Seifert’s Magical Budget Plan – Just Campaign Fodder
I didn’t catch this one, but it turns out Marty Seifert’s mighty budget plan had a chance at the Legislature, Seifert himself didn’t even vote for some of the cuts.
Seifert wants $250 million in LGA cuts but not those $250 million in LGA cuts
What’s that? You say that the campaign trail doesn’t make its way down to the Capital? Just listen to Seifert’s excuse for voting against the cuts to balance the budget.
Seifert says he voted against the amendment because the cuts “weren’t his cuts” and said his plan is different than the budget proposal Gov. Pawlenty put forward. .
“The gross number is similar but the amendment on aids and credit distributed exactly what the governor’s reductions were. I don’t feel that a city of 250 people has the economy of scale that a city of 250,000 has,” Seifert said. “I have a distribution model that basically has a higher threshold for cities of the first class and a lower threshold the smaller the town is…”
But Emmer’s campaign spokesman Noah Rouen points out that Seifert’s budget plan doesn’t offer those specifics. He said Seifert is “making up the details of the plan to fit the situation.”
Here’s the section from Seifert’s “detailed budget plan”
AIDS AND CREDITS – $251.3 million
The current Local Government Aid program both spends more than necessary and needs significant reform
to properly target aid to local governments to provide basic services. Rep. Seifert believes local
governments and the state can save significant funds from increased city and county government
cooperation. He will advocate for regional delivery of local government services like highway engineering,
public health, welfare, IT, dispatching, economic development, and other services. Specific recommended
budget savings include:
- Local Government Aid – $250 million
- PILT payments – $1.3 million
I’m sorry, but you can’t run around the campaign trail and send out your minions (yes anonymous House staffers who leave nasty comments on the internet are minions) to demonize your opponent for not having such a grand plan that will bring world peace… sorry, still thinking about how fondly it is spoken of sometimes byu his people … balance the budget, and the vote against such cuts you proposed.
Seifert had a chance to level a huge blow to the out of control spending. But what did he do? He decided to vote against the balanced budget.
I actually did propose a $250 Million cut in LGA before I voted against it.
I’m sorry, but maybe I am right, Marty Siefert running around patting himself on the back at GOP debates was just that, self congratulatory. He had a chance to cut the state budget, he refused to.
Yes, I think the photo above is fitting. Its a delating balloon. Just s happened that it was Thomas the Train. A play on the Little Caucus that Could.
Will Joe Repya step up to the plate and endorse Tom Emmer? Will Emmer endorse Joe Repya? I see this as much more of an Emmer/Repya race than a Seifert/Emmer race. Perhaps Repya as a Lt. Gov for Emmer? We should not cut any LGA funding. I agree with Emmer’s spokesman on this, that the increasing number of police is necessary to fight the war on terrorism. Any cuts to first responders through Seifert’s proposed LGA could precipitate an attack by Al Qaida. As we saw from the blond woman arrested in the terror plot the other day, Al Qaida is everywhere, and even consists of blond people, of which there are an abundance in Minnesota. A state with so many blond-haired, blue-eyed people cannot risk cuts to first-responders.
Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow.