Robin Brown, My Point of View

In just a few short weeks, the Minnesota Legislature will adjourn, its work complete, having balanced the state budget in accordance with the law for another two years. Political pundits, wonks and bloggers speculate whether any serious negotiating will be done before the Minnesota Governor’s Fishing Opener, the weekend of May 13, and if the session will end on time, May 23. They further speculate about which side will win — a budget balanced through cuts alone or a budget balanced by a combination of cuts and revenue raisers.

I wonder what our state will look like 20 or more years from now, when the long-term effects of this year’s budget decisions have been tested by time. Will our schools be vibrant centers of our communities, creating the citizen scholars needed to succeed with honor and grace in an ever-changing world? Will school districts have the resources to provide our students the tools, experiences and higher-order thinking skills needed to navigate a world where they will be bombarded with conflicting and changing information, career opportunities that don’t exist today and frequent paradigm shifts that will change the way they experience the world. As a mother, teacher, citizen and taxpayer, I reflect upon such things.

I look forward to the public discussion about our state budget that has yet to happen — a discussion that includes agreed-upon language, figures and statistics. Political parties may have strong disagreements about the direction in which they would like to lead the state, but it seems that they should be able to agree about basic facts such as the answer to the questions, “What is the current budget deficit?” and “How much does the loss of (insert program or credit of choice) affect the state’s bottom line?”

As of today, our Legislature has yet to agree upon what numbers accurately articulate changes to be expected should certain losses occur in the state budget.

Democrats are relying on calculations made by nonpartisan house research. And, although house research has been trusted for years as an honest, reliable, nonpartisan source for budget information, the Republican majority has decided to base their budget figures on unproven sources. The proposed Republican budget is based on estimations made by a number of businesses who have been unable or unwilling to share the process or source of calculations they used to create their budget.

In an ideal scenario, legislators would make decisions based on fact and not speculation. Their sources of information would be open to public scrutiny and not cloaked in secrecy. Public updates would be comprehensive: not limited to a 30-second sound bite or party talking point as it is a rare situation when such an approach tells the whole story.

An example of such incomplete information is a recent update I read from a current legislator who summarized changes to the current K-12 education funding formula. The legislator praised a base formula change, but neglected to inform constituents of losses the district would suffer in terms of categorical and other funding that would result in a major loss of K-12 funding to the children of the local school district. Now is the time to govern, not the time to campaign.

Legislators have access to information about financial and policy changes in proposed legislation and how those changes will affect their district specifically and Minnesota in general. That information is available whether or not one sits on a particular committee. It is their responsibility to give complete and accurate information with every update. It is their responsibility to be fully informed with each and every vote.

As the session comes to a close, it is vital that we share our vision for Minnesota with our legislators.

• Should each and every child in Minnesota have access to a quality education regardless of the wealth of their family or school district?

• Should we all enjoy the benefits of a clean environment today and years in the future?

• It is reasonable to expect public safety services for all?

• Can we all benefit from a strong infrastructure?

• Is it in the public interest that all citizens have access to timely, affordable health care?

Minnesota’s future is dependent on a complementary working relationship between the public and private sectors: a balance between good personal choices and good public policy. Consideration for the common good means that we recognize that there are some services that should be available to all citizens. Each one of us has an idea of what those services should be and each one of us has the responsibility to share our ideas with our public officials at every level of government. Our actions today will determine our Minnesota of tomorrow.

Moscow Township resident Robin Brown is a teacher at Albert Lea High School and former District 27A state representative. She is a member of the Freeborn County DFL Party.