The dust is beginning to settle on the 2009 legislative session. With our state facing a historic $6.4 billion budget deficit and record high unemployment, arriving at a budget fix was extremely challenging. We worked hard to protect jobs, while at the same time continue adequate funding for schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and every other important aspect of state government. Through it all, I believe all of us struggled with some really tough choices.

For the most part, the state Legislature and the Gov. Tim Pawlenty worked pretty well together this session. He signed most of our bills, putting in place many good provisions that support veterans, protect schools from deep cuts and provide important jobs through a capital investment bill. We were fortunate to get additional funding for the Edgewater Park Project, allowing the city of Albert Lea to complete the remedial work for the dump clean up. This project has been a priority for the Pollution Control Agency and has received funding in three past bonding bills.

In addition, a provision in the tax policy bill changes the formula for distribution of wind energy production revenues, keeping more of these revenues local. The new distribution is 80 percent to the county and 20 percent to the city or township.

There was even significant agreement on the final budget, with Pawlenty’s signing five-sixths of the budget into law, including nearly $2 billion in budget cuts. A plan to plug the remaining $1 billion hole remained the sticking point to the end.

While I wish we could have ended differently, the cuts that were on the table were too damaging for me to agree to. The Albert Lea Medical Center would lose over $4 million over the next two years if the governor’s plan is enacted, and the city of Albert Lea would lose $734,000 in local government aid. Despite his claim that he doesn’t raise taxes, cuts this deep will force property taxes up again, as much as 11 percent in Greater Minnesota, and raise health care costs for every one of us. The people I talked to in our communities asked me not to support this plan that would cost permanent harm.

By comparison, the responsible plan we passed in the House leaves LGA intact and cuts of $258,000 from the Albert Lea Medical Center, considerably less than the Pawlenty’s plan.

The governor refused to consider our tax plan, which would have asked married couples making $300,000 a year to pay an additional $109 a year. At the same time, he cut the renters’ credit — resulting in a $126 tax increase for the 1,600 renters in Freeborn County — 43 percent of whom are the elderly and the disabled! Is it really OK to ask seniors and the disabled to pay a larger increase in taxes than the most fortunate?

He also cut over 30,000 of the poorest and sickest Minnesotans from their basic health care, many of them veterans and widows, when he vetoed the general assistance funding. This is another choice I cannot support.

The governor will now begin to cut close to $3 billion from state spending — 10 times larger than any unallotment in the history of our state. At a press conference on Monday of this week, he indicated the first areas to be considered will be state government (which the House budget cut even more than the governor), local government aid, health care and higher education. We will soon find out how much our hospitals, nursing homes and local governments will pay as a result of the choices the governor will make.

So, in the end, while the choices before me were tough ones, I believe I made the right decisions. I chose to support a balanced budget plan that protects homeowners from property tax increases, and maintains our commitment to schools, hospitals and nursing homes. I believe most Minnesotans agree that this “pay-as-you-go” plan is more responsible than the “borrow and spend” plan of the governor.

As always, it is an honor to represent you. Please continue to contact me with your questions and suggestions.