Fresh on the heels of a record $18 billion surplus, Minnesota now finds itself facing a predicted $5 billion deficit.

Holy cow. And even with the addition of billions of dollars in tax increases, Minnesota is back in budget crisis mode.

Listening to Gov. Walz and the “Trifecta” leaders, we are to believe that we must blame the deficit on budget-breaking costly children with autism and expensive persons on disability waivers.

Stop.

The needs of those persons, while complex and pricey, make up a very small fraction of the state budget. My advice: Leave these people alone. Quit blaming them. They face enough challenges in their lives without being blamed for spending decisions
far from their control.

The reality is that the Trifecta leaders worked alone, ignoring all advice from across the aisle, to increase spending to astronomical levels. They paid no heed to those with sage fiscal savvy and worked in secret while going on the spending spree of a
lifetime.

In their haste to buy virtually every trinket in the store, they neglected to adequately fund the very things Minnesotans rely on: hospitals, nursing homes, and even medical transportation for needy persons getting blood transfusions and dialysis.

And in awarding record-breaking funding for schools, they didn’t listen to the experts in the school districts on how to usefully allocate that spending. Tragically, in the face of receiving two to three times the usual funding increase, nearly every district is cutting teachers and staff while fewer than half of the students can read and do math at grade level.

Hardly a success story.

It is time for all the elected voices to be heard. Both political sides have good ideas. By blending them and reshaping them as “iron sharpens iron,” many good things can happen.

With the very close balance in the Minnesota Legislature, now is the time for all knowledgeable parties and elected officials to work together to put Humpty Dumpty back together. Using skills we all learned in kindergarten, we can cooperate with our neighbor and work to avert the $5 billion financial cliff and give Minnesotans the Minnesota they expect.

We don’t need any more new taxes to make it work. There is enough money, if we act collaboratively and wisely. We need the innovation that families use when they run a bit short. In the Depression people “used it up, wore it out and made it do.” There is wisdom in learning from the past, from times where success was borne out of challenges.

Let’s give Minnesotans good schools, safe neighborhoods, clean air and water, good jobs and a state they can be proud of. It can be done. And we can do it without blaming youth and adults fighting life-altering challenges.

Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, represents District 35 in the Minnesota State Senate, where he serves on the Education Policy and Health and Human Services committees.

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