A Word of Caution to My DFL Friends

The 88th Minnesota Legislature convened a few minutes ago.  Congratulations to all of the members who were elected or re-elected for this session.

Local media are filled today with warnings for the new DFL (Democrat-Farmer-Labor) majorities, who enjoy one-party rule in St. Paul for the first time in a generation.  (See this, this and this.)

Their task, it is said, is “to prove that a state governed by Democrats can create progress without overreaching.”  Implicit in this warning is that the Democrats know where the line lies between creating progress and overreaching.

Based on my recent adventures in electoral politics, I’m not convinced they do.  Last autumn, our traveling campaign circus moved from public forum to public forum around the Southwest Metro.  The spending and policy promises made by the DFL candidates would pile up at every stop. Surely not everyone can be made happy.
Most media coverage focuses on the state’s $1.1 billion deficit, projected over the upcoming two-year budget period.  No doubt, the Legislature’s tax committees will also receive much scrutiny.

But as I pointed out yesterday, in a quieter corner of the Capitol, the DFL majority is considering imposing a $1 billion/year (my estimate) solar power mandate on the state’s energy consumers.  That’s just one of 28 other committees that will be hard at work the next few months.

The State of California provides the best example of what happens under unfettered Democrat rule.  But even the Golden State did not achieve its nation's worst credit rating in a single legislative session or from a single budget.  It has taken years for the taxes, the regulations, the mandates to pile up to the point where the entire economy collapses.

So I ask my DFL friends:  don’t just think of this budget, or the next election.  We all will live with the results of what you do in the next five months.