Here’s yet another consequence of the Republicans’ insistence on borrowing $1.4 billion instead of asking millionaires to pay their fair share. Moody’s announced that they have downgraded our state’s credit rating outlook from “stable” to “negative:”

Years of putting off hard budget decisions could mean another dip for the Minnesota’s credit score.

On the heels of a “kick the can down the road” budget solution, Moody’s Investor Service placed Minnesota on a negative outlook for its bond rating….

“The negative outlook primarily reflects the growing negative GAAP undesignated unreserved fund balance, political intractability that has resulted in the reliance on one-time measures to solve the $5 billion budget gap in the current fiscal 2012-2013 biennium, and the likelihood of future structural budget gaps as a result of the use of the one-time budget measures,” the agency said.

Moody’s is not the first agency to downgrade our credit, and I suspect it will not be the last, either. Fitch already downgraded us, and I suspect Standard and Poor’s will, too.

Minnesota, let me ask you: Do you think these blows to our credit are an acceptable price to pay for protecting multi-millionaires? Do you think the MNGOP gave us a good deal, or is it time the rich played their part in solving our budget crisis?

MinnPost is the first news organization out of the gate with a poll on Minnesotans’ opinions of the shutdown. The takeaway: Minnesotans are absolutely furious with the GOP.

…the key swing group of self-identified independents was also much more likely to blame Republicans than to blame Dayton. Among independents, 46 percent “blamed” the Republicans, 18 percent blamed Dayton and 25 percent both.

That’s probably because the GOP’s cuts-only approach is way out touch with Minnesotans:

Only 23 percent of respondents said that they favor a cuts-only approach. A strong majority — 66 percent — say a combination of spending cuts and tax increases is the way to go. Another 5 percent would prefer raising taxes enough that no spending cuts would be necessary.

The poll also finds that by nearly a 2-1 margin, Minnesotans say the shutdown makes them more likely to vote DFL than the vote Republican. That has to be taken with a grain of salt, though, because the poll was intended to capture the attitudes of all Minnesotans after the shutdown, not just likely voters.

There’s a lot more here. On a side note, it’s great to see MinnPost coming into its own; they are the first (and so far only) news organization to release a poll on the shutdown.

Last week, the MNGOP caved on spending, giving Governor Dayton the $35.5 billion budget he wanted. It’s a good thing, too, because even this budget, which represents a $3.5 billion cut, will hurt a lot of Minnesotans.

One area the GOP wouldn’t budge on, though, was taxing millionaires. Even after agreeing to meet the governor on spending, they refused to pay for it. Instead, they passed an irresponsible budget bill that borrows from our future and steals from our children.

The ink hasn’t even dried, and they’re already trying to whitewash their irresponsible bill, pretending that putting our budget on a credit card is somehow a victory for Minnesotans. For example, they’re already lying about the size of the budget:

Republicans say they stuck to their pledge to spend only $34 billion over the next two years. The Dayton Administration says the tally is $35.7 billion. The difference depends on how you account for the shifts and borrowing.

More precisely, it depends on whether you account for shifts and borrowing. Apparently, the GOP is just going to pretend that their irresponsible borrowing never needs to be paid back. That’s a lie, and it is shockingly irresponsible.

Minority Leader Paul Thissen had some strong words on the Republicans’ irresponsible budget:

Republicans had not 1, not 2, but 7 opportunities to agree to a better budget – a budget that actually solves the state deficit now, has the support of a vast majority of Minnesotans, and defends middle class families.  Republicans could have supported the Governor’s plan that cut $2 billion from state government and asked millionaires to pay their fair share.

However, the Republicans refused every single attempt at a fair budget, forcing this borrow-and-spend non-solution on the people of Minnesota in order to end a painful government shutdown. 

The lengths to which this Republican majority will go to protect corporate special interests and the richest of the rich are astounding.  Their budget forces the state to beg from seniors and the disabled with draconian budget cuts, borrow money to temporarily fill the deficit with one-time funds, and steal from our children’s future by expanding the K12 school shift [via Press Release, emphasis added].

That pretty much sums it up. The only thing I would add is that when everything was on the line, the Republicans threw their supposed concern for fiscal responsibility under the bus to save their number-one priority: special privileges for the super-rich.

MPR’s Tom Scheck reports some great news:

Several people tell MPR News that there is a handshake agreement on all of the budget bills. The language now has to be drafted in bill form and get final agreement from Gov. Dayton and GOP legislative leaders….

There is a possibility that Gov. Dayton could call a special session as early as today. Expect the House and Senate to kick it into overdrive and work around the clock until all of the budget bills have been passed into law.

