When “local control” becomes a meaningless catch phrase

House Republicans like to talk about “local control” of schools, but introduce another bill that takes it away.

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Another way the federal tax code fails

Looking at “horizontal equity” in the tax code instead of “vertical equity” or income inequality.

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Redistricting maps revealed: Eastern Carver County to CD 3; Chanhassen split into two State Senate districts [UPDATED]

The redistricting maps were just released a few minutes ago. Here are the key takeaways for Carver County.

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Chaska Herald: Patron Mexican Restaurant opens

The Chaska Herald reports that Patron Mexican Restaurant opened yesterday in the former La Quebrada/River City Pub/Chestnuts location at the corner of MN-41 and Second Street in downtown Chaska.

No website is yet available for the restaurant.

Bountiful Basket Food Shelf moves this weekend: You can help

The Bountiful Basket Food Shelf will move into its new permanent location — the former Water Treatment Plant on Bavaria Road — this weekend.  Volunteers are needed on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to assist with the transition.

If you’re interested in helping, please contact Board Chairman Tom Redman at 952-227-7745 or you can call the food shelf at 952-556-0244.

Keeping the state on track

I wrote this column, which appeared in the February 9 editions of the Chanhassen Villager and the Chaska Herald.

Many observers hoped that this year’s legislative session would be quick and non-controversial. After all, the state has a projected budget surplus, meaning that there will be no repeat of last year’s lengthy budget standoff that resulted in a state government shutdown. Those observers felt that legislators – who are waiting anxiously for the new redistricting maps to be released later this month – would prefer to keep their head down, get some work done, and then focus on their re-election campaigns. 

Not only that, but they pointed to the election of Republican State Sen. David Senjem as the new majority leader as a sign that things would be less acrimonious. Senjem is a Senate veteran who was widely hailed as a conciliatory voice during his previous tenure as minority leader for Republicans. 

It took less than a day for those hopes to be shattered. Senjem and his leadership team (including Chanhassen State Sen. Julianne Ortman) delivered what was perceived by DFLers as a sharp partisan blow – forcing a cut in DFL staff budgets of over $400, 000 while not reducing Republican staff dollars at all in an effort to close a $2.5 million budget gap for the State Senate. This prompted a stinging, sharply worded rebuke from DFL minority leader Tom Bakk over both the cuts themselves and the process that led to them in the first place.

Ortman was also in the middle of the second major partisan controversy of the session – the party-line vote by Republican senators to remove former State Sen. Ellen Anderson as the chair of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC).

Anderson was a well-known environmental advocate when she was nominated by Gov. Mark Dayton last spring. However, her nearly oneyear long tenure on the PUC was not controversial. In 221 votes that Anderson participated in, the fivemember board (consisting of two DFLers and 3 Republicans), returned unanimous decisions 205 times. Of the remaining 16 votes, Anderson found herself in the minority only six times. 

Republicans, meanwhile, pointed to Anderson’s Senate record for evidence supporting their vote, noting her authorship of a bill that gave the state a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050. They failed to note, however, that the bill passed on a bipartisan basis and was signed by Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty. 

Dayton’s response to the Anderson “firing” was intense and personal. In his fiery response, Dayton targeted Ortman (who was just one of two Republican Senators to speak on the floor of the Senate in favor removing Anderson) with pointed rhetoric and some incorrect facts. 

There seemed to be little doubt in many minds – even though it went unsaid by those involved – that the Anderson decision was in part payback for DFL rejections of two Pawlenty appointees. 

So are we doomed to two more months of this nonsense? Let’s hope not – and we can do much as citizens to make sure that we get a session that is productive despite the partisan divisions that paralyze St. Paul far too often. 

First, we should insist that legislators get together quickly on the main deliverable of this year’s session:a bonding bill. Gov. Dayton has released a $775 million proposal that is a mix of infrastructure and support for local projects. Legislative Republicans have yet to release their planned bonding bill, only saying that do not plan on spending more than $500 million and they favor a higher infrastructure component than Dayton. 

Both parties have valid points here. Dayton has the size of the bill correct, as it equals the average bonding investment over the last decade. With interest rates low and the construction industry looking for a boost, this is exactly the right time to invest in our state’s longterm priorities. 

Meanwhile, Republicans are correct that there should be a stronger infrastructure component to the bill. We have crumbling roads and bridges around this state that should be addressed in a more significant fashion. Some local projects specified by Dayton, such as improvements to Nicollet Mall or building a new St. Paul Saints stadium, should wait. 

