The sun is shining over a bitterly cold landscape. Over a thousand Red-wing Blackbirds have fallen from the sky in a one-mile area in a small town in Arkansas. And our state legislature is not yet in session and the politicians are sharpening their knives. Signs that point to an interesting year ahead?
The birds? No one knows why. They lay sprawled in yards and streets, the glory of their red wing patches exposed. Looks like a scene from a sci-fi movie. How would you like to begin the new year by picking up forty dead birds in your yard?
The state of Minnesota faces a $6.2 billion budget deficit in the coming year. That's correct - billion, not million. Thank's to eight years of a governor with presidential aspirations. King Pawlenty boasted about his "no new taxes" policy and his red pen's vetoing power. One of his strategies involved a procedure called unallotment to cherry pick funding items passed by the legislature. His excessive use of unallotment later was struck down by the state Supreme Court. While he raided funds set aside for other purposes, such as MinnesotaCare which provides catastrophic health care cover for people unable to buy heath care insurance.
No one said the obvious (because it might be bad for business?). Less revenue due to the recession means less to spend. Until the budgetary hole that was dug is now large enough to hold a small planet.
So now that the state capital is littered with "dead birds," the new government that begins with the new governor's swearing in tomorrow has the clean-up task ahead. If folks can set aside their sharp knives and actually talk to people who don't share their perspective, the possibility of solving the enormous shadow looming over the state may offer some sunshine in the bitter cold of deep financial cuts no one wants. Even fiscal conservatives.
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