Committee Unveils "Alternative" Solution
Local legislators reacted with some skepticism after an independent committee called by Arne Carlson and Walter Mondale offered up a "third way" to solve the budget crisis that has brought the state to a standstill.
A bold budget proposal was released on Thursday: $2.2 billion in permanent cuts, $1.4 billion in accounting shifts and $1.4 billion in new revenue — including a temporary, across-the-board 4 percent tax increase on personal incomes. Those are the proposed recommendations from the independent panel of Republicans, Democrats and policy experts who came together to solve Minnesota’s budget impasse. The bipartisan committee tasked with creating a so-called third alternative issued its recommendations Thursday afternoon to Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican lawmakers. In a two-page document, the committee outlines a framework for closing the $5 billion deficit by balancing 70 percent of it through spending cuts and the remaining 30 percent by …
Emma Hathaway
12:34 am on Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Gov Dayton has already spent all of the money he needed by closing any revenue producing businesses on a holiday weekend. How much has he already cost through planing, shutting down and wasting the courts time? Good thing he isn't paying the legal fees for this.No new taxes, decrease government, cut waste, start using the money the state has wisely. more ›