While Rebecca Otto chooses to be part of the problem, Pat joins other opinion leaders in promoting reform
A few weeks ago, the incumbent state auditor Rebecca Otto published a piece in the Minneapolis Star Tribune that used data from the “City Finances Report” prepared by her staff to take the predictably partisan position that rising property taxes are solely the fault of Gov. Tim Pawlenty reducing aid to local governments and the only way to solve “the problem” is to raise state taxes. Today the Star Tribune published my analysis of the City Finances Report.
As I point out in my piece in today’s Star Tribune, the full data set in the report does not support Otto’s ideological conclusion that we need to increase taxes and state aid to local governments to reduce property taxes. The data do confirm that during the Pawlenty era, local governments slowed their rates of growth while still funding essential services like public safety – the right and responsible thing to do. Less state aid did not prompt local governments to skimp on essential public services; it motivated local governments to be more efficient. Today, overall government spending is down, and our cities are making better choices on how to use tax dollars.
A key point that Otto fails to discern in the data is that both before and during the Pawlenty years, property taxes were rising to cover decreased state aid AND to fund additional spending. To maintain the pre-Pawlenty rate of growth in local spending (assuming no cuts in state aid), property taxes would still have needed to rise and overall local government spending would have been significantly higher – and all government spending ultimately comes out of taxpayer pockets.
In yesterday’s Pioneer Press, Mark Haverman, executive director of the Minnesota Taxpayers Association, made an excellent observation. He said that it doesn’t matter whether one finds local government aid useful or wasteful, because even when tax revenues get back to “something resembling normal”, it will be difficult to prioritize local government aid given exploding health and human service demands, education requirements, stressed court systems, and the needs of other key state-level services.” That’s the problem that an active state auditor should be addressing.
Since last summer, as a candidate for Governor and State Auditor, I have stressed the need to reform the relationship between state and local government. The reform we need would reduce local government aid while also reducing the number of mandates state government imposes downward. Local units of government would have more control of what services they would provide and how they would provide them, but they would also be more responsible for how those services are funded. Recently, the Association of Minnesota Counties proposed reforms along those lines. Their plan is a good start in the much-needed discussion about doing things differently and more efficiently.
Unfortunately the current state auditor isn’t interested in that discussion. Instead of being part of the solution, Rebecca Otto chooses to be part of the problem. Minnesota needs an active State Auditor – one with the courage to stand up to both the state and local governments and push reforms; one with the wisdom to look outside the box and use the insights of groups like Association of Minnesota Counties and the Minnesota Taxpayers Association to make state and local governments more efficient. That’s the kind of State Auditor I was, and that’s the kind of State Auditor I will be when we defeat Rebecca Otto this November.
As a candidate, I thank you for your support; as a fellow Minnesotan, I thank you for your concern about our state.
Pat
