Ventura criticizes House, Senate budget plans

ST. PAUL -- Gov. Jesse Ventura said Friday he found plenty to disagree with in both the House GOP and Senate DFL plans for fixing the projected $1.95 billion deficit in the state budget.

Ventura said both plans were "irresponsible" quick-fixes that would fail to solve the state's long-range budget problems.

"They remind me of the homeowner who makes those repairs on their house with cheap materials that last just long enough for them to sell it to someone else," he said. "Then the new owner comes along and gets stuck with all the bills when the place falls apart."

Quick look at three major deficit reduction plans

ST. PAUL (AP) -- Here's an overview of the three major proposals for wiping out the state government's projected $1.95 billion deficit.

House Republicans

-- Spending cuts: $653 million

-- Tax increases: $0

-- Use of reserves: $811 million

-- Other moves: $554 million from tobacco-use prevention endowment

Senate Democrats

-- Spending cuts: $200 million

-- Tax increases: $0

-- Use of reserves: $653 million

-- Other moves: $900 million in account transfers

Gov. Jesse Ventura

-- Spending cuts: $700 million

-- Tax increases: $397 million

-- Use of reserves: $653 million

-- Other moves: $340 million in account transfers, including $245 million collected from an increase in the gas tax

The governor read a statement reacting to the budget plans, which were offered by Republicans who control the House and Democrats who control the Senate in response to his own deficit-reduction proposal. He took no questions.

Ventura has demanded that the Legislature's budget fix extend through fiscal year 2005, so the next administration isn't left with the problem. The House proposal gets part way there; the Senate has said it will worry first about the current two-year budget cycle and deal with 2004-05 later.

If that's the case, Ventura said in a letter to House and Senate leaders Wednesday, he was ready to "undertake formal and informal executive actions to resolve our budget crisis."

Economic forecasts show another deficit for 2004-05 -- in excess of $2.5 billion if inflation is factored in. To fix that problem, lawmakers may need to raise taxes, which is a tough thing to do in an election year.

Ventura last month proposed raising the tax on gas, tobacco and extending the sales tax to some services it doesn't now cover. Neither the House nor the Senate proposals include tax increases.

House GOP leaders released their proposal Thursday.

The House proposes to trim 2,650 state jobs, tap a smoking prevention endowment, cut state spending by $653.5 million and draw down state reserves. "There is going to be some pain, but it's not going to be pain on the family budget," said House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon.

The spending cuts are nearly deep as the $700 million Ventura recommended and far more than the $200 million proposed by Senate Democrats.

Like the other two proposals, the House plan would rely heavily on state reserves, including a $653 million rainy-day account.

One of the biggest differences between the House and Senate plans is in proposed cuts for health and human services, which primarily serve the elderly and the poor. Republicans want to cut $175 million from that budget and Democrats are eyeing $75 million.

Both the House and Senate have pledged not to cut funding for nursing homes. That leaves children and families as the biggest target to make up the $100 million difference, said Sen. Linda Berglin, chairwoman of the committee that handles such funding in the Senate.

"It isn't like I have a bunch of rich people getting money out of my budget here," said Berglin, DFL-Minneapolis.

While the Senate and governor had more specific proposals for which programs would be cut from each state agency, House leaders said they were largely leaving those decisions up to their committee chairmen.

The cornerstone of the GOP plan is the hiring freeze on about 5 percent of the state's work force. Sviggum estimates that would save about $100 million per year. House Republicans say most of the positions would be eliminated through attrition. But if 2,650 jobs aren't left open by December, the state would be forced to send out layoff notices to make up the difference.

The House proposal also would take about $550 million from anti-smoking endowments set up with money from Minnesota's 1998 settlement with the tobacco industry.

Unlike the Senate, which has condensed its budget fix into one bill, Sviggum said the House package will move through the committees in 11 separate bills.

"We can not move quite as quick as the Senate," Sviggum said. "We have twice as many people."

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Doug Johnson, DFL-Tower, said the way the House was handling the deficit was "a mess."