Second, we can demand that legislators seriously tackle governmental reform that has been left outstanding for too long. 

Included as part of this agenda would be developing a statute that would defuse much of the harm of failure to reach a budget agreement by the end of the fiscal year, freeing local governments and school districts from certain state mandates, consolidating backoffice functions and purchasing across state agencies to maximize efficiencies, and eliminating loopholes in transparency laws that allow legislators to shield some of their income from disclosure. 

Finally, we should expect that politicians on both sides of the aisle to grow up and stop the ridiculous tit-for-tat that passes for discourse in St. Paul. It doesn’t matter who did it first, who did it last, or who did it worst.

We should have higher standards for those who represent us. The decisions they make have real impacts on real people. If a politician is more interested in partisan games than doing the people’s business, it’s up to us to send them home in November.

Our “Entitlement Society” by the numbers

A common theme you hear from Republican politicians these days is that government’s growing entitlement programs are creating a large permanent class of people willing to live off of government benefits instead of working.

In an Entitlement Society, government provides every citizen the same or similar rewards, regardless of education, effort and willingness to innovate, pioneer or take risk. – Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney

The good news for us is that there’s data we can use to evaluate those claims, and that’s just what the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities did.  The bad news for Republican politicians is that their claims don’t hold up when you look at the data.

The CBPP looked at the 11 largest federal entitlement programs, which represented 88% of entitlement spending in the 2010 budget — a total of $1.83 trillion.  Included are Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment insurance, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Child Tax Credit, among others.

Here’s how the spending broke down:

53% of entitlement spending went to the persons over the age of 65 (primarily through Social Security and Medicare).  20% went to those under the age of 65 who are disabled, while another 18% went to households where at least one person worked at least 20 hours a week.  3% of the entitlement spending was for unemployment benefits, which require a history of employment in order to be eligible.

Government dependency can only foster passivity and sloth. - Romney

So let’s total it up — 73% of entitlement spending goes to people who we don’t expect to work (the elderly and disabled).  21% of entitlement spending goes to the working poor or people who recently lost employment.  So that leaves just 6% of entitlement spending to people who fall outside those categories.

What sort of spending is in that 6%?  Well, most of that spending is Social Security-related:   survivor benefits for children and spouses of deceased workers and payments to people who elected to retire early between ages 62 and 64.  There’s also some Medicaid expense for the non-working, non-disabled poor.  Those three categories represent two-thirds of that remaining 6%.

In summary, then, you’ve got somewhere between 2% and 6% of entitlement spending that could be being directed at folks who may not really need it — depending on if you want to classify people collecting survivors benefits as passive and sloth-like.  Is this really an “Entitlement Society” or just empty sloganeering?

GOP Legislature is not popular; Dayton at 50% approval

KSTP-TV and SurveyUSA released results of their latest survey tracking approval of Governor Mark Dayton and the GOP-controlled State Legislature last night.

Dayton fares significantly better than his legislative counterparts.  Dayton’s overall approval rating is at 50% (73% among DFLers, 42% among Independents, and 26% from Republicans).

The GOP-controlled State Legislature is at 17% for an overall approval rating (30% from Republicans, 16% from Democrats, and 11% from Independents).   Of particular concern to Republicans should be that last number — the legislature is faring worse among Independents than Democrats, which may mean that Republicans are in for a tough fight to retain their legislative majorities.

Santorum cruises to caucus victory in Carver County

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum easily won the Presidential Preference Ballot at the Republican Precinct Caucuses in Senate District 34 (Carver County plus three precincts in Scott County) last night.

Santorum collected 589 votes (49.1% of voters who indicated a preference), more than doubling the total of second-place finisher, Rep. Ron Paul, who had 272 votes (22.7%).  Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney was third with 216 votes (18.0%) and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was fourth with 122 votes (10.2%).

Santorum also won the statewide ballot, taking 45.0% of the vote (as of 12:30 p.m. on February 8, with 97.5% of precincts reporting).  Paul was second (27.1%), followed by Romney (16.9%), and Gingrich (10.8%).

SD 34 Legislators to hold town halls this Saturday

This Saturday, the Carver County state legislative delegation (Sen. Julianne Ortman, Rep. Joe Hoppe, and Rep. Ernie Leidiger) will be holding town hall meetings across the district.  This is a rare open-to-the-public chance to meet, greet, and question your state legislator.  Here are the times and locations, courtesy of the Carver County Republicans website.

