We
are the public that expects more from our leaders. We Minnesotans think
about our elected officials as public servants. We elected them to
represent our individual and shared interests. They are the stewards of
our "public life," and they are responsible for our common good. The
most privileged among us and the most frail; the most politically
engaged and the most apathetic; the urban, suburban and rural farm
dwellers; the young and the old — all do connect around the public
structures that make our lives "civilized."
Shared values, shared benefits
We
turn on the water and drink. This is safe because we have a shared
investment in a government that protects and delivers our water, a
government that keeps our food and water and streets and homes and
businesses safe.
Education creates opportunities for individuals and a thriving economy that benefits all. So we have "public" schools that are available to support each child in learning and striving.
We value work and are a hard-working state. So we get in our cars —
some with chauffeurs, others with cracked windshields — and we drive on
roads that have paving (more or less), names and numbers, and are mapped
to get us to our jobs, our meetings, our conferences, our job training.
That, too, is because government works to serve the public. Sometimes
government even enables us to get to work via public transit!
And
there is more. No one is totally safe from crime, whether in a gated
community or a rundown neighborhood. But government acts on behalf of
all of us, enforcing the rules that we have set for protecting all of us
from domestic assault, sexual violence, robbery, fraud, murder and
more.
You get the point. We do have a public life, and all of us are part of it.
Only losers, not winners
We
deserve to have those public servants whom we choose at the polls keep
the structures working so that we can thrive and survive. We've seen the
impact of the first days of a shutdown on the private, public, and
nonprofit sectors — jobs, wages, opportunities, profits. It isn't
pretty. And there are only losers, not winners. How did we let this
happen?
This is where the truth comes into question. In the last
urgent meetings to try to avoid the shutdown, we now know that the
governor made concessions, even on his most clearly stated commitment to
raise taxes on the few high earners who pay a relatively low portion of
their income in taxes. Gov. Mark Dayton sees increased revenue, raised
fairly, as the only way to avoid such deep cuts that our public
structures and shared quality of life would be permanently harmed. In
hopes of keeping government in the public-service business, he moved
from his initial budget proposal on multiple counts, even offering to
narrow the field of taxpayers who would be impacted by an increase to
those making over $1 million. Still no deal? How can this be?
'Poison pill' deal killers
Well,
the story is out now, and it seems that in those last efforts to keep
the lights on in Minnesota, the GOP leaders made offers that included
clear and obvious "poison pill" deal killers. They added non-budget
issues to the budget negotiations.
Now Minnesotans have a wide
range of opinions about abortion rights, photo ID at the polls, and the
political impact of political redistricting, but we all should be able
to see that raising these already debated lightning-rod issues in the
last hours of negotiation made any pretense at serious budget solutions a
mockery! It is not possible that anyone is fooled into thinking that
those were offers designed to get to an agreement about how to solve the
budget crisis.
So now what? The consequences of resolving the
budget problem just with cuts will mean deeper problems than we have
now. Minnesota needs to be a highly functioning state, able to make
strategic investments in structures and amenities that make ours the
most livable communities. Otherwise we cannot thrive in a global and
national economy. That's a reality.
It is a political choice to
be at a stalemate. GOP leaders have been focused on their loyalty to an
old "no new taxes" slogan, not loyalty to their state. We deserve
better. The more we allow elected leaders to avoid real compromise, to
lie with impunity, to tell us that they are working for us when they
have rigged negotiations to fail, the more all of us will find our
shared public life diminished.
Citizens can play essential role
Again,
the question. How did we let this happen? Citizens can play the most
essential role in determining the quality of our public life. Every one
of us needs to let our elected officials know that we thank them and
respect them for good public service. And we must also tell them that we
will no longer tolerate turning our public life into a political game.
In the spirit of walking my talk, I thank Gov. Dayton for holding firm
for a balanced approach to using both revenues and cuts to keep the
state as strong as possible in this economic crisis. I urge Sen. Amy
Koch and Rep. Kurt Zellers to be public leaders for all Minnesotans, not
just partisans, and get serious about common sense solutions to our
problems.
Fellow Minnesotans, now it's your turn. Be a voice for
honest, workable budget solutions, for keeping Minnesota strong in our
100 percent shared self interest, and for getting government back to
work. Call, email, join with others in demanding accurate information
and sensible solutions. And if our public servants have forgotten what
public service is, help them remember in the next election!
Marcia
Avner, of St. Paul, is a consultant to nonprofits and other
institutions engaged in public-policy work. She is the author of two
books, "The Lobbying and Advocacy Handbook for Nonprofit Organizations:
Shaping Public Policy at the State and Local Level" (2002) and "The
Board Member's Guide to Lobbying and Advocacy" (2004).