1 week Ago By Simon Glaser
Why have we accepted the premise that government needs to be cut back or even eliminated? Government is a public good, and it needs a rebrand. Government protects us from dangerous products and chemicals, prevents discrimination, and pays for things that would otherwise not exist. Government delivers our mail at reasonable rates, even to remote, unprofitable rural addresses.
It educates our children, provides health care for lots of Minnesotans, and supports local businesses. ADVERTISEMENT You’ve heard our Republican legislators say that the DFL “squandered” an $18 billion surplus. They’ve said that as a result, our state is now headed for looming deficits.
Let me tell you why that’s not true. The money was used to help ordinary Minnesotans in a variety of ways, many of which had been ignored for decades. Roads and bridges were fixed.
Tax rebates were awarded to 128,000 of us. Money was added to public pension programs, like the one for teachers, that had been neglected for years. A theoretical budget shortfall is predicted four years from now.
This is only a prediction, based on a formula that for the first time includes rapidly rising inflation. If we used the old calculation we would come up with a much smaller number. The $18 billion spent on public improvements two years ago would not have prevented this, but fixing our broken tax system would.
We face possible deficits because we are not properly taxing the wealthiest people and corporations. We are subsidizing the multi-billion-dollar insurance industry by putting taxpayer money into the reinsurance pool. We are budgeting for huge tax breaks for tech companies that want to build environmentally disastrous data centers.
In addition, we exist within a global economy that is struggling with inflation worldwide, as well as tariffs that will raise prices across the board for everyone. The surplus of two years ago, as the Republicans well know, was made up almost entirely of one-time money, rather than ongoing money that could be counted on year after year. Much of it was in federal grants that had to be spent, or the money would have been taken back.
In drawing a connection between infrastructure spending and the projected deficit, our Republican leaders are misleading us. The question we should ask them is: Why has our state been underfunded for so long? There is plenty of money in Minnesota, enough to ensure a fair chance at prosperity for all our citizens. ADVERTISEMENT So sure, if we prioritize insurance and tech companies over ordinary Minnesotans, we may well have a budget shortfall in a few years.
But there is another way — we could instead put the needs of the people first. Simon Glaser, of Rochester, is a teacher in the Rochester Public Schools and a candidate for the District 24 seat in the Minnesota Senate..
