EDITORIAL: Loggerheads

Hutchinson made a bit of state news last week. Its mayor, a fiscal conservative, joined with 10 other mayors to tell state leaders their unfinished work is going to raise property taxes by about 9 percent statewide.

Because Democrats and Republican lawmakers and the governor couldn’t agree on a tax bill last winter, 480 of Minnesota’s 800 cities are getting less state aid. Citizens continue to pay taxes to St. Paul, and the money is in the state’s checkbook, but cities can’t have it because lawmakers didn’t finish their jobs.

In true Minnesota fashion, a group of polite mayors including Hutchinson’s Steve Cook, held a press conference. It wasn’t meant to pick on anyone but just to say it is not too late to call a one-day session to finish the tax bill.
We urge Gov. Tim Pawlenty to call a special one-day session.

Mayors and city councils have until the third week in December to finish their budgets. Without a tax bill this year, Hutchinson will lose $180,000 in state aid, and cities in McLeod County lose a total of $250,000. A chart below shows the amounts by city.

With 480 cities involved and scores of voters mad about higher property taxes, the blame game has started. House Minority Leader Marty Seifert, R-Marshall, said Sunday he believes cities can spend less. Unfortunately, taxpayers get milked either way. The state raised its sales tax from 6 percent to 6 1/2 percent to give aid to cities. We continue to pay that sales tax, the state continues to pad its checkbook, but lawmakers are not getting it back to cities.

Democrats want to blame the governor for vetoing the tax bill. We believe he was clear about his intentions early on. He asked Democrats to send their tax bill early so he could veto it in time to get a real tax bill done. They waited until the very end, and were as much to blame.
Both parties are to blame. And, homeowners in 480 of Minnesota cities continue to pay higher sales taxes and now get 9-percent higher property taxes because politicians are at loggerheads.

Gov. Pawlenty came up with a good idea. He proposed to not pay lawmakers if they don’t get their work finished. Brilliant! And we believe the same rule should apply to him.

Arguing a philosophical point is the cornerstone of our democratic system. But, arguing to the point of not finishing the job leaves a cornerstone with no building on top. If no session is called, we will lobby for no pay for lawmakers. In the business world, pay is given for work performed — no work, no pay. It is time to stop rewarding these folks for going home before the job is done. The governor has a month to make them finish. There’s already agreement. The only disagreement is between politicians haggling over other items in the original tax bill, and those items can be deleted.

The Legislature and governor have four weeks to finish their job. We hope they use the time wisely.

Editorials are written by Publisher Matt McMillan and Editor Doug Hanneman. They can be reached at mcmillan@hutchinsonleader.com, or hanneman@hutchinsonleader.com.