Education takes brunt of Pawlenty spending cuts

Star Trib ^ | Feb. 7, 2003 | Patricia Lopez

[MNlurker]

Minnesota's budget deficit claimed its first victims today -- students.

When Gov. Tim Pawlenty made his emergency budget cuts this morning to resolve the state's immediate $356 million deficit, schools were at the top of the list. K-12 schools will take a $27 million hit, while state colleges and universities will be cut $50 million.

[MNlurker]

First effort at posting an article. Hope it comes out. Finally have a govenor that is serious about spending and a budget.

[MNlurker]

Whoops!!!

Forgot to add barf alert for the title the Star and Sickle decided to use!

[Still Thinking]

The guy cuts 1%, A MEASLY 1%!!!, and these socialists make out like he spent the day raping little old crippled ladies out behind the rest home. Oops, I better not give them any ideas!

[The Old Hoosier]

Makes you wonder what would happen if he made some REAL budget cuts. Minnesota has one of the most generous welfare programs in the USA.

[MNlurker]

I think you're going to see it happen. During his state of the state address he made the statement (paraphrasing) "families can't raise taxes to cover their expenses and we won't either."

I think this guy means it too.

[Hawkeye's Girl]

I do too. I'm glad that with him as governor we can start turning this state around.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Same as always. The Rats get in power with empty promises about how education is number 1 with them and then just as soon as there is even a hint of financial trouble, they threaten to cut the education budget unless taxes are raised.

Don't let them get away with it. Call them on the phone and ask them how high of a priority education is with them. When they give the pat answer, ask them why education is the FIRST thing on the chopping block instead of the last.

I REALLY hate Rats.

[MNlurker]

I can't wait to read the letters to the editor tomorrow.

Can't say that every day...

[Hawkeye's Girl]

Pawlenty is a Republican.

[Blood of Tyrants]

I hate RINO's and hypocrites, too. I trust NO ONE who who cuts education FIRST because that is always the ploy they use just before they raise taxes.

[MNlurker]

RINO?

Cheney asked Pawlenty not to run for Senator because it was thought that Coleman was more appealing to "moderates."

I think your accusations of Pawlenty being a RINO are baseless.

[jdege]

Education is half the budget, and it's been "saved" from the last three years of budget cuts.

It's not all that's left, but it's a lot of it.

[Hawkeye's Girl]

Pawlenty has pledged multiple times that he won't raise taxes to fix the budget. Having met the man briefly, I believe him.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Please pardon me if I have sized Pawlenty up wrong. I have plent of reason to distrust all politicians. If indeed the budget HAS been cut and that education is all that is left, then cut it, too. Like I previously stated, threatening to cut the budget of education is a favorite trick of tax raisers.

However, I would bet that there is PLENTY that could be cut out of all the states' budgets. Especially those that claim that there isn't. Here in Tennessee our budget has grow at twice the rate of inflation + growth yet the Rats and the RINOs called it a "bare bones budget".

[WorkingClassFilth]

Hold your fire...

For those not from Minnesota who are interested, Pawlenty has been more than a moderate Republican in Minnesota politics and I certainly wouldn't put him in the RINO catagory. I wouldn't class him as a hardened conservative but I do tend to believe he is trying to do the job he has pledged to do, but, we will see the final proof in the final pudding. Remember, this is the Socialist Republic of Minnesota here - not Mississippi.

So far, he has been doing a great deal of budget trimming and, apparently, is making progress in eliminating the 4 billion dollar deficit we're supposed to have been looking at. To date he has cut jobs in Minnesota government and is laying waste to idiot programs all over the state like 'highway helpers.' If it's any indicator, the RedStar routinely runs shrieking, weepy stories about the cuts, the cuts, ohmigod the cuts! I'll give Pawlenty the time to prove himself.

Besides, I voted for him at least a dozen times until the majority was hit at 5:00 AM in our state convention to give him the Republican endorsement. I did so because he was more pragmatic than the other candidate, Sullivan, with whom I had more in common philosophically. I have seen what division in the ranks does in Minnesota politics just as the wise can see what it does here on FR.

[jdege]

Last session, we had a drag-out fight on fixing the deficit, between the Republican House, which wanted to cut spending, and the Democratic Senate and Governor Ventura, who wanted to raise taxes.

The House won - there was no tax increase.

Tim Pawlenty and Steve Swiggum were House Majority Leader and Speaker of the House.

Now we're having the very same debate again, only Pawlenty is governor, and Swiggum is House Majority Leader.

And Pawlenty, again, is arguing for budget cuts.

If you'd watched him in the last fight, you'd understand why we believe him in this one.

[Sir_Ed]

"I trust NO ONE who who cuts education FIRST because that is always the ploy they use just before they raise taxes."

Here in Southern Oregon, when Measure 28 lost, they laid off 250 cops and let a bunch of prisoners out of the jails in Eugene...the new guv was quoted as saying if Oregon doesn't cut the budget in cops, schools, mental health and senior services, the state wouldn't be "credible" to the voters next time they asked for a tax increase and threatened to cut those services again.

Needless to say, the average Joe Sixpack just sees this as punishment and blackmail.

Ed

[WorkingClassFilth]

"...they laid off 250 cops and let a bunch of prisoners out of the jails in Eugene..."

It is blackmail. I have been sending my Representative all the articles I come across about different states releasing prisoners as a way to address budget shortfalls. I like to think of it as friendly encouragement to avoid these pitfalls...

[Blood of Tyrants]

It IS blackmail and punishment of the masses for DARING to oppose their masters.