Greetings!
I took the hard
Where were the House Republicans?
I do not like to pick on my Republican friends too much but they are asking voters for their support because they claim to be fiscally conservative. But mostly they just said NO on the budget cuts in 2009 and again in 2010. The Democrats did the hard lifting and cut nearly $3 billion out of state spending with little or no help from House Republicans.
Here’s the record:
1st balanced Budget: $2 billion in cuts, $2 million in one-time resources, $1 billion in new revenue. OK, they oppose any tax increases so I will let them off the hook for this one; I voted against the tax portion of the bill too.
Republicans voted NO 45 out of 47 against this bill, Source: HF 2323, 5/18/09
Budget Cuts: $312 million in spending cuts across nearly every budget area except K-12 education funding.
Republicans voted NO 43 out of 47, Source: 3/29/10
The Governor Unallotment: $2.7 billion budget reduction through cuts and payment delays to schools.
Republicans voted NO 26 out of 47, Source: HF 2690, 5/7/10
2nd Balanced Budget: $2.3 billion in budget reductions, $433 million in new revenue. (87% of total cuts were similar or the same as the Governor’s cuts) Republicans voted NO 47 out of 47, Source: HF 2037, 5/10/10
3rd Balanced Budget:$2.9 billion in budget reductions, NO NEW REVENUE, (Nearly 100% was the Governor’s cut level), recaptures $1.4 billion in taxpayers federal dollars for Early MA option. (The Republicans were for this one before they were against it).
Republicans voted NO 47 out of 47, Source: HF 3834, 5/15/10
PS: On the last day of session Senate Republicans joined their DFL colleagues and unanimously voted to send a non-controversial K-12 omnibus education bill to the House for final passage but in the House the Republicans voted unanimously against allowing a final vote! The House Republican minority leader gave no believable reason for the sudden, unanimous Republican party-line vote that killed the 2010 K-12 education bill.