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Article: Two policy tools for getting more with less money.(NEWS)
- Article from:
- Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
- Article date:
- December 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Star Tribune Co. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: John Brandl
A memo to Gov.-elect Tim Pawlenty:
OK, the celebration's over. Now on to your biggest challenge, the budget. You'll be lucky if the shortfall for the two years starting next July doesn't exceed $3 billion, 10 percent of state spending.
You could try paring back the low-priority spending but that won't get you very far because the big money lies in a few items everyone supports. Education takes up half the budget, health care (mostly for the elderly) another 20 percent, and property tax relief 12 percent. If you cut the latter by several hundred million dollars, there'd likely be a corresponding local property tax increase ...