Session Wrap-up or Session Spin? Anderson, Wardlow, Daley Stretch the Facts

In an article published in Sun Thisweek recapping the end of the 2012 legislative session, Representative Doug Wardlow declared it “a great session.”

However, Minnesotans feeling the impact of the two-year record of the Republican-led legislature—higher property taxes, billions borrowed from our children and an embarrassing state government shutdown—know differently.

Burnsville-Eagan legislators —Senator Ted Daley and Representatives Doug Wardlow and Diane Anderson—make a number of false and misleading claims in this latest interview.

Perhaps the most eye-popping statement in the article is from Rep. Wardlow. When discussing the Vikings Stadium vote, Wardlow states:

“I don’t think we should increase taxes for handouts for the wealthiest among us,” Wardlow said. “It’s unfortunate for the state.”

Let’s set the record straight. Last year, Rep. Wardlow voted repeatedly to keep tax breaks in place for the richest of the rich. In fact, Rep. Wardlow and his colleagues voted against budgets that asked the richest Minnesotans to pay the same taxes that the rest of us do. Rep. Wardlow and his colleagues rejected numerous fair budgets on the way to an historic state government shutdown.

To add insult to injury—or evidence to the problematic nature of Wardlow’s statement about handouts to the wealthy—this year Wardlow also voted against a proposal to end loopholes for big corporations that hide profits overseas [HF130, HF2083 - House Journal 6446, HF2083 - House Journal 6447]. It’s clear that while Wardlow takes issue with the stadium, he has absolutely no issue with allowing those that have all of the advantages and game the system to continue to do so.

The article then highlights the Republican-controlled legislature’s misplaced priorities, focusing on relief for big corporations instead of relief for homeowners and renters:

The state Republican leadership began the session by making a reduction to business property taxes a top priority.

The House and Senate passed an omnibus tax bill that would have a $72 million budget impact in the next biennium.

…

Dayton vetoed the bill citing its $72 million budget impact.

The top priority for Republicans should have been creating jobs and offering tax relief for homeowners and renters. However, both of the tax bills did neither.  The Republican tax bill simply tried to chip away at the very tax increases Republicans caused in last year’s budget deal.

In 2011, the extreme Republican legislature cut millions of dollars in Local Government Aid [HF42] and eliminated the Market Value Homestead Credit [HF 20, special session]—raising property taxes and making life harder on middle-class families. These cuts—which Wardlow, Anderson, and Daley all voted for— also caused small business property taxes to skyrocket by 7.4 percent statewide.

In a case of typical politics, Republican legislators came back with a feeble attempt to undo the taxes they increased last year with a new tax policy for businesses this year. 

And instead of offering tax relief for homeowners and renters in 2012, Republicans doubled down and focused on even bigger corporate tax giveaways. The millions of dollars in tax breaks for corporations would’ve grown our deficit next year and put an additional hole in the state’s budget in the next decade.

The article continues and Rep. Wardlow further misleads his constituents:

Though the Legislature was unable to pass a tax bill, it succeeded in turning the $5 billion deficit into a $1.2 billion surplus.

Wardlow points to the state surplus as Republican legislators’ greatest accomplishment this session.

“Fiscal responsibility goes a long way,” he said. “And by creating a surplus without raising taxes we were able to unleash free enterprise and job creation.”

While Rep. Wardlow and his Republican colleagues would like Minnesotans to believe they fixed the state’s budget deficit, they fail to mention that Minnesota faces a projected $2 billion deficit in the next two years as a result of the short-term budget gimmicks Republicans fell back on to balance the budget. This doesn’t include the additional $2 billion the legislature owes our schools.  As a result, Minnesota is still $4 billion in the hole as a result of the short-sighted gimmicks of the Republican legislature. That’s not fiscally responsible, it’s irresponsible.

Anderson and Wardlow teamed up to attempt to justify the above borrowing:

Both [Rep. Anderson and Rep. Wardlow] were proponents of using $300 million of state surplus funds to repay the education shift.

Shifts in state aid and property tax revenue over the past decade have left school districts struggling to pay their bills.

As a result, many school districts, including the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan School District, have been forced to borrow millions to balance their books. Officials at District 196 predict the district will spend approximately $100,000 for borrowing by the end of 2013.

In the last two years, the Republican-controlled legislature has done nothing to ease the woes of the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan School District—or any school district. In fact, they made the situation worse.

Last year, instead of producing a balanced budget to close the state’s long-term deficit, legislative Republicans chose a short-term fix and borrowed $700 million from our schools and children, leaving them with a $2 billion IOU and no plan to pay it back.

This year, Democrats, including the Governor, supported paying back our children responsibly and in full with revenue raised by closing corporate tax loopholes that allow corporations to hide their profits overseas and avoid paying state taxes.

But instead of closing corporate tax loopholes to pay back our children, Sen. Daley, Rep. Wardlow, Rep. Anderson and their Republican colleagues chose to raid newly filled budget reserves, which was not only fiscally irresponsible but would’ve only paid back our children a fraction of what they’re owed.

If the Republican-controlled legislature were serious about paying back our schools, they wouldn’t have protected corporate tax loopholes at the expense of Minnesota’s children.

While the local legislators have a personal stake in spinning a “great” session—after all, they want to get re-elected—the facts don’t support the spin. The Republican-controlled legislature has a two-year record of working for the wrong people on the wrong priorities.