Gripes heard in Sleepy Eye

Health care tax,

unfunded mandates, Guthrie Theater

funding top list

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

SLEEPY EYE -- Rep. Brad Finstad (R-New Ulm) fielded a variety of gripes himself before Gov. Tim Pawlenty arrived Friday morning at the Brown County Congress of Elected and Appointed Officials quarterly meeting in the Brown County REA auditorium.

Finstad said facing a $4 billion budget deficit his first year in office was a daunting task.

"There wasn't an easy decision in the most challenging legislative session in recent history," Finstad said. "I got many phone calls and e-mails about our successes and failures at trying to control government spending and where we should focus in the future to protect core government services."

He considered it a success that the Legislature was able to hold health and human service cost increases at 11 percent when they were set to increase 22 percent. He praised maintaining a nursing home scholarship program that enables workers to become registered nurses.

Finstad said he is addressing issues like overlapping state and federal health care paperwork regulations.

Brown County Commissioner Charles Guggisberg complained about the state health care tax set to rise by one-third, to 2 percent next January.

"I'm the guardian for a 94-year-old man," Guggisberg said. "The tax increase will force me to put more money in state coffers for people (receiving MinnesotaCare) that don't pay their bills."

New Ulm City Council President Dan Beranek lamented $25 million in state money that will be used to remodel the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis while many rural communities are forced to slice their budgets.

Finstad said the Guthrie money was part of the state bonding bill that had to include a hodgepodge of bills for passage. The bill included waste water infrastructure money for area small communities and economic development funding for places like Madelia. Meanwhile, school funding for the developmentally disabled and low-income families was sliced.

New Ulm City Manager Brian Gramentz complained about metro transit programs that were untouched in the last legislative session.

"It's a political trade-off," Finstad said. "People stood up and argued about what should be done with Local Government Aid. No doubt it will be the subject of future debates."

Sleepy Eye Public School Principal Arla Dokter asked if state funding would ever cover special education costs.

Finstad said he disagreed with the "sky is falling mentality" regarding Minnesota's new Conceal and Carry gun law.

"Give it a chance," Finstad said. "The new law is stricter than the old one. Time is our friend."

Gov. Pawlenty lightened up the mood with an Ole and Lena joke when he arrived at the meeting.

"This is a great state filled with wonderful people," Pawlenty said. "Look how we respond to challenges and crisis."

He used the following examples: the Mayo Clinic in Rochester rose after a tornado. The Sister Kinney Institute brought a polio vaccine to Minneapolis after other places rejected her. Many of the first transplants in the world took place at the University of Minnesota Hospital. Ethanol and SPAM were born in Minnesota.

Pawlenty said the last legislative session slowed the rate of state spending growth to make revenues match expenditures while passing the largest transportation bill in 2 decades.

"We'll live more within our means now," Pawlenty said. "I know its tough in small towns. We need leaders and other people to rise up, be strong and innovate. One act of economic terrorism could put us back in the tank."

Commissioner Guggisberg said many required unfunded government mandates need to be done away with.

"The state budget crunch pushed more costs on down to local units of government," Guggisberg said, extending his arms. "We don't have anybody below us to shift the costs to. The mandates are still there."

Pawlenty said it wasn't responsible to raise taxes in such economic times. He admitted there is a disconnect between cutting mandates and local units of government.

"One person's unfunded mandates are another's turf," Pawlenty said. "Rural taxpayers are paying 60-70 percent of larger city's budgets through LGA while smaller towns often need it more."

Dist. 88 Supt. Harold Remme asked if the state school funding formula could be changed.

Pawlenty replied that the school funding formula is too complicated. Another issue is the two economies in Minnesota, one for regional centers and the rest of the state.

"We need to bring more jobs back to rural Minnesota," Pawlenty said.

Regarding the Guthrie Theater funding, Pawlenty called it an important asset and that most of the remodeling project money was raised by the theater itself.

Finstad said he would continue to battle the unfunded mandate issue.

"I won't let it die. I'm come back with it," Finstad said. "Some groups put out a statewide action alert against me after I took a stand on it. I learned there is a lot of mistrust between elected city and county officials after county commissioners tried to bring up the subject."