CHANHASSEN - 9:00AM-9:45AM

Chanhassen Rec Center
Room 2
2310 Coulter Boulevard
Chanhassen, MN 55317

CHASKA - 10:15AM-11:00AM

Chaska Community Center
Dry Craft Room
1661 Park Ridge Dr
Chaska, MN 55318

NORWOOD YOUNG AMERICA - 12:15PM-1:00PM

Pizza Ranch
Back Room (Party Room)
425 Merger St
Norwood Young America, MN 55368

WACONIA - 1:30PM-2:15:PM

American Legion Waconia Post 150
Upstairs Room
233 S Olive St
Waconia, MN 55387

Strib’s doctor discipline story fails to connect the dots

The Star Tribune has run good pieces yesterday and today on the issue of doctor discipline in the state.  Specifically, it raised the issue of whether or not the state’s Board of Medical Practice is going too easy on doctors.  From Sunday’s story:

Since 2000, at least 46 Minnesota doctors escaped board discipline after authorities in other states took action against their licenses for such missteps as committing crimes, patient care errors or having sexual or inappropriate relationships with patients, records show.

In addition, more than half of the 74 doctors who lost their privileges to work in Minnesota hospitals and clinics over the past decade were never disciplined by the Minnesota board, according to a federal database used by the health care industry to track actions against physicians. At least 13 of the 47 doctors who avoided discipline were flagged for incompetence, substandard care or inadequate skills.

Minnesota’s board also has consistently declined to keep the public informed about problem practitioners by not publicizing malpractice awards and other adverse actions that are routinely disclosed in states from California to North Carolina.

What the stories have failed to do, though, is to connect the dots.  The inevitable result of the failure of the Board of Medical Practice to adequately discipline doctors is more injured patients and more medical malpractice expense.

Which brings us to Minnesota’s Republican legislative delegation — one of their hot topics is “tort reform”.  As part of that, medical malpractice reform is frequently discussed — specifically capping the damages victims can collect.  The rationale for this is to protect doctors from excessively high malpractice insurance rates.  Of course, this hasn’t actually proven to work, as numerous studies have determined.)

The reality here, though, is that we don’t need “tort reform” or liability caps.  We need to get tough on doctors who make avoidable errors.  The numbers demonstrate the reality — much of our medical malpractice problem comes from a small group of repeat offender doctors.  Nationwide statistics show that 4.8% of doctors have two or more medical malpractice claims against them, and they represent 51% of medical malpractice incidents and 53% of medical malpractice dollars paid.

The answer here is simple:  Get rid of repeat offenders, and you’ve got safer patients and less malpractice expense in the system.

Chaska Rex movie theater closes

The Chaska Herald is reporting that the Chaska Rex movie theater closed yesterday.  The Rex was part of the Five Star Cinemas group which also operates theaters in Chanhassen, Buffalo, and Excelsior.  Per the company’s website, gift cards and rewards cards will be honored at those theaters.

This is another tough blow for the downtown business district.  Hopefully, implementation work on the Downtown Master Plan and an improving economy can help the area begin to prosper.

Stable enrollment projections for District 112

The Eastern Carver County School District (District 112) released the results of its demographic study this week.  The results show projections of essentially flat enrollment over the next decade.  Current K-12 enrollment is 8,976 students — projections of enrollment in a decade range from 8,925 to 9,123 students.  Even at the high-end of the projection, that’s only an increase of 15 students per year.

That doesn’t mean, however, that the District doesn’t face some challenges going forward.  While the enrollment projections signal no new school construction is imminent, there may need to be yet another look at resetting boundaries at all levels.  Let’s look at some pieces of the data that indicate that may be required.

Three of the district’s elementary schools are currently over capacity:  Clover Ridge, Victoria, and East Union.  The projections show no relief in sight for those schools, and continuing enrollment declines for Chanhassen Elementary and Chaska Elementary.

Data source: Eastern Carver County School District

Keeping Clover Ridge, Victoria, and East Union at 10-20% over capacity isn’t sustainable long-term, especially given the capacity available in other facilities within the district.  The good news is that after several boundary changes in recent years, this change would likely be able to be in place for a long time.

At the high school level, current enrollment of 2,805 students is expected to rise to between 3,000 and 3,100 students over the next decade.  That means that the district’s two high schools (each with capacity of 2,000) will be more than sufficient for that time frame.

The issue at the high school level remains the relative imbalance between the two high schools.  56% of high school students in the district now attend Chanhassen High School, and that ratio seems likely to stay about the same for the next five years and probably through the next decade, which would mean Chanhassen would consistently be 200-300 students larger.   There will need to be a district-wide discussion on whether any adjustments need to be made to bring the schools into closer balance.