True North

This morning, I attended a townhall meeting hosted by Sen. Tarryl Clark and Rep. Larry Haws. By the time I left, I was wondering if I'd been transported into the Twilight Zone. I'll start my explanation by telling you part of Larry Haws' opening statement. Here's the statement that got me reeling:

"I know you can't tax your way to a good economy."

My first thought was "If that's your belief, then why have you voted for most of the biggest tax increases in state history"?

One of the first speakers from the audience identified himself as Kevin Lenave. He quickly got things headed in the right direction, first saying that "it's obvious that we've got the money to fund our needs." Kevin then went onto say that the legislature needs to focus on funding needs, not wants. (Had King been in the audience, it's likely he would've walked over and asked to shake Kevin's hand. I was in the audience and I did shake Kevin's hand.)

Larry's reply was simple: "There's no question that we have to prioritize." Upon hearing that, I wondered where that Larry was when I attended the League of Women Voters' Education Forum last fall. Here's what Larry said in response to Steve Gottwalt's call for prioritization:

Let's start with some of the most memorable quotes from the Forum. The first memorable quote was from 'Grandpa Larry' Haws. Steve Gottwalt had just said that we needed to do a better job prioritizing education spending, prompting Larry Haws to say "Maybe we do need to prioritize."

Quite the contrast, huh? The difference was that this was after the DFL legislature had initially voted to increase spending 17 percent for the current biennium. 'Prioritizing Larry' didn't appear until the DFL spent the $2.163 billion surplus. 'Prioritizing Larry' didn't appear until we were facing a $935 million deficit.

It isn't a stretch to think that we've had a roller coaster ride between extremes because we haven't had persistent budget hawks. It's obvious that we need that type of budget hawk to steer the budget away from the peaks & valleys of soaring deficits, followed by significant surpluses. It's time that we funded our needs & limited funding our wants.

Sen. Clark and Rep. Haws asked for suggestions on how to close the budget deficit. That's when I stood up and asked 2 simple questions:

"Why didn't the legislature pass budget targets last year? Why didn't the legislature pass the Tax Bill first?"

Larry's response was that he's all in favor of passing early budget targets & early passage of the Tax Bill. I thought to myself "Wow. It's good to know that Larry's in favor of following the Constitution.")

At that point, Tarryl said that "It's difficult to get inside someone's mind on why they did or didn't do something. Then she said that they "actually did pass an overall budget target." I don't recall that happeneing so I talked with King. He doesn't remember targets getting passed either. I told him that I remembered them talking on Final Word about how the budget process was all out of whack because the legislature didn't pass budget targets. King said that's his recollection, too.

If the legislature won't tell the governor how much they plan on spending, then it's the governor's responsibility to veto bills until they make reasonable spending requests. Anytime you pass a series of budget bills that would jump state spending 17 percent in 2 years, the average person would agree that that isn't making a reasonable spending request.

A small businessman in the audience, Dan Hollenhorst, asked why the legislature started with a $30 billion budget, then spent the $2.2 billion surplus, then ask for suggestions on how to dig out of this mess. Before Dan could ask the second part of the question, Tarryl cut him off. What's worse is that she didn't give him a straight answer.

After the meeting was over, I talked with Dan. We decided to approach Tarryl together to follow up on our questions. We both patiently waited while she talked with some of her liberal supporters. Right before Tarryl got to us, she announced that she had another meeting to get to so she had to leave.

At that point, Dan and I were frustrated. We were about to get stiffed after being patient. When we noticed that she stopped to talk with another person in the hallway, Dan & I decided to walk over and pose our questions. After Tarryl promised Dan that she'd look into his questions, I tried asking her a question but she re-iterated that she had to get going. After I started walking out, I noticed that she had gone back to talk with Larry Haws and a woman wearing a Joan Dorscher button. (Dorscher is the DFL-endorsed candidate to run against Steve Gottwalt.)

As we walked out, I reminded Tarryl of our conversation at the first townhall meeting in January, 2007. I asked why they hadn't done the oversight hearings last year in committee. I told her about Mindy Greiling saying during the House budget bill debate Thursday night that they were using commission hearings to find budget savings. That's when I asked her why they weren't doing that in committee during session.

My initial question was a fairly straightforward question. I think we can agree that Tarryl's answer wasn't a straightforward answer. She said that "we're a part time legislature" to which I replied that people had gotten 220-230 days worth of per diem. Tarryl said that "that's alot longer conversation" before getting into her car.

Frankly, Tarryl didn't respond well to difficult questions all morning. She tried avoiding difficult questions like a vampire avoids wooden stakes. She completely dodged my questions. Rest assured that I'll email her my questions this weekend. I will expect straight answers from her then. I'll let you know if she responds.

I'm not holding my breath. She didn't respond to my email after Gov. Pawlenty's State of the State address. That doesn't reflect favorably on her, especially in light of Tony Sertich taking the time to personally send me his take of Gov. Pawlenty's speech.

UPDATE: Right before the meeting, I asked Larry Haws what he thought Gov. Pawlenty would do with the bonding bill. Larry said "I don't think he has the guts to line-item out anything so he'll probably veto the whole thing."

Comments welcome at LFR.