Debating state of the state

09/16/2006

Dane Smith, Star Tribune
Last update: September 15, 2006 – 6:09 AM

Strong and sober disagreement about the state of the state and what to do about it marked the first post-primary gubernatorial debate among three major party candidates Thursday, but there were a few big laughs.

“We just finished driving 6,800 miles around Minnesota, visiting 220 cities,” said Independence Party candidate Peter Hutchinson, a government efficiency consultant.

“We’ve BEEN on the roads in Minnesota, and we can tell you, they suck!” Hutchinson said. He added: “That’s a technical description for what the Minnesota [Department of Transportation] describes as the worst condition our roads have been in in almost 20 years.”

DFL Attorney General Mike Hatch and Hutchinson aired many similar complaints at the debate, blaming Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty for rising health-care and tuition costs, cutting education and health-care programs too much and shifting costs to property taxes and fees.

Pawlenty acknowledged that there was work to do after leading Minnesota through the “biggest financial crisis in the history of the state.” But he said job growth is improving and that both his opponents relied too much on government and taxes for their solutions. And he too got some laughs with a closing statement that suggested his adversaries were just carping.

Minnesotans are “good and hopeful and optimistic people,” Pawlenty said. “They don’t look at Joe Mauer’s batting average and say he fails 65 percent of the time. They don’t look at roses and see thorns. They don’t look at our beautiful rivers and see carp. The sky is not falling.”

Hatch got some chuckles, too, when talking about his ideas for alternative energy sources. He said, “Minnesota is the second windiest state in the country, and perhaps these debates cause that.”

Transportation and health

The debate, in a ballroom of the Sheraton Hotel in Bloomington, was sponsored by the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, a broad-based interest group representing Minnesota’s business owners and managers. The chamber is pushing for approval of a constitutional change on the ballot this November that would earmark more spending for transportation. The candidates were asked whether they would support it.

Hatch said he was “troubled by the language” of the amendment but would support it. And he accused Pawlenty of letting road conditions slide so that the number of miles graded as a “poor ride” has doubled.

Hutchinson said he approves the goal of the amendment, capturing more of the vehicle excise tax for highway and transit needs, but said he thinks it should not be in the Constitution because that limits the flexibility of future Legislatures. And he criticized Pawlenty as a “borrow-and-spend conservative” because he has opted to fund new highway spending from the state’s bonding bill rather than paying up front for it. Hutchinson favors a gas tax increase for improving transportation.

Pawlenty said he inherited a highway system that was “20 years behind. We haven’t been able to catch up in three and a half years.” Nevertheless, Pawlenty said, the state is experiencing “the largest road and transportation construction season in miles and miles.” Pawlenty favors the amendment.

Thrust and parry

Hatch, who recently aired a new TV ad that accuses Pawlenty of ignoring suggestions for health-care cost savings, said Pawlenty had done almost nothing to prevent dramatic increases in premiums and health-care coverage since he took office.

Pawlenty in response rattled off a list of statistical superlatives for Minnesota on health care, including a study that ranks the state as the healthiest in the nation and the lowest in the percentage of citizens without health insurance.

Pawlenty said he alone among the three is committed to not raising state taxes. He noted that Hutchinson supports a gas tax increase. And Pawlenty argued that Hatch, although he said that he doesn’t plan to raise taxes, won’t be able to enact his various spending increase proposals, including a reduction in public college tuition, without raising taxes.

“There ain’t a billion dollars there [in a Hatch plan to raise $1 billion from closing loopholes and tax law enforcement], and his proposals add up to a boatload more than that,” Pawlenty said.

On style and deportment, Hutchinson, a little-known figure with the smallest campaign treasury of the three, may have scored the most points. In addition to getting laughs, he demonstrated an authoritative command of public policy issues and at one point he interrupted Pawlenty and accused him of misinterpreting his response to a question.

“You don’t get the right to tell me what I said,” Hutchinson said. “I said $32 billion [a year in current total state and local government spending] is enough.”

But Pawlenty nicked Hutchinson, too, when responding to his critique of Pawlenty’s fiscal management. Referring to strong criticism of Hutchinson when he was a superintendent, Pawlenty said voters should “take a look at your management” of the Minneapolis school district.