State budget should follow Biblical lessons - Duluth News Tribune

The Rev. Kathy Larson and the Rev. Lon Weaver, Duluth News Tribune, March 27, 2011

We are writing on behalf of faith communities rooted in rich traditions and with special sensitivity to the vulnerable in our society. The book of Isaiah calls us to become “repairers of the breach” by building a society that responds to the needs of the poor and the broken. It is part of the fiber of who we are. When we fail in this, Isaiah teaches that we are presumptuous to call ourselves “a nation that practices righteousness.” When we neglect to do this, we are maintaining the chasm described in Jesus’ parable in the gospel of Luke about the separation between the “Rich One” and his neighbor, Lazarus, who lay wounded outside the gate — a harrowing fact in which the breach in this life stretched into one that existed in the life to come.

The message of the prophets is directed not at faith communities in particular but at the nation as a whole.

A growing chasm exists in Minnesota. We see evidence of this in the budget decisions our local school district has to make. Because the state has withheld 30 percent of its promised money to the Duluth school district, the School Board has been forced to make painful cuts. Among these are $1 million from special education; $110,000 through the elimination of the Habitat program; $135,000 from the English-as-a-second-language program; and the elimination of teaching, maintenance and administrative positions.

Churches United in Ministry, or CHUM, has seen further evidence of this chasm in the greatly increased numbers of people using its services. There are not enough beds in its shelter to give refuge to the homeless. Food shelf use is significantly higher: 13,892 individuals received help in 2010, 35 percent of them children.

There is another path, a way to repair the breach and cross the chasm. We can take a balanced approach that includes increasing revenue instead of just cutting services to our kids and our most vulnerable. We should tax based on ability to pay. As confirmed in a recent News Tribune article, the percentage of taxes paid by the wealthiest is less than that paid by those in the middle-income and lower-income brackets. The poorest 10 percent pay more than 20 percent of their income in taxes compared to the wealthiest 1 percent who pay 8.8 percent of their income in taxes.

The Legislature is facing hard decisions. The budget is a concrete expression of our values and commitments as a community. Who are we as Minnesotans and who do we care about? We are at a crossroads. We can and must change this picture. Together we can have the courage and compassion to do so.

The Rev. Kathy Nelson is pastor at Peace United Church of Christ in Duluth and the Rev. Lon Weaver is pastor at Glen Avon Presbyterian Church, both of Duluth. They wrote this on behalf of CHUM, or Churches United in Ministry, a clergy group.

Budget solution requires balance - Winona Daily News

Susan Brown and Brian Rusche, Winona Daily News, Friday, March 11, 2011

Minnesota families, just like our Minnesota state government, have been hit hard by the recession and its aftermath.

In times like these we do what it takes to persevere - provide for our loved ones, look out for our neighbors, and make wise decisions to pave the way for a better tomorrow.

Thousands of us have not yet felt the benefits of a fledgling recovery. Having lost a job or housing, nearly half a million Minnesotans are still face-to-face with hunger or homelessness, and turn to both nonprofits and public services to provide a temporary helping hand.

Unfortunately, just when neighbors still need a hand, state resources for providing this help are down. Like in most other states, the recent recession has caused Minnesota state revenues to fall far and fast. And so this is the challenge facing our elected officials: Do we rely solely on expenditure cuts inflicting real pain on nearly everyone, including those least able to shoulder new burdens, or do we favor a balanced approach that includes revenues, preserves some semblance of a safety net, and allows for strategic investments to accelerate economic recovery?

So far this legislative session, we've seen Minnesota's legislature embrace a cuts-only philosophy that would inflict real pain, reduce public services, reduce money in the economy, and cost many people their jobs. This approach would create a downward spiral, making the economy worse. If government reduces spending too much while families and businesses are also cutting back, it only makes times tougher and delays the much-needed recovery.

We can keep Minnesota competitive by producing a well-educated workforce, building an infrastructure that meets our growing demands and preserving a clean environment for future generations. This ought to also involve common sense improvements to our tax system - a system where today the wealthiest pay a smaller share of their income in state and local taxes than other Minnesotans.

During this time, the worst national economic crisis since the Great Depression, most states have recognized the logic of a balanced approach that includes revenues to address the growing gap between needs and resources. Yes, they all cut spending but they didn't only cut spending. To remain competitive, Minnesota must do the same.

We have already endured a decade of deep cuts, and we have watched our quality of life suffer as a result. It's time to lay the foundation for Minnesota to thrive when the economy rebounds.

If we continue to borrow from our schools and make higher education unaffordable, we deprive tomorrow's workforce of the next generation of Minnesota leaders. If we take our police officers and firefighters off the job and close our parks and libraries, we will no longer have safe, attractive communities for people who want to start careers, raise families, and begin new businesses. If we stop caring for our neighbors with affordable health services, decent housing and adequate food, we will hold people back as they work to recover from the recession and reach their full potential.

All of these items are so much more than lines in a budget; they are essential elements to our quality of life today and far into the future.

As our elected officials continue to grapple with a serious decline in revenues - caused not by overspending but by the national recession - we must not lose sight of the fact that this is much more than a math problem. We are talking about preserving the things that make Minnesota a great place to live. As leaders of the Invest in Minnesota coalition, we urge lawmakers to keep all of our options on the table and use a balanced approach that includes revenues. Let's pull together and reclaim our reputation as a high quality-of-life state.

Susan Brown is the public policy director of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and Brian Rusche is the executive director of the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition. Invest in Minnesota unites over 200 faith, labor and nonprofit organizations from around the state in a call for revenues raised fairly to address budget shortfalls.

Balanced Approach - ABC Newspaper

Katherine Wagoner, ABC Newspapers, February 16, 2011

Balanced approach

To the Editor:

As I’ve been listening to our elected officials debate how to address the budget shortfall, the severity of what’s at stake is becoming clear. It’s more than a math problem, it’s about whether or not we will continue to invest in education, health care, roads, and care for veterans, the elderly and people experiencing poverty.

So far this year our representatives have proposed a cuts-only approach that would jeopardize the future of our state and our many citizens.

To address the $6.2 billion shortfall with cuts alone, we will see consequences that cause real pain to real people.

I work first-hand with people struggling to find work in this economy and cuts to supported employment programs, subsidized childcare and transportation assistance will hurt unemployed people as they fight to get back on their feet.

It is wrong to balance the budget on the backs of the vulnerable – Minnesota is better than that.

Fortunately, we have another choice. We can take a balanced approach that includes raising revenues, and at the same time we can create fairness in our tax system. High-income earners should be paying the same percentage of their income in state and local taxes as those of us in the low-income and middle-income brackets.

I hope that is the kind of solution we see when Gov. Dayton releases his budget. It’s the right thing for working families, for unemployed and low-income and for all of us working to recover from the recession.

That’s why I’m involved with the Invest in Minnesota coalition uniting faith, labor and nonprofit organizations in our call for a balanced approach.

Katherine Wagoner
Coon Rapids