Overheard at the Capitol: "People get the fact we can’t fix this with spending cuts alone"

Last night I spent some time talking to a DFL House member who has attended some of the budgetary road shows ("listening sessions") that legislators have been staging around the state in the past week-plus. There was an air of surprise about his words. "Look," he said by way of preface, "the people attending these things are a self-selected group. It’s not scientific. But it really struck me that people get the fact we can’t do this"–fix the state’s $6 or $7 billion budget gap, that is–"with spending cuts alone. Revenue has to be up for discussion. Real people are saying that, not just organized interests or the official representatives of groups."

Was he saying the public is ahead of the politicians on this one?

"Yes. Not having seen any polling or anything, I think people get it. They understand that we have to have shared sacrifice here. The other interesting thing is, at these listening sessions it really starts to sink in that sometimes a cut in government spending is the equivalent of a tax increase, or worse, for a lot of people. If the state reduces reimbursements for daycare for working single moms, that means a lot of working single moms have to pay more out of their pockets.

"People are starting to understand how big this thing is. They know we can’t do it all one way. If you look at California, the solution they adopted there was 1/3 tax increases and 2/3 spending cuts. And this is a governor [Arnold Schwarzenegger] who said absolutely no new taxes in his campaign. But even he saw the need for reasonable compromise. It makes you a little more hopeful about our situation."

This legislator, like the vast majority of his colleagues, didn’t want to go on the record making encouraging sounds about tax increases, however. But he reckons the conversation will soon begin: "I think it’s all about the timing, and the leaders in the House and Senate will figure out the timing. At some point there has to be an open and honest discussion about [taxes]. Part of the tentativeness around this place is that we don’t even have the real numbers yet. It’s hard to talk about addressing the reality of the situation when we don’t yet know what the reality is in dollars and cents. As we get more certainty there, there’s more of an opportunity to have a frank discussion."

One Response to “Overheard at the Capitol: "People get the fact we can’t fix this with spending cuts alone"”

1. Anonymous Says:
   February 27th, 2009 at 2:20 pm

   “This legislator, like the vast majority of his colleagues, didn’t want to go on the record making encouraging sounds about tax increases, however.”

   Yeah, probably because he isn’t quite sure if he heard those voices before his fifth cocktail, or after.

   I’ve heard from several people that attended the Plymouth session, and this ain’t what they were saying.