07/26/11 - Winona Daily News: Effects of anti-tax zealotry will reverberate for long time from now, by Cynthia Moothart
Effects of anti-tax zealotry will reverberate for long time from now
By Cynthia MoothartIn his first inaugural address, Ronald Reagan stated: "Government is not a solution to our problem; government is the problem."
That applause line since has hardened into a philosophical belief leaving no room for the possibility that government can or should be a positive force in American life. For small-government advocates, the fact of those words is beyond dispute.
This anti-tax extremism has cost our state dearly-and not just in catastrophic revenue losses resulting from this month's government shutdown.
The 1970s bipartisan investments that built our state into an economic and educational powerhouse have disappeared into rising poverty rates and chronic unemployment. The jewels of Minnesota, our K-12 schools and world-class universities, now strain against failing investment.
The facts are undeniable:
The nonpartisan Job Now Coalition reports that Minnesota lost 63,000 jobs between 2001 and 2010, compared to a net gain of about 562,000 jobs from 1991 to 2000. Even before the economic meltdown in 2008, Minnesota was adding fewer than 10,000 jobs a year, compared to 56,000 annually in the preceding decade.
Childhood poverty in Minnesota skyrocketed by 56 percent between 2000 and 2010, according to the Children's Defense Fund.
White students scored only 1 point above the national average in the 2010 Nation's Report Card on reading scores by the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Kids of color lagged dramatically behind their national counterparts, resulting in a singular achievement gap nationwide.
With increasing tuition rates, the Institute for College Access & Success reports that Minnesota ranks third nationally in the number of kids who leave college with debt and sixth in amount owed, averaging more than $27,000.
To halt this slide, Gov. Mark Dayton proposed a budget calling on the wealthiest Minnesotans to kick in their fair share. His words weren't just talk: The Department of Revenue reported early this year that a household earning $45,000 a year pays 12.3 percent in state and local taxes, while those with incomes of $450,000 or more are on the hook for less than 10 percent.
Stonewalling on the part of Republicans - who insisted on cuts, not tax equity, to erase the $5 billion shortfall left by Tim Pawlenty - led to the shutdown. But the impact of their anti-tax zealotry will be keenly felt long past this week's budget agreement.
The Economist magazine, a conservative publication based in Britain, recently outlined the fundamental flaw of small-government orthodoxy, stating: "austerity and growth just do not mix." The idea that cutting taxes and shrinking government deliver economic renewal was proved false in a massive study recently conducted by the International Monetary Fund. Considering fiscal policies between 1978 and 2009, the IMF found the opposite to be a constant across the globe: When government investment retracts, economic output falls and unemployment rises.
It's the same trend we've experienced here in Minnesota. According to the Department of Management and Budget, the price of government, as a percentage of personal income, has dropped significantly since first calculated two decades ago. As we hover around rock bottom these days, we're no longer imagining ways to excel: We're fighting over ways to dig ourselves out of a massive hole.
The bills signed into law on Wednesday are slightly less damaging than the original Republican budget, but they still represent a critical lack of necessary investment. Two years from now, we'll be facing down even worst prospects, more so if Republicans' small-government anti-tax extremism still prevails at the Statehouse. www.winonadailynews.com/news/opinion/editorial/columnists/article_47e543c4-b704-11e0-a232-001cc4c03286.html
