Union Leader: Working Families Deserve Better Budget Deal

The agreement intended to isn’t the best possible solution for the state’s working families, a political organizer for a union representing thousands of southeastern Minnesota workers said Thursday in Northfield.

Laura Askelin said AFSCME Council 5 would continue calling for a biennium budget that raises taxes for the wealthiest Minnesotans, rather than one relying on funding shifts and borrowing, which has been outlined in the framework budget agreement between Gov. Mark Dayton and GOP leaders who are in charge of Minnesota's Legislature.

“We’re still going to fight for not putting it on the backs of the middle class and the poor,” Askelin said during a meeting of political activists and Northfielders at the . “We’re here to call for taxing the rich.”

The framework proposal would not raise taxes, but would raise $1.4 billion by issuing state bonds against future tobacco revenue ($700 million) and shifting K-12 education aid from a 70/30 formula to 60/40 ($700 million).

Districts traditionally receive the majority of their funding during the current school year and receive the remaining funds a few months after the fiscal year ends and enrollment numbers, which much of the funding is based on, are confirmed. A few years ago, the Legislature started shifting school funding by moving from 90/10, which it had been for years, to the 70/30 formula.

As part of the framework budget agreement, Republican leaders agreed to , including taking policy issues off the board and passing a $500 million bonding bill.

The Legislature is expected to convene in special session within the next few days to approve a budget and restart state government.

News of the budget agreement took center stage at the meeting, which originally was scheduled as a forum to talk about how Northfielders—particularly those residents employed by the state—were coping with the shutdown.

Meeting organizers said Northfield's state senator, Al DeKruif, and representative, Kelby Woodard, both Republicans, were invited to attend, but neither did because of scheduling issues.

Woodard confirmed the scheduling conflict to Northfield Patch on Thursday.

Askelin, who is also president of of the Southeast Minnesota Area Labor Council AFL-CIO, said her union would promote an alternative budget proposal to the one agreed to by Dayton and Republican legislative leaders until Dayton signs a budget into law.

The union is set to distribute literature detailing its budget beliefs in Northfield on Saturday.

Thursday’s 6 p.m. meeting started less than an hour after Republican legislative leaders and Dayton announced a deal to end the two-week government shutdown. Most of the 40 people at the meeting said they already knew about the agreement.

But, many weren’t happy about the deal. 

Among them was former District 25B Rep. David Bly, a Democrat, who said he doesn’t consider the agreement to be a compromise between DFLers and Republicans.

“When you were at the Capitol when I was there, you realized that people expected you to get your job done,” he said. “You had to compromise.”

Bly lost to Woodard in last year’s general election by 37 votes.

Woodard told Patch on Thursday that the news was "great for Minnesota" and that "now the work begins over the next week."

Details still need to be fleshed out with a framework for a budget in place, but said he looks forward to digging into the numbers with his fellow legislators and finalizing a budget, which is expected to be somewhere in the $34.2 billion range.

Former DFL Sen. Kevin Dahle said voters will voice their displeasure about the government shutdown and the proposed budget deal in next year’s election.

“We have to tell them we can’t tolerate this behavior,” he said.

DeKruif defeated Dahle in last year’s general election.

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