The money well runs dry

Suddenly, the “wrong” people are doing the “right” thing. The full quote from Nobel-prize-winning economist Milton Friedman goes as follows:

I do not believe that the solution to our problem is simply to elect the right people. The important thing is to establish a political climate of opinion which will make it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing. 

My example of this happening is the supplemental state budget presented by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. No, really.

Once again, I will use as an example the budget for my old agency, the Energy Division of the state’s Department of Commerce. The last budget (2023) signed by Walz for this agency (HF 2310) spent some $100 million over a two-year cycle. As I wrote back in November, more than $90 million of that amount was spent on government grants:

One of the largest single items is $15 million for the “solar in schools” grant program. Another $5 million went toward an electric vehicle rebate program. $3 million goes for a “residential electric panel upgrade grant program.”

$6 million was set aside for an electric school bus grant program. In total, there are exactly 26 earmarked appropriations under this one agency, one for each letter of the alphabet.

In the current proposed Energy budget, there are zero (0). In fact, Walz is proposing (p. 42) to cut $4 million from an existing home energy weatherization program.

I also recommended back in November:

HF 2310 [2023] continues in this vein, agency after agency. There are earmarks under other agencies that provide millions of dollars (even tens of millions) earmarked for individual nonprofits, listed by name.

If the now-divided Minnesota legislature is looking for bipartisan consensus, a bare-bones, keep-the-lights-on two-year budget would be in order. Not funding frivolous grant programs and unaccountable nonprofits would fit the mood of the times.

I made the exact same recommendation to end legislative earmarks a few weeks ago to the House’s Fraud Prevention committee. Miracles of miracles: it’s happening.

The Fraud Prevention committee sent a letter yesterday to the House’s finance committees asking them to end earmarked appropriations, wherever possible. The letter was signed by all eight of the committee’s members, plus the two co-chairs of the House Ways and Means committee, both Republicans and Democrats alike.

I wish I could take credit for this move, but as the letter itself points out, the idea to ban legislature earmarks has been around for decades. At times, the legislature has, more or less, even adhered to an earmark ban.

Of course, not everyone got the memo. The House of Representatives fell back into a 67-67 tie earlier this month. Since Democratic committee co-chairs have begun sharing power, Democrats have chaired two hearings of the Energy committee, hearing a total of eight (8) supplemental spending bills.

Baby steps.