No new taxes? Try no old solutions - Winona Daily News

Our view: No new taxes? Try no old solutions

It seems the most popular answer to the question of how to solve Minnesota’s budget problem is ... no new taxes.

Easily said but not so easily done.

And it’s kind of a non-sequitur.

We’d like to see a show of hands for people who love paying taxes. That’s right, raise ‘em high.

We didn’t think so.

No one likes paying taxes, and no one likes the idea of paying more.

Yet to rule out the idea of paying more

— sacrificing more for the good of the state —

may not be the solution.

While it’s a cliche, it’s probably true that you can’t cut your way to prosperity.

So why do some believe Minnesota can?

The no-new-taxes camp loves to point out that state spending has grown rapidly during the past decade or so. What fiscal conservatives are reluctant to do is point out that those budgets have mushroomed because of an old Ronald Reagan trick

—

unfunded mandates.

What was once the province of the federal government is now just the command of it. Here’s how it works

—

the feds tell states what must be done and then don’t pay for it. Since the federal government is the bigger entity, states are left with little choice in the matter.

This means states are saddled with providing more services and needing more money along the way. The trade-off (if there is one) is that more decisions are made closer to home. The drawback is that states need more money.

States like Minnesota have been apt pupils, learning from their federal brethren along the way. You’ll notice the state’s getting pretty good at requiring counties to do things

— at their own expense. Mandates, like —ahem —

other things, roll down hill.

Folks love to talk about living within budgets

—

another catch-phrase that sounds about as good as "no new taxes."

Yet no one is saying what they would cut. What services

— specifically —

can we live without?

We have a few ideas, including consolidating jails, using alternative sentencing and having counties and school systems team up to share more resources and purchasing.

People are also quick to dole out advice, saying government should be lean, efficient and cost-conscious. Those are pretty words, and no one should disagree with the sentiment. Yet, instead of couching suggestions in business babble, why not get specific? In other words, why not demonstrate specifically where government isn’t being efficient, cost-conscious or lean?

It sounds pretty business smart to talk about living within means, budgeting and being fiscally sound. But what does that really mean

—

especially at a time when social safety nets are disappearing?

The reality is we need to make sure basic services are there to catch those who have fallen.

You think social welfare programs (a favorite target of the no-new-taxers) are expensive? Try the justice system, complete with lawyers and jails, when losing a social safety net turns some to desperation.

Implicit in the idea of no new taxes is the concept that we can dodge financial disaster and not have to pay more.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear we can have it both ways.

Every cut will have a human reality. We may talk about cutting programs and line items, but government is strictly a service industry.

For many, cutting services means that some will sacrifice a lot and others won’t sacrifice much. That hardly seems fair. But what if we’re all asked to pay a little more in the form of taxes?

What about the schools? What about the parks? What about the roads to get products from here to there? What about the kinds of health care and doctors in the area?

All of those things have value to a community, yet all are tied in some way to tax funding. Remember, government isn’t a charity: It has real value for real services.

Let’s stop the overly simplistic solutions to very complex problems.

Instead of no new taxes, how about no old cliches?

By Darrell Ehrlick, editor, on behalf of the Winona Daily News editorial board, which also includes publisher Rusty Cunningham and deputy editor Jerome Christenson. To comment, call 453-3507 or send e-mail to letters@winonadailynews.com.