Getting an earful

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Solutions for solving the estimated $4.8 billion deficit next biennium were few and far between at more than 20 town hall meetings held across the state the past two weeks. However, there was plenty of hand-wringing over the impact of Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s proposed budget cuts. Government workers and local taxpayers turned up in droves from Virginia to Albert Lea and from Moorhead to Winona and told a legislative panel how the proposed budget cuts would affect them. A few offered solutions, ranging from implementing a four-day work week to raising taxes. “This illustrates that we’re not looking at numbers on a page and there are no easy answers,” said Rep. Gene Pelowski Jr. (DFL-Winona). Continue Reading

Proposed budget would cut $12M from state financial aid

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Tighten your belt and pull out your wallet — financial aid is under the axe at the State Capitol. Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s 2010-11 budget recommendations included a $12.75 million cut to state financial aid options, though the cut is far less than Pawlenty called for from other state agencies. MN Daily Editor’s Note: This is the first in a three-part series about Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s proposed changes to the state’s higher education budget. The cuts would fall onto the Minnesota Office of Higher Education’s financial aid offerings, which cover everything from work study programs to the Minnesota Indian Scholarship. The largest portion of state financial aid, the $291 million State Grant Program, remained untouched in the proposal. Continue Reading

U departments begin working on preliminary budgets, tuition may rise by 7 percent

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The University of Minnesota is bracing itself for the cuts in Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s proposed budget. The University’s funding will be reduced by $151 million dollars over the next biennium, a reduction of about 11 percent, according to a statement by University President Bob Bruininks. But the roughly $75 million the governor is proposing to cut next year is only part of the problem, University Chief Financial Officer Richard Pfutzenreuter said . With other essential expenses like the utility bill, debt, leases, technology licensing fees and the cost of fringe benefits, the University needs to make up about $133 million from next year’s budget, Pfutzenreuter said. “The budget problem the University faces is always larger than any money the state gives us, but this year the state cut us $75 million,” he said. Continue Reading

Share your views on the state’s budget crisis

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What can we do to resolve Minnesota’s impending budget crisis? In the next couple weeks, legislators will hold a series of public meetings across the state to hear from you. Nationwide, 34 of 50 states project budget deficits for 2010, analysts report.Minnesota’s budget deficit is the 10th largest and accounts for 15 percent of the state budget –or $5 billion. Most of the affected states—including Wisconsin, Michigan and California—plan to use a combination of revenue increases and limited service cuts to resolve their deficits. The Minnesota AFL-CIO, the state’s largest labor federation, is encouraging people to attend the public meetings and call for a fair solution to the budget crisis. Continue Reading

U, MnSCU: The budget boondoggle

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The University of Minnesota is not the only public higher education institution in the state casting a worried glance at the state’s economic future.Spread across 32 schools, with enrollment numbers ranging from more than 300 to almost 17,000, the schools that make up the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) system face the same challenges as those of the University — and are using some similar solutions. Gov. Tim Pawlenty has recommended a $146 million cut to MnSCU ’s budget over the next two years, a 10.7 percent difference. At a Feb. 5 Senate Higher Education Policy and Finance Division hearing, MnSCU’s Chief Financial Officer Laura King presented a doomsday scenario of the effects such a cut could have on the system:
-If the cut was made up in only tuition revenue, tuition would increase 11 percent. -If the cut was made up in only staff reductions, more than 1,000 people would lose their jobs. Continue Reading

All-Minnesota Perpich Arts Education Center threatened

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It’s been eleven years since Sally Volar graduated from the Perpich Center for Arts Education (PCAE), but she says that her life would be totally different if she hadn’t gone there. For her day job, Sally works with homeless and urban youth as a social worker, but she also plays violin with various world bands around the Twin Cities, and explores the art of photography. Much like the curriculum of the Perpich Center, which teaches not only technical art classes, but arts-integrated curriculum, Volar infuses art in everything she does, whether through her work with youth, or pursuing her music, or simply living her life in a creative and artistic way. The 24-year-old Perpich Center is more than an arts high school — it’s a state agency whose primary purpose, set by Minnesota law, is to “provide assistance in arts education to school districts, including professional development, funding and educational programs around the state.”
This year, Governor Tim Pawlenty’s budget recommends that the outreach functions of PCAE end by 2011, and the school will be turned into a charter school. Under the governor’s plan, the teacher training, curriculum development, and outreach that PCAE currently provides would end, and state funding for students would decrease dramatically. Continue Reading

VOICES | State budget solutions shouldn’t pick winners and losers

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Massive layoffs. Families losing their health care, others losing their homes. Parents wondering how to send their kids to college, and senior citizens putting off retirement. We can’t pick up the paper or turn on the TV these days without hearing another story about how bad the economy is. The economic freefall has affected thousands of Minnesota families. Continue Reading

Meeting the State Budget Challenge

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This message was sent by President Robert H. Bruininks to all faculty and staff on February 9, 2009. The move to “[reconfigure] from a free-standing administrative unit to which all graduate programs directly report, to an Office of Graduate Education within the Provost’s Office that parallels the Office of Undergraduate Education” was announced in an email from the Provost E. Thomas Sullivan dated February 9. Another February 9 email from U of M President Robert Bruininks described severe budget cuts to the U of M, amounting to a permanent reduction in state funding of $78 million per year. The TC Daily Planet invites readers to comment and to send further information. Related articles: U of M slashes spending, disbands grad school administration, from Minnesota Daily and Restructuring the Oversight and Support of Graduate Education to Enhance Excellence, email from Provost E. Thomas Sullivan. Continue Reading

Raise taxes? Rukavina broaches the taboo

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Raising taxes to solve the state’s looming $5 billion budget deficit has generally been a verboten subject. Gov. Tim Pawlenty, not surprisingly, has stuck to the no-new-taxes mantra that’s been the guiding philosophy of his two terms in office. His fellow Republicans at the Capitol have been equally adamant that the budget must be fixed without revenue increases. Even Democrats have been reluctant to broach the topic of tax increases. Since Pawlenty unveiled his budget proposal last week, the party’s leadership has been notably vague in detailing what alternatives they might suggest for fixing the state’s fiscal crisis. Continue Reading

Without saying it, Governor concedes revenue problem

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The Governor’s mantra is, “Minnesota does not have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem.” However, the Governor’s own information contradicts this longstanding assertion. As demonstrated previously, per capita state general fund spending is projected to decline by over nine percent from fiscal year (FY) 2003 to FY 2009 after adjusting for inflation in government purchases. Clearly, Minnesota does not have spending problem, unless you define a nine plus percent drop in real per capita spending over a six year period as a problem. The Governor’s own budget material demonstrates the real problem. Continue Reading