Esme's Blog: Leadership Is Missing In Minnesota
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- In the 20 minutes it took Friday night to dip into a sporting goods store with three kids in tow the temperature dropped 15 degrees and the sky turned an ominous blackish blue.
Back in the car, I immediately turned on WCCO-AM, where meteorologist Mike Lynch was holding fort on a fresh round of thunderstorm warnings. A caller wondered about highway conditions, and Lynch said simply, "It's a crime the MnDOT cameras are down".
The cameras that provide instant reads on highway conditions were paid for by Minnesotans tax dollars. They are just one of the many state services that are turned off in this government shutdown. The pain of the shutdown is so sweeping it is difficult to summarize. This one analysis may do it best: Professor David Schultz of Hamline University estimates the shutdown will force the state's unemployment rate from 6.6 percent to more than 8 percent almost immediately.
The principles of both the DFL and Republican leaders are clear. Everyone gets where they are coming from. In less than 18 months voters will get to send a clearer message about what tack they want our government to take in terms of the budget crisis.
In 2010 voters sent a split message, electing a DFL Governor and Republican legislators. But in the meantime there seems to be no effort being made towards a compromise. Minnesota already has the record for the longest state government shutdown in 2005. It was a 9-day standoff over a $500 million deficit that was ended, in large part, after an agreement was put in place for a 75 cent per pack cigarette tax.
Republicans called the cigarette measure a "fee," allowing then Gov. Tim Pawlenty to hold on to his claim that he has never raised taxes.
Whether it's calling a fee a tax, or a tax a fee it's time to get creative. There is no dishonor in sacrificing principal in order to benefit people's lives. It's called leadership. And right now it's missing in Minnesota.
