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January 18, 2005
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| Gov. Tim Pawlenty said he took the show on the road to Rochester to highlight a vibrant city. (MPR Photo/Michael Khoo) |
Rochester, Minn. — Pawlenty took his State of the State outside the Capitol for the first time, and he used the location to push for a couple of Rochester initiatives. The governor says the city that is home to both the world's best hospital and the world's fastest computer should have a four-year university.
"The Rochester area is projected to grow 70 percent in the next 20 years or so, and its economic vitality is growing even faster. Rochester needs a stronger higher education leadership structure," he said.
Pawlenty says the budget he releases next week will include more than $3 million to create a new governing entity for the University Center. That's an area at Rochester Community and Technical College where students can take some university classes.
Rochester-area legislators welcomed the governor's comments. Sen. Sheila Kiscaden, the only independent in the Legislature, says the city needs a university.
"We need to move to having a real full-fledged higher education institution here of upper-division and graduate offerings, and the governor's going to take us the next step in leading the charge for that, that's wonderful," she said.
Pawlenty renewed his push for a new genomics lab in Rochester, which would be jointly run by the University of Minnesota and the Mayo Clinic. He says he won't sign a bonding bill that doesn't contain money to build the lab.
He says the state will provide $15 million for shared research by the U of M and Mayo, and the Medica foundation will contribute $5 million to the partnership.
Pawlenty also used his speech to repeat his no-tax-increase stance, and said his position is both common sense and mainstream. He says his budget will slow down the growth of government spending.
"Since Gov. Carlson gave his State of the State speech here in 1994, state spending has nearly doubled. Inflation and population grew nowhere near that fast. I say again: we don't have a tax problem, we have a spending problem," Pawlenty said.
Minnesota faces a projected $700 million deficit in the next two-year budget cycle. Pawlenty has already proposed an increase in education funding, and he says his budget will rein in the projected growth in health care spending.
DFL leaders worry that his budget will slash state health-care programs. Assistant Senate Majority Leader Ann Rest, a DFLer from New Hope, says Pawlenty's budget priorities leave many unanswered questions.
"He talks about new money for education, but he doesn't say where it's coming from. He talks about no new taxes but he didn't say no new property taxes, which is what we had to deal with in the previous budget," Rest said.
Rest also questions the cost of another proposal the governor outlined -- a so-called "Turbocharged Truth in Taxation". Pawlenty says when taxpayers receive their annual Truth in Taxation forms, they should also receive postcards they could mail to local governments to oppose the level of taxation.
"If significant dissatisfaction is registered, a levy referendum on the amount of increase above a certain level will be triggered. We've got to trust the people. And this process empowers them to have another check on their government," he said.
Republican leaders say the governor's speech set the right tone for the budget debate that will soon begin. House Speaker Steve Sviggum of Kenyon says the state can move forward without a tax increase.
"Minnesota works because of both private and public partnership, and it just isn't all public spending," he said. "We live within our means, he said that's about another $2 billion that we have the opportunity to make priorities on, obviously he mentioned education, he mentioned the environment as being part of those priorities."
Pawlenty wants to double the amount of ethanol in gasoline sold in the state, a proposal that has bipartisan support. There's also bipartisan support for increasing education spending, although Democrats say Pawlenty's education proposal doesn't do enough for cash-strapped schools. The debate will intensify when Pawlenty releases his budget proposal next week.
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