| For Immediate Release | For more information contact: |
| February 28, 2002 | Jason Wenisch (651-296-2317) |
St. Paul One day later and following a second vote, a veto override was approved 99-33 in the House of Representatives. Earlier, Governor Ventura had vetoed the Legislature's balanced budget agreement. Representative Bob Ness (R-Dassel) was pleased that the bill is one step closer to being final. The Senate must override the Governor's veto as well before the bill becomes law, a move that is expected to have overwhelming support.
"Trying to reduce a $2.3 billion deficit is a difficult task," said Representative Bob Ness (R- Dassel), "but I'm happy House Democrats finally realized this was the best deficit reduction plan on the table that protected rural Minnesota, and that the majority of Minnesotans favored the bill."
The budget reduction plan calls for no tax increases and protects funding for public school classrooms, state nursing homes, and local governments. It uses approximately $1.5 billion in state budget reserves, along with $360 million in immediate spending cuts. It also eliminates automatic inflationary increases that are currently built into the state budget.
State agencies will absorb the largest percentage of cuts to their budgets. Ness said the bureaucracy needed to be cut first before reductions to state services were made. "We needed fewer mandates and downsizing of government first," Ness said.
The balanced-budget plan also protected funding for K-12 public school classrooms. "Our small cuts to education won't affect our local classrooms," Ness said. "Most of the cuts were targeted at the Department of Children, Families and Learning in St. Paul."
In addition to local classrooms, Ness said the budget plan protects local governments as well. The Governor's proposal contained significant cuts to Local Government Aid (LGA) from the state to balance the budget. "This would have resulted in unfair property tax increases," Ness said. "This global companion agreement will safeguard LGA and protect local property tax payers."
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"There are no easy solutions to address a budget deficit," Ness continued. "We're trying to make the best out of a very difficult situation, and this was just the first phase in responding in a timely manner. Now we are going to have do Phase II, and none of the future choices will be any better. However, somehow, someway this will get done."
"In 1992, when I was first elected, we faced a $2.5 billion deficit. We made some tough cuts then, and the economy rebounded. Similarly, the state took action in 1982 with 7 special sessions and also in 1972 when we had the budget shortfall and the energy crisis. We worked through all of those situations in a bipartisan manner, and we will do it again this session," Ness said.
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