Shutdown: Editorial roundup

A roundup of editorials on the state shutdown:

The Pioneer Press editorial today comes out squarely on the side of GOP lawmakers:

While tax revenue will be up nearly 6 percent this year, Dayton wants spending to increase 12 percent. This kind of spending is unsustainable. The Minnesota State Demographic Center predicts a 4.1 percent annual rate of revenue growth between 2010 and 2020. Meanwhile, with very little total population growth, the 65+ population is about to skyrocket – increasing more in this decade than it has in the last 40 years combined. So what we are facing is the lethal combination of low workforce growth, low revenue growth and high growth in entitlement spending.

The governor is silent on this, the issue of our time. Silent, perhaps, because the holy grail of the left, taxing the rich, can’t possibly solve the problem.

It’s easy to blame one side or the other, the Worthington Daily Globe says…

It’s easy to play party politics like those in St. Paul are doing, but one can’t blame just

Republican lawmakers or Gov. Mark Dayton for this gridlock. Republicans, for instance, are united against a planned tax increase on the state’s highest earners; Dayton, for his part, for too long seemed more worried about planning for a shutdown than calling legislators together in an attempt to avoid one.

That’s pretty much how the Bemidji Pioneer sees it:

Minnesota is the only state to have its government shut down this year, even though nearly all states have severe budget problems, and some have divided governments.

In whatever manner the impasse is solved – sooner rather than later – the Democrats and Republicans have accomplished their basic partisan desires with the blame game. They have made both of their houses look bad.

In its editorial today, the Rochester Post Bulletin finds fault with both sides, too, but generally comes down on the side of the DFL:

It’s time to ask ourselves, “What kind of Minnesota do we want?” We prefer to live in a great state that offers world-class public education, good roads, quality health care for everyone (including the poor, the elderly and the handicapped) and protects our natural resources.

We’re convinced that the vast majority of Minnesotans are willing to pay a little bit more to guarantee a better quality of life for themselves and future generations, but the Republicans believe otherwise.