Senate joins in on budget cuts

Minnesota's new Republican-led Legislature on Thursday continued its drive to force-feed Gov. Mark Dayton nearly $1 billion in budget cuts that DFLers and the governor complained were premature and hypocritical.

Splitting along party lines, the Senate voted 37-27 to make $830 million in permanent cuts and direct state agencies to cut another $125 million by June 30.

The bill also sets up a procedural move that could require Dayton to sign or veto the bill days before he unveils his own budget. A similar House bill that cuts $1 billion passed last week.

Dayton has criticized the GOP cuts as a "piecemeal approach" to resolving the state's projected $6.2 billion deficit. He had asked them to wait until he released his budget on Feb. 15.

But Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch said on Thursday that the bill was just a down payment on deeper cuts. "This is really simply the beginning," she said.

The Senate bill would reduce local government aid by $300 million and renters' credits by more than $100 million over two years. In an attempt to push even more immediate cost cutting, the Senate bill seeks another $125 million in state agency cuts by summer.

Republicans in the House and Senate are trying to meet another self-imposed deadline. If Dayton agreed to sign the bill by next Thursday, the cuts could be incorporated into the upcoming economic forecast, lowering the state's projected deficit by as much as $1 billion.

'A little disappointed'

Thursday's nearly three-hour Senate debate marked the most passionate criticisms by DFLers since the party lost the Senate majority for the first time in more than a generation. DFLers said the cuts were being made too quickly, without adequate testimony from the public. Unlike a year ago, they noted, the cuts would not be backfilled by federal stimulus money.

"I'm a little disappointed about how we're getting started," Senate Minority Leader Tom Bakk said.

Republicans said the cuts were long overdue and dismissed DFL allegations that, in cutting social spending and higher education, Minnesota was erasing its image as a "compassionate" place to live. "It is not compassion to make promises that we can't keep," said Sen. Geoff Michel, R-Edina, referring to the state's budget deficit. "That is what the 2011 [legislative] session is going to be about."

In often pointed exchanges, a series of high-ranking DFLers attempted to question individual freshman Republican senators on whether they were aware of the magnitude of the reductions and how they would affect their districts.

Miller, a freshman Republican from Winona, replied: "They're aware that cuts are coming ... we have a lot of very, very difficult decisions to make.

"Is it going to be easy for our campuses? No," he said.

Roles reversed

In many ways, Thursday's vote was a role reversal from a year ago, with Republicans pushing for a first-step, partial list of cuts that many had criticized DFLers for attempting last year.

DFLers, led by Sen. Richard Cohen of St. Paul, said that a year ago even former Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty criticized DFLers for trying to solve the state's budget deficit in phases.

The day's events underscored how the DFL's longtime senior senators have now been relegated to the minority. In a sign of her diminished influence, Sen. Linda Berglin of Minneapolis, the DFL's longtime leader on health and human service issues, lost a separate vote on Thursday to prevent cuts to programs aimed at helping senior citizens and children.

"Don't throw vulnerable children and senior citizens under the bus first," Berglin said.

Sen. Claire Robling, R-Jordan, the budget-cutting bill's chief author, called Berglin's treasured programs "sort of the safety nets to the safety nets ... I know it's not easy, but we are in difficult times here."