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How much pain will no-tax pledge inflict?
by Laura McCallum, Minnesota Public Radio
November 11, 2002

Gov.-elect Tim Pawlenty says he won't raise taxes to address a budget deficit that could top $3 billion. To do that, Pawlenty plans to cut government spending. State agency heads are saying they already cut to the bone under the last budget agreement, and any further cuts will be felt by the public.

St. Paul, Minn. — When it became clear that the next governor would face a deficit that could be as large as 10 percent of the state budget, Gov. Ventura directed state agencies to come up with ways to cut their budgets by 10 percent.

Ventura's commissioners gave those recommendations to the governor last month. They are only options, and can be ignored by Gov.-elect Pawlenty. But they do give a sense of what might be on the table when Pawlenty begins preparing his budget.

For the Department of Corrections, a 10-percent cut could mean closing prisons. Commissioner Sheryl Ramstad Hvass says the state could close the Oak Park Heights and Rush City prisons, and still not save 10 percent of her budget.

"So that quantity of reduction would really close more than two prisons and pose a huge risk to public and staff safety. As a result of closing facilities and eliminating staff, the prison population would have to be reduced immediately and significantly by up to 2,000 offenders," according to Hvass.

Hvass suggested several ways to do that, such as sending short-term offenders to county jails or reducing sentences for new offenders. Hvass says she already cut her budget in the last round of budget cuts, and says "there's no more fat to cut."

The Department of Natural Resources is also nervous about the potential for further cuts, and has been holding meetings around the state to detail what budget cuts could mean for the agency. Deputy Commissioner Steve Morse says a 10-percent budget cut would affect every unit in the agency.

"We have 66 parks in the system that offer camping. If we balance the budget entirely through reductions, 54 of those would have their camping closed year-round," according to Morse.

Morse says the DNR would have to cut a couple dozen enforcement officers, and reduce timber harvesting. He says he's not trying to scare the public.

"The options that we're laying out are very real possibilities. If there's not new revenue available to the state, and if in fact education is protected from cuts and may get an increase, the rest of us are going to take very, very heavy hits," Morse says.

Pawlenty has said he hopes to give education an inflationary increase. He has not outlined any specific cuts, either during the campaign or since he was elected. He has said he will transfer some state functions to the private sector and lay off some state employees, and may place new programs on a moratorium.

The new DFL house minority leader, Matt Entenza, says Republicans are about to "slash and burn" state government. Pawlenty says the state's budget will go up under his watch.

"You know, the state's revenues, under the February forecast, are going up 5 percent or so a year. The reason we have a budget deficit is because state spending's going up 10-15 percent a year. And so if Rep. Entenza and others say, 'we want to grow government by 15 percent a year and raise your taxes to pay for it,' that's their vision. But the people of Minnesota just said that's a losing vision," according to Pawlenty.

Pawlenty says he will immediately begin preparing a new two-year budget. The head of Pawlenty's transition team, Charlie Weaver, says he thinks Pawlenty will make use of the 10-percent recommendations submitted by Ventura's cabinet.

Weaver served as Gov. Ventura's public safety commissioner, a job he'd like to keep in Pawlenty's administration.

"I can tell you as the leader of one of the larger agencies, that we can make smart, kind of strategic reductions without cutting service. It won't be easy, it's going to be hard, there's going to be some pain out there, but I think given the mandate that the public gave during this election, we're obliged to do it," Weaver said.

Weaver's suggestions range from cutting state troopers - a recommendation he thinks Pawlenty will reject - to eliminating fire inspections at resorts and motels. He says those could be done by the private sector, or done for a fee. Pawlenty will consider Weaver's ideas and others, and is expected to release his budget in January.

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