages, was down 7 percent from a year earlier. Corporate returns were down sharply, too.
While MinnPost author brushes by the reason why tax revenues are so far down, she does not really tackle the issue...
Because unemployment almost surely will rise even while recovery starts, "everything is going to be lagging," she said.
"Sales taxes will be lagging because people still are afraid they are going to lose jobs," she said. "Wages are going to be stagnant. It's not pretty."
It's particularly ugly for at least one in 10 Minnesotans who are unemployed or underemployed at lousy part-time jobs. They are fighting grim, gut-wrenching hardship that many of their families never have seen before.
They are flocking to food shelves, putting off health care and bunking with relatives.
Why are jobs down so badly in Minnesota? Well when you have Minnesota grown start up companies like VitalMedix and long time stalwarts like Northwest Airlines and 3M moving more and more of their operations out of the state either due to mergers (Northwest) or basic business decisions and Target and Best Buy laying off employees, more jobs are leaving Minnesota than are being created. Small business owners are reluctant to add employees when the Legislature can't control their spend-a-holic ways.
Minnpost also addresses the one thing that (again) the Legislature refuses to admit....spending cuts MUST be made...
The severe economic contraction outlined in Monday's update makes further cutbacks in state offices almost inevitable, said David Vang, chairman of the Finance Department in the Opus College of Business at the University of St. Thomas.
"There has been such a huge change in the economy from last year to this year," Vang said, that the state has yet to fully adjust.
"Some draconian one-time measures will likely be taken in some departments," he predicted.
Minnesotans could see more big programs slashed entirely, Vang said, but state officials are more likely to use a scalpel than an ax next time around because "it is politically easier to squeeze" here and there.
Emphasis mine.
The DFL led Legislature has refused to do their constitutional duty and the people of Minnesota are the ones suffering - either through lost jobs or lost public services. It is past time for this Legislature to realize that they work for us - not the other way around.
Maybe the Minnesota Legislature should talk to it's counterparts here in Utah. They might learn a thing or three.
Cross posted at Ladies Logic where your comments are welcome.
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