| Number 110 | March 16, 2001 |
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This Week:
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Greetings, The Nygaard Notes-inspired discussion group known as the Context Club is rolling along; we're now meeting in the Powderhorn Park area of Minneapolis every other Monday night. Right now we are talking about the context surrounding the increasing U.S. involvement in Colombia. Those of you on the CC list will soon be getting a fascinating article by Doug Henwood on the economic context for U.S.-Latin America policy. It is somewhat unusual for me to devote an entire issue to a single theme, as I do this week to the issue of cuts in government programs and services. I thought it important to present these things all at once, so that readers could get a visceral sense of the breadth and scope of the attack on public spending for the common good. It's an all-out attack. Those of you who get the paper version of the Notes may have noticed that it was a little harder to read this past 2-3 weeks. I had some technical problems with the printer that took a while to fix. It should be better now; I apologize. Til next week, Nygaard |
-- Minneapolis City Council Member Dore Mead, commenting on the Mayor's city budget for 2001, which featured no increase in property taxes and was recently approved by the Council. Ms. Mead voted against the budget. |
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In the merry month of May, I will be leading a class at the Resource Center of the Americas, called "Looking at the World: Media and Foreign Affairs." It's the same class we did last fall, and we had a pretty good time, as we like to say in rural Minnesota. As the title implies, we'll generally be talking about how to interpret the news of the world that appears in the media, but the actual content of the class will be set in discussion among all in attendance on the first night. When we did it last fall we talked about such things as "decoding the news," where to find good independent sources of information, and the institutional structure of the mass media and how that affects the production of news. I always set the boundaries of the discussions quite broadly, and try to make the experience entertaining as well as enlightening. So, come one, come all. The class only lasts for 5 weeks (every Thursday in May, 6:30 to 8:30 pm), so there won't be a dull moment. For more information, visit the Resource Center website at http://www.Americas.org/ or give them a call at 612-276-0788. |
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There is something akin to unanimity among our nation's leaders -- at the federal, state, municipal, and every other level -- on the idea that it is time to cut taxes. The evidence is everywhere, with headlines like "Minnesotans in Congress Have Varied Wish List; Virtually All Agree On a Tax Cut, It's Only A Question Of How Big." As I pointed out in Nygaard Notes #105 ("Where Tax Cuts Come From") this means that our elected officials also "virtually all agree" that we should cut funding for things like the environment, legal services, long-term care, education, housing, and so forth. Even for the occasional elected official who sees a public role in meeting some of these needs, the idea that we might keep our taxes at current levels (let alone increase them!) and use the so-called "surplus" to do so is "politically unrealistic," as we are told on a daily basis in one way or another. The semi-regular feature that I call "Tax Cut Consequence of the Week" is intended to shine a spotlight on the current tax-cutting mania that grips the nation, and to shine that same spotlight on the resulting slashes in critical public programs and services that are the result of those cuts. There have been so many examples in the news lately that this week will be a collection a veritable cornucopia, one might say of reports on the phenomenon. For reasons of space, I will limit myself to examples in the State of Minnesota only. In the realm of Minnesota, we have a governor who believes in "lean and mean" government emphasis on the "mean" and he stated very clearly in his January 4th State of the State address that "it's about cutting taxes." What he doesn't say is that it's also about cutting programs and services, in such areas as... Environmental Research "Scientists from around the country expressed dismay and concern Thursday that the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has quietly decided to drop most of its research into deformed frogs, which have been found throughout the state during the past five years. Agency officials said that the program needs to be cut back because the MPCA budget is tight..." This is the lead paragraph from the Star Tribune (Newspaper of the Twin Cities!) of January 19th entitled "Scientists Dismayed by MPCA Move Away from Frog Research." Some readers may recall that schoolchildren first discovered deformed frogs near the town of Henderson in southern Minnesota in 1995, a discovery which caused quite a sensation since "there is a consensus that frogs are early indicators of environmental problems and that the causes of deformities must be discovered because of the possible implications for human health." The article reported that Perry Jones, a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey who is studying chemicals in and near frog ponds in Minnesota, believes that it is a shame for the MPCA to withdraw its support, saying "We're at a critical point, and all of the different scientists are starting to collaborate a lot more. We can't have this kind of breakdown." On the same page, same day, ran an article headlined "Minnesota Tax Burdens Falling out of Top 10 Nationally." Damn straight. That's because we don't waste all that money on frog research, or other dumb stuff like... Long-Term Care Also on the same page, on the same day, appeared a report on a state government task force that recently released the results of a study on the state's situation in regard to long-term care. Much long-term care occurs in nursing homes, but increasingly we are trying to allow people to live in the community, which is almost everyone's preference. The task force recommended a number of specific steps to take. One of the things they recommended was some new state spending to, among other things, raise the wages of home-care workers. Wages for home-care workers are basically set by the state, and they are so low that "The worker shortage is a crisis," according to everyone who is paying attention. But, as the Star Trib article points out, "While the Ventura administration agrees with the goals of the task force and the trade associations, it has placed a higher value on tax reform and tax rebates, and this session will propose significantly less additional spending for long-term care reform." This comment comes from Human Services Commissioner Michael O'Keefe, a member of the Governor's