One last plea for long-term thinking on the state budget

If we were smart about it, the balancing act at the Capitol in the coming month shouldn't be so much between cutting spending and raising taxes as it should be between short-term action and long-term.

That was the message on MPR News' Midday this morning, which felt like one last plea to the governor and Legislature before they wrap up this year: Please do something long term. Don't just solve a budget problem that will come right back in two years.

On with Gary Eichten were Pam Wheelock, vice president of the Bush Foundation; Stacy Becker, who directed the Citizens League's Common Cents project on the state budget; and Michael Caputo of MPR News' Insight Now.

The conversation was an effort to inject into the state budget debate the results of the Common Cents meetings around the state last fall and winter, looking for ways residents might address the state's budget woes. The strong conclusion from the project, which was conducted by the Citizens League in partnership with the Bush Foundation, was to make long-term changes that get the state where people want it to go, even if that involves short-term sacrifice.

But the fear, apparent at those meetings and again at Caputo's online conversations, is that "when decisions get made, the long term goes out the door," as Caputo put it on the air.

One of the reasons for Bush's interest was to test whether people are ready for significant change, said Wheelock, who's been around Minnesota's budget question for years. They are, she said.

Even people who are willing to see taxes rise want to know whether "If you raise taxes this year do you have a plan for not doing it again next year and the next year?" Becker noted.

Wheelock made a couple analytical points worth highlighting here. One was that a fundamental part of the long-term debate needs to be over what activities and services do we want to provide that are not based on individuals' ability to pay for them? In other words, the rich will always get the best health care, but what level do we provide for the poor?

And the other was the advice to state officials to set policy and then give flexibility and authority to those in local communities to make decisions, combining a sense of certainty with flexibility.

Listen to the hour-long conversation here. Get a sense from MPR News' Insight Now on how people have been weighing in in recent weeks.

Here is Ground Level's March post on the Citizen League meetings.

In a related matter -- how communities are looking at what city government should be doing -- the League of Minnesota Cities is planning a set of meetings in 10 cities around the state to let residents examine what they want their cities to do.

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