Of course, it still remains to be seen whether the MNGOP leadership can get their members to vote for the bill. I have to imagine they’ll figure it out in the end. Failing to pass the budget would be disastrous, both economically for our state and politically for the GOP.

This shutdown never needed to happen. The compromise reached by Mark Dayton and the MNGOP had actually been proposed all the way back on June 30th. At the time, though, the GOP loaded the bill with social policy poison pills, including language on abortion and cloning.

On Thursday, Governor Dayton agreed to sign the GOP’s June 30 budget, with several conditions. One of those conditions was the removal of all policy provisions. That cleared the way for ending the shutdown — if the GOP can even pass its own budget.

But Republican special-interest groups are furious about the removal of abortion and cloning language, and want Republican legislators to put the policies back in:

[Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life executive director Scott Fischbach] is asking his organization’s constituents to pressure legislators to reinstate one or more pro-life measures stripped by Gov. Mark Dayton as a condition of the budgetary framework agreement reached last week.

MCCL is so focused on keeping women in their place and foiling scientific research that they’re asking Republicans to keep the state shut down over social policy. The budget deal was clear: all social policy would be removed. Reinstating it would cause the budget deal to collapse. But as long as they can prevent life-saving research, it appears that MCCL couldn’t care less.

Our elected leaders reached an agreement on a budget deal on Thursday, when Mark Dayton chose to accept the Republicans’ proposed budget to end the shutdown. But today, Monday, there’s still no special session to re-open state government. What’s taking so long?

The Cucking Stool reports that the GOP may not have the votes to pass its own budget, despite Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch’s insistence that it will pass. Her case isn’t helped by Senator Mike Parry’s temper tantrums, which Koch seems unwilling or unable to control.

For Senator Koch’s own sake, I hope she gets control over her caucus, finds the votes she needs, and does it fast. The people of Minnesota want this shutdown to end, and we want it to end now. After she stood in front of the media with the Governor and announced that a compromise had been reached, there will be hell to pay if her caucus cannot or will not end the shutdown.

I’m glad the MNGOP finally agreed to ditch their draconian all-cuts budget. That’s certainly a good thing. What’s not good, though, is the way they went about it. I can’t support their solution of going into debt to avoid taxing the super-rich.

I don’t think DFLers should support it either. While both parties agreed on spending, the Republicans were the only ones who wanted to get there so irresponsibly. In the “family budget” analogy they love to tout so much, the GOP chose to raid the kids’ college fund.

I’m hopeful that the GOP may indeed be forced to take responsibility for their irresponsible budget, at least based on this quote from Minority Leader Paul Thissen:

GOP leaders may have to rely on their party to make sure bills become law. DFL House Minority Leader Paul Thissen said it’s unlikely that his caucus will support the measure.

“It’s the Republican plan. They should accept it,” Thissen said. “They’re the majority and they should be able to pass their own budget.”

Amen. This is their choice. They chose to raid our kids’ school funding instead of asking the rich to pay their fair share. As the majority party, they should take responsibility.

I’ll be totally honest — I had a whole bevy of bitter posts queued up for today that I’ve now scrapped. Because the more I think about it, the happier I am with Governor Dayton’s budget compromise, both from a policy perspective and a political perspective.

Before I get into that, though, let me state right off the bat: Yes, the MNGOP’s insistence that we borrow money instead of taxing the super-rich is atrocious. It’s the height of fiscal irresponsibility, and it proves that they stand for nothing but protecting the rich. And they’re going to have to own that.

But let’s talk about some of the good that will come out of this compromise. Here are a few of the victories that will protect Minnesotans from the original GOP all-cuts proposal. The compromise budget:

• Protects against $128 million in GOP cuts to education.
• Protects against cuts to 129,000 students who receive special education.
• Protects against collective bargaining restrictions.
• Protects 140,000 Minnesotans from losing health care.
• Protects against long-term care cuts that would have forced 1,500 elderly and disabled people into more expensive nursing homes rather than home and community-based services.
• Protects against a 50% cut to women’s primary health care services (family planning).
• Protects against $43 million in GOP cuts to transit.
• Eliminates the GOP’s proposed 15% workforce reduction.
• Protects state employees from 30% insurance premiums.
• Protects against additional increases in property taxes by $395 million.
• Protects against increasing property taxes on 308,000 renters statewide
• Protects against raiding $60 million of local resources from the Doug Johnson Fund to help balance the state budget.

And that’s just a selection of the benefits. Is this a good budget? No. But it’s also not disastrous.

Okay, now let’s talk about why this is a huge political victory.

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