Politics/Government

In your view, what’s the state of the state?

Eric Ringham Feb 15, 2012
21

Gov. Mark Dayton will deliver his State of the State address tonight before a joint session of the Minnesota Legislature. Today’s Question: In your view, what’s the state of the state?

  • Aleksandra

    State of the state is annual speech of the USA states governors where they share a vision on the affairs in the state/b>

  • Tom

    The state of our state is OK, just OK. We spend more than we take in and the party cannot last forever.

  • Max

    Fair.

    Tax reform would go a long way to improving our state. But on the other hand governing by amendment shows the legislatures inability to exhibit any level of good governance.

  • George

    We are hearing too many extremists pushing radical solutions to nonexistant problems. This is drowning out the common sense conversations that used to be a hallmark of good government. Minnesota is losing it’s national reputation for dealing fairly with difficult issues.

  • Jim G

    The state of the state is shakey, painful and divided. Shakey in the uncertain and unequal economic growth. Painful for those who can’t meet their needs with a real job, and for citizens watching what passes for legislative leadership this session. Divided, between the haves and the have nots.

  • Gary F

    Well, we spent more money than last year and it wasn’t enough according to some folks. It’s never enough. The insatiable beast called government is never satisfied.

    Whenever I see kids smoking, I tell them, “Keep smoking, there is a Democratic addicted to spending that needs a fix.”.

    We are following the path that Greece is on right now. How soon until government union employees will be rioting in the streets while the private sector folks are getting bilked?

  • Steve the Cynic

    It’s less bad than most of the rest of the country, because the superstition of free-market fundamenalism hasn’t taken hold quite so pervasively as elsewhere. However, the Grand Oligarchic Party keeps wanting us to ignore the evidence of Minnesota’s past success with high-tax/high-service government and follow the examples of Mississippi, Alabama, etc. We’re behind in that race to the bottom, and I hope we stay that way.

  • Steve the Cynic

    The problem with Greece, GaryF, is not the policies themselves, but a culture that condones tax evasion and winks at fraud, waste and abuse. That seems to be less of a problem here. By and large, Americans pay their taxes.

  • Gary F

    Must be a different Greece, I was talking about the country of Greece.

  • James

    Snowless and boring and lacking a vision for greatness.

  • chad

    Divided, functionally ambivalent, and lacking true, conciliatory, culturally-representative Minnesotan leaders.

  • Steve the Cynic

    Yeah, Gary F, that’s the one.

  • Bear

    Let’s see: a flaccid Governor elected by the slimmest of margins, yet behaves like he has a majority mandate, pursuing problems that don’t exist (unionizing child care to pay off his campaign supporters; who is the real benefactor?) and vetoing everything legislators send his way; the best Gubernatorial candidate came in third; a legislature who has abdicated its responsibility and resorted to constitutional amendments for everything because the Governor won’t sign anything; compromise is banned in St. Paul; no snow; ever increasing taxes (how is it home values have declined 25% yet property taxes have increased? SPENDING PROBLEM); gross distortion of fact by both parties and the unions; and professional sports teams that stink: a little bearish right now.

  • Regnar James

    Disfunctional and unworthy of my hard earned taxes.

    If one penny of my taxes go towards the private football stadium … I will be that much more disillusioned with our leaders.

    ∑

    DTOM

  • davidz

    The state government is in denial. Our budgeting is out of whack in the long term. We haven’t had a properly balanced budget in a decade or more. When the current bi-ennium is ok, but the following ones are subjected to increasing debt, that’s not balanced.

    Running government on the basis of one-time pots of money and putting of until next year what someone needs tomorrow is a fraud and a sham.

    Neither party is blameless here, although I’ll pin more of the blame on the borrow and spend Republicans rather than the tax and spend Democrats. I believe that the latter tend to be honest about where the money comes from more often

  • Zebulun

    The state of our state is still strong; the quality of life is still good. This is true DESPITE the intentions of current legislative leaders. We can thank past local and state community leaders for what we enjoy today. As citizens, we need to realize that our social capital needs to be maintained.

  • Craig

    On the bright side, many states would kill for Minnesota’s diversified portfolio of industries (Ag, High-tech, Medical, Mining, Managerial), all of which bring revenue into the state from around the world. Their differences damp out some of the economic swings that whipsaw other states, but these differences require compromise when dialing in the business environment.

  • Philip

    The state doesn’t have enough snow.

  • Tabatha

    Endocannabinoid depleted. Cannabis/Hemp deprived.

  • Gary F

    Does Mark actually get up there and talk? Or does someone from his official mouthpiece, The Alliance for a Better Minnesota, get up and speak?

  • Ann

    I am unemployed and I think the state could do more to attract jobs. I saw a report about a call center returning to the US from India. It was in Texas. Usually call centers want people from the midwest because of their neutral accents. I lost a job 10 years ago because the company went to Florida. Minnesota needs to give tax incentives or something to companies. Banks went to South Dakota because of the incentives that they received. Please forget the Vikings stadium and investigate how to get jobs!! We need jobs with health insurance.