The Governor's Proposal
December 20, 2009
Recently Minnesota Governor Pawlenty proposed a constitutional “Spending Accountability Amendment”. The basic premise of the proposal is to limit state spending in one biennium to the previous state biennium revenues. The concept sounds great, and many folks are jumping on the amendment train.
The Governor’s proposal copied from the governor’s website reads:
The proposed constitutional amendment question on the 2010 ballot would read as follows:
Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to require that state government general fund expenditures be limited to the amount of actual general fund revenues received by the state in the previous two-year budget period?
The position of Candidate Tim Utz for Minnesota House 50-A is to reject such an amendment for the following reasons.
- Our legislature has constitutional authority and responsibility to control state government spending within the limits imposed by our state Constitution.
- The Constitution is neither a tax nor a spending vehicle, but rather a directive concerning the limits of state responsibility and authority.
- When economic times are good, elected officials will have a false perception of available revenue to spend. The current state economic problems provide a perfect example. The last biennium revenues for 2008-2009 were *$32.5 billion. Using the governor’s proposed constitutional amendment, our 2010-2011 budget would be short *$2.5 billion based on the just released November 2009 forecast.
- Minnesota has a “Spending Accountability Amendment” already in place. We call it our state Constitution. That document limits our government’s ability to expand beyond our citizens’ ability to afford state government.
- In order to raise revenue for future spending, the legislature either increases taxes or expands taxation in other branches of commerce. Then an automatic increase in revenue follows future biennium budgets, thus negating any
“Spending Accountability Amendment.”
Minnesota needs leaders willing to follow our Constitution, limiting state government to the document of the Constitution, thus bringing state spending into line with affordable government. I call on the Governor to reconsider his proposed “Spending Accountability Amendment” and to finish his term in office, holding state government accountable to the only document he promised on oath to defend - our state Constitution.