NTU Blogger Bashes Pawlenty
Guest blogger Sam Batkins at the National Taxpayers Union blog has a post up on Pawlenty's fiscal record, and it's not pretty. According to Batkins, Pawlenty's spending record started off strong but went downhill from there:
Like Governor Romney, Pawlenty’s spending record started off strong. During his first year in office, Pawlenty was actually able to cut general fund spending by 1.2%. This penchant for fiscal probity waned in later years, however. In the next four years, general fund growth averaged 6.6%. This rate in government growth is average when compared to the rest of the United States. From FY 2004-07, spending increased 17.2% (from $13.6 billion to $15.9 billion). Unfortunately for taxpayers, government employment in Minnesota grew 27.7% (from 33,279 state employees to 42,515) during Pawlenty’s tenure.
On taxes, Batkins is more harsh:
Pawlenty’s record on taxes can rightly be characterized as a disaster for Minnesotans. There have been no broad-based tax cuts in Minnesota and the largest reduction during Pawlenty’s time in office is only $28.7 million.
Overall, during Pawlenty’s tenure, taxes have increased $1.74 billion (with a b). Some supporters might attempt to describe these increases as merely fees, but consumers and corporations nevertheless have to pay the bill. To his credit, Pawlenty has proposed a modest $77.3 million reduction in sales taxes for FY 2009, but this is more than offset with $138.7 million in other tax and fee hikes.
Batkin's conclusion:
Rumors are abound that Pawlenty is the front-runner for McCain’s VP slot, but with over $1.7 billion in tax hikes to his name and even more on the way, McCain might think twice about choosing Pawlenty.
UPDATE: NTU has added this reminder to the blog post: "Administrator’s Reminder: The opinions of Guest Bloggers do not necessarily represent the views of National Taxpayers Union or National Taxpayers Union Foundation."