cabinet, who chaired the task force. It's worth noting that, while it included some good information, the article typically mis-characterized the task force as having studied "how best to care for aged Minnesotans." In fact, the task force's report was called "Reshaping Long-Term Care in Minnesota," and long-term care affects not only elderly people, but many people with disabilities as well. In the case of long-term care, as with Medicare and prescription drugs, people with disabilities remain the "invisible minority" in much of the corporate press. Speaking of invisible people, how about those funding cuts in... Legal Services for Abused and Neglected Kids An article in the March 7th Star Trib reports that the legislative auditor in our state says Minnesota's trial courts "efficiently handle caseloads that are significantly higher than in comparable states." The excellent article continues, "Court officials say they appreciate the kind words, but what they need is money for new judges, law clerks and court interpreters, and for guardians ad litem, who speak for abused and neglected children in court." "Guardians ad litem" are the people who represent kids who end up in court because they have been abused or neglected, and who have no adults looking out for them. These are innocent kids. The courts are asking for more money in part because "Minnesota's guardian ad litem system is so underfunded that only about half of the abused and neglected children have representation in court hearings as required by federal and state law," according to Supreme Court Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz, who added, "I think a question we all have to ask ourselves is how we can call this a child protection system when we don't have a voice for the child 40 percent and more of the time." Beyond the money for guardians ad litem, court officials are also asking for $20 million to begin upgrading a crime computer system that doesn't always provide judges and police with accurate criminal records of defendants, $10.1 million for mandated court interpreter services, and $6.8 million to increase salaries for judges' law clerks. All of this adds up to a funding increase of 31 percent, or $86 million. Governor Lean n Mean Ventura has proposed an increase of only 13 percent, or $34 million. This money would not be spent on "frills" or "waste." Having sufficient numbers of law clerks is basic to providing people a fair day in court. Given the pattern of rampant arrests on questionable grounds especially of people of color the ability of the courts to provide a fair hearing is a matter of serious concern for anyone who is concerned with human rights and the effects of racism. A large percentage of people in need of interpretive services, especially, are people of color. And in a time of record budget surpluses, it should be difficult to make the argument that the state cannot afford the technology to tell the court if a person has a criminal record or not. Yet this is the argument made by our governor. Mental Illness Services Many people are aware that a number of mentally ill people in the Twin Cities have been killed by police in the past year. That's a big story, and it should be. But a big part of the story which isn't too well-known is that some of these tragedies could be averted if we had the resources to offer support to people before a crisis occurs. The Star Trib ran a front-page article on the problem in its December 17th edition which pointed out that "Since the 1970s, when the state began moving people with mental illnesses out of institutions and into the community, laws have been passed requiring county governments to provide social supports to people with such illnesses as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, serious depression, and a few others. "But mental health advocates and government officials alike say that in the Twin Cities area these programs, especially long-term housing that includes oversight and care, have never been adequately funded." In addition, the story points out that the state psychiatric hospital which serves the Twin Cities -- the place where people facing a mental health crisis might go before they end up in a fatal confrontation with the cops -- now has a waiting list of 40 days. State Workers' Wages Local labor bi-weekly paper The Union Advocate of December 20th reports that wages for state employees are so low that the State cannot find enough workers to perform essential functions. (The same thing is happening on the federal level, as I reported in NN #104.) As an example, dozens of snowplows sit idle during each snowstorm in the metropolitan area "because of the lack of employees to run them." In addition, nurses at the Minneapolis Veterans' Home are leaving their jobs to go and work in the private sector, and the Department of Corrections recently announced that, in an attempt to cut costs, it will not fill 72 vacant positions. Higher Education Governor Lean n Mean's attempts to cut the state budget for higher education have been discussed widely in the local press, but the de-funding of our state colleges was underway before the current budget was proposed, as reported in a news brief in the Star Trib of January 27th. That day's paper reported that Southwest State University in Marshall, Minnesota "may have to cut more than 30 staff positions to cope with a $2.7 million shortfall in its current budget." The article notes that "Southwest State is experiencing record enrollment while being ranked the No. 1 public liberal-arts college in the Midwest for the last four years by U.S. News and World Report," making it appear that these budget cuts are not exactly aimed at "non-competitive" schools, as Gov Lean n Mean likes to claim. Again, these cuts were planned BEFORE the Governor announced his lean n mean higher education budget in January. Decent Housing Rental properties in Minneapolis are supposed to be inspected, to make sure they are meeting basic requirements, like heat, and running water. Ten years after the city passed a rental-licensing law, "only a third of the city's estimated 75,000 rental units have received the examinations required by law," according to an article in the Star Trib of January 22nd, entitled "Rental Licensing Fails Some Tenants." It's nice to have a law, but it's no surprise that the impact of that law is falling short of expectations, since funding levels are so low that each of the city's 23 inspectors is expected to deal with 2,608 housing cases each year, for an average of 10 cases every workday, all year long. The Super Anti-Tax Majority The January 30th Star Trib reported on the progress of a bill that would require any tax or fee increase to get a 3/5 vote in the legislature in order to become law. It probably won't pass, but it is a sign of the times that we are not likely to see any similar "Super Majority" requirement proposed on attempts to cut the levels of funding for public services. |