About an hour ago, Minnpost columnist David Brauer made a very pointed point, while linking to a Mankato Free Press article from June:
MnGOP wailing about laid-off state workers seems hollow considering budget plan would fire thousands more than #mdayton http://bit.ly/mueW4U
In that article, State payroll: Shrinking what some see as already thin, readers learned:
There are about 36,000 Minnesota state workers, not counting the college and university employees. One of the few things Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton and the Republican-controlled Legislature agree on is that two years from now, there will be fewer of them.
Dayton proposed a roughly 6 percent reduction. The Republicans want a 15 percent cutback.
And who in the Mankato area was proposing that cut? According to the MFP June 24, 2011 article that Brauer cites, it's none other than Waseca's ersatz socialist Emo Senator, Mike Parry:
Sen. Mike Parry, a Waseca Republican who serves as chairman of the Senate State Innovations and Veterans Committee, helped craft the latter bill that finances several agencies ranging from the tax-collecting Department of Revenue to the soldier-supporting Department of Veterans Affairs.
It cuts spending by 13 percent compared to the current two-year budget.
The bill also requires the overall state work force — excluding higher education employees — to be reduced by 15 percent by 2015. Parry said neither the spending cuts nor the downsizing of the work force will be noticed by most Minnesotans.“Government will still be operational and will still offer the services of the past,” Parry said.
and:
And Parry insists that one of every seven state workers can disappear without a meaningful reduction in the work accomplished by agencies.
“Let’s think about new technology,” he said. “Let’s think about updating our agencies and computers. As you do that, it reduces the size of the work force because you don’t need as many people.”
But this month? Parry, who in June saw no problem with permanently disappearing one out of every seven state workers, now says:
“Let me tell you, the governor has no feelings,” Parry said. “If he did, he would not put 22,000 people out of work on July 1. He has no feelings. ... The shutdown doesn’t bother him at all. .
Brauer nails it in a follow-up tweet:
I mean, MnGOP re: state workers is like jailer who wants to let you out of solitary so you can face the firing squad. #mnshutdown
Perhaps Parry and the MNGOP philosophy went beyond that, for even a man who is a jailer took issue with the philosophy. As the Mankato Free Press reported in back in June:
Even some Republican lawmakers have expressed reservations about the state government finance bill. Rep. Tony Cornish, a Good Thunder Republican and former state conservation officer, voted against it.
Cornish currently serves as chief of police in Lake Crystal, Minnesota.
Meanwhile today, Senator Majority Leader Brodkorb, the de facto voice of the Republicans in the Minnesota legislature, has suddenly discovered Parry's extreme rhetoric from this weekend's Mankato Free Press and is tweeting and re-tweeting it.
Extremism at the helm? A distraction to point Minnesotans away from the failure of the Republicans to compromise as they serve that tiny wealthy sliver of the state to which they bow in allegiance? You be the judge.
Image: Emo senator Mike Parry's deep mourning for state workers.
Related posts: The Emo Senator: Mike Parry calls for Governor Dayton's resignation, cites feelings, trust fund
Tales of Hoffman: Scenes from the ideological struggle in Fergus Fall, Minnesota
Suddenly socialist Mike Parry demands pay according to his needs
Just to be sure there would be plenty to cry about, the "15 by 15 Initiative" for slashing jobs was one of the specific items the GOP negotiators were holding out for in their June 29th 8pm "compromise" proposal: http://politicsinminnesota.com/blog/2011/07/files/2011/07/CompromiseDoc.pdf
Posted by: Max Hailperin | Jul 04, 2011 at 09:40 PM
Pizza parlors, of course, have set the standard for using technology and other innovative practices that reduce the need for workers.
Posted by: Charlie Quimby | Jul 04, 2011 at 10:33 PM