State budget dilemma: here's the crucial info

Outstate would be hurt more by GOP all-cuts budget.

14 Chambers of Commerce, many from outstate took the unusual and politically risky move of opposing Republican budget plan. Here's the story.

And here's a great backgrounder from Arne Carlson on the kind of fiscal situation Gov. Tim Pawlenty left us with. (Gives whole new meaning to Pawlenty's pronouncement in recent presidential bid that we have too much debt. He was the king of taking on debt!).

Carlson makes a key point: some budget cuts cost more in the future. Take cuts below needs to road funding during Pawlenty's administration.

Some 700 miles of highway are now in "poor" condition because we've never met the goal of 2 percent in poor in the last eight years.

When a state highway needs an overlay, if it's not in "poor" condition it costs about $130,000 per mile, according to MnDOT. When it goes to poor condition it costs three to six times more per mile, again, according to MnDOT.

The same thing can be said for health care. When Republicans reformed GAMC last year, they had to set aside $30 million for hospitals to draw from for all the folks that no longer qualified for GAMC as they came to hospital emergency rooms.

Some budget cutting does make sense - duplication of programs etc - but some absolutely makes no sense because we're not analyzing how it creates higher costs in the future.

Here's Dayton's detailed responses to Republican budget and story on same. His veto messages are unusual in that they carry very specific numbers, estimates from revenue and are worth reading.

Story with links to veto messages.