Governor Mark Dayton’s budget has set off a flurry of commentary. Those who believe that critical state needs have been ignored for much of the last decade are rallying in praise of the governor’s proposal. And those who believe Minnesota has a spending problem, not a revenue shortfall, argue that the governor is promising just more Big Government.
These are debates worth having. There are elements of Dayton’s budget that make sense and pieces that simply keep us on the path of government trying to do too much for too many. Republicans are right in their arguments that taxes matter. In an economy in which Minnesota competes for money and jobs worldwide, a tax system that draws too much away from investment is unsustainable.
But those debating points are incidental to the question Minnesotans should be asking:
What is needed to make Minnesota the most innovative state in the country?
When it’s all said and done, that should be the ultimate measure of any plan to collect and spend tax dollars. Instead, the debate sparked by the governor’s budget is nothing more than how Minnesota can best continue treading water.
Almost certainly, the legislature will approve new taxes and more spending. But there is nothing in Dayton’s plan or the Republicans’ criticism that is likely to change the reality that throughout the last decade, in good years and bad, job creation in Minnesota has lagged behind much of the nation. And even in recent months as job growth has picked up, many of the new jobs fall far short of what is needed for middle class lifestyles. In fact, a Star Tribune analysis found that more than one-third of the jobs created pay $10 an hour or less.
A debate framed by the political left’s old way of doing things versus the political right’s old way of doing things is bad news for Minnesotans. We need innovation. We need bold innovation. We need to be the most innovative state in the country.
How do we get there? A few ideas to germinate your thinking:
- Create a tax system that promotes investment and job creation, taxes consumption and is absolutely transparent. Yes, expanding the sales tax is necessary. Including new taxes on business-to-business activities, though, makes Minnesota providers of professional services – services that easily move across state lines – less competitive. Subsidizing property taxes without regard to need is politically popular, but it is bad policy. Let counties keep some of the sales tax collected in their communities (providing support for poorer counties or counties with few retail centers), then let local voters determine priorities. And stop piling hidden taxes on businesses. They make Minnesota less competitive and – as many studies have shown – ultimately end up being paid by consumers.
- Stop treating education as if it were an assembly line that can impose quality assurance tests at different points in the process. Hire and train outstanding leaders to be principals, then give them control over their schools. Let them make hiring and firing decisions. Allow principals to decide how funds should be spent. Then hold the principals accountable for student outcomes. Integrate technology into learning in meaningful ways. For example, allow students to learn at the right pace for each, then challenge them to do better. Use technology so that the advanced students in a classroom can keep moving forward while other students have the ability to stay on track.
- Prepare for the future. Minnesota is aging. The cost of aging services in today’s system is unsustainable. Start now to encourage new delivery systems, to promote private savings and personal responsibility and to engage communities in thinking differently about caring for older residents. On another front, Minnesota has done a better job of managing public pensions than most states, but our programs still are under-funded. We can wait for a crisis to hit and a plan to go bankrupt or we can start now to implement long-term solutions that deliver on the promises made to public workers while avoiding massive taxpayer bailouts.
Minnesota is filled with innovative thinkers who have great ideas to deliver public services that are lower-cost and higher-quality. The challenge isn’t a lack of creativity, it is a lack of political will.
How does that change? You. If we want Minnesota to be the most innovative state in the country, Minnesotans have to be the most involved citizens in the country. Join the debate. Your voice will make a difference.
This post was written by Amanda Horner and originally published on NextMinnesota. Follow NextMinnesota on Twitter: @nextMN.
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