There's little in the headline of Mark Fischenich's article, Gunther, Cornish doing tough work on budgets, to prepare readers for the text to follow:
For Rep. Bob Gunther, the job also brought him the role of whipping boy on Thursday.
As head of the Jobs and Economic Development Committee, the Fairmont Republican put together the budget bill that slashed several jobs and housing programs by 30 percent and took $60 million from an Iron Range fund, moving it to state coffers.
“Very upset,” Gunther said of the reaction by Iron Range lawmakers. “And they should be, and it’s probably going to be deemed illegal. What we did to them, I think it’s an illegal thing. It’s their property taxes.”
Illegal? I'm surprised Cornish, who serves as Lake Crystal chief of police, doesn't take his teenty-tiny handcuffs off his lapel and arrest the Fairmont legislator. Gunther fingers House Republican leadership for the idea to swipe money that's supposed to be going to the Range:
Grabbing that money was the idea of House leaders, and Gunther said he didn’t agree with the decision or with the budget-cutting they targeted for his part of the budget.
“I didn’t like my target at all,” he said. “This is the message we got over and over: We want jobs, jobs, jobs. And they cut me and put some things in there that I didn’t really want to see.”
But perhaps the Lake Crystal lawman-lawmaker is shackled by his own sense of guilt. Fischenisch reports:
. . .Strong criticism also came from the decision to move $8.5 million from a special fund, financed through surcharges on insurance policies, that’s dedicated toward firefighter training. Cornish doesn’t deny that moving the money to the state’s general fund isn’t appropriate in normal times.
“We outright admit that,” he said. “... It’s one of those deals where we had no choice. If we didn’t take that, we’re looking at cutting (even more from) women’s shelters, victims’ services ... .”
Cornish’s bill, expected to reach the House floor in about 10 days, was also unpopular with county officials for a provision that would shift state prison inmates into county jails if the convict’s sentence was 60 days or fewer. That will increase costs for counties and potentially drive up property taxes.
Cornish argues the current system — whereby county attorneys can seek prison sentences for probation violations and other crimes with the financial impact falling on the state — is “kind of like a reverse unfunded mandate.”
“It really doesn’t make any sense to send a prisoner to Stillwater for less than 60 days,” said Cornish, the Lake Crystal police chief and a former game warden. “... Counties have to have some skin in the game.”
"A a reverse unfunded mandate?" "Skin in the game?" That's a classic. So will breaking laws or violating probation become simply a matter of local laws?
If Dayton signs that mess, I'll be curious how that plays out, especially in those communities affected if the legislature cuts local government aid.
Photos: Cuff 'em (above); Tony cornish where the cuffs (below).
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