Is the "Minnesota Miracle" over?

Please excuse me this morning. I'm a bit sick to my stomach about some local news and will need to write about it before I can pay much attention to other stuff.

You may have heard that yesterday Governor Dayton and the Republican legislature agreed to a deal to end the Minnesota government shutdown. It basically borrows money to pay off the shortfall (thus continuing Pawlenty's addiction that got us into this mess in the first place). Dayton gave up his proposal to raise taxes on millionaires and the Republicans gave up their efforts to restrict access to abortion and voting.

But there's more. All of that borrowing still leaves us $2.2 billion short and without tax increases, that will have to come from spending cuts. Apparently there's been no agreement there yet. But we're all bracing for the hit.

To understand what this means, you need to know just a bit about Minnesota history. Back in 1971, some very visionary leaders pulled off what has been called the Minnesota Miracle and people started talking about a state that works.

Previous to the miracle, all schools and local governments depended on property taxes for funding. We all know how regressive that system is and so disparities between property-rich and property-poor areas were severe. What happened in 1971 is that a process was put together whereby state revenue (which is mostly dependent on income taxes) was shared with local governments to equal out the disparities. Ahhh, that damn soshulism of e pluribus unum! But as folks noticed...it worked. And Minnesota eventually climbed to the top of every survey measuring quality of life.

But back in 2000, the Republicans in this state started building up steam to kill the Minnesota Miracle. They all lived in the growing suburbs and didn't give a shit about the stinking poor folks living in the cities and rural areas of the state. Why should they have to pay income taxes for all their troubles? Sound familiar?

So yeah, a huge chunk of that $2.2 billion is going to come out of what we call Local Government Aid. How much - we don't know yet. To give you some idea of the consequences, last night my board chair - who also happens to be President of our City Council - says that on the higher end for the city of St. Paul, if we loose $48 million, shutting down all of public health AND all libraries wouldn't even get us there. If we shut down all public parks and recreation facilities, we'd get close. That doesn't even begin to get to things the counties here operate - like child protection, other human services, courts, probation, etc.

All of this is because the Republicans refuse to ask millionaires to pay more in taxes. So yeah, Minnesota joins the rest of the country in having to get back to work fighting battles that were won years ago over whether we give a damn about being "our brother's keeper." Or if greed will continue to win the day.

P.S. I should probably disclose that the non-profit I run - where we work with kids in trouble - is dependent on government contracts with our city and county for 60% of our revenue. I'm going to try real hard not to forecast the future until it happens. But I'd be lying if I didn't say I'm pretty worried.