P. Coonan
2024-09-23 18:13:11 UTC
Op-ed from Duluth News Tribune
Gov. Tim Walz is taking it on the chin these days for the short tenure of
his pick for the head of the Office of Cannabis Management. It turned out
that Erin DuPree, who would have been in charge of regulatory compliance
for the states weed growers, appears to have illegally sold cannabis
products at her hemp shop. She resigned one day after her appointment.
The governor definitely made an embarrassing and dumb mistake, but hiring
mistakes happen in any large bureaucracy, whether in the public or private
sector.
I dont think Minnesotans really care that much about a public officials
occasional stumbles. They do care about persistent catastrophic failures,
though, and Walz is delivering those in spades.
Lets go through the list.
On the economy, Minnesota is falling behind, and Walz is to blame. The
growth rate of our private sector is at the lowest point in decades, and
the governor seems to have no answer for it other than increasing state
spending by 38% in a single legislative session. Despite a $19 billion
surplus larger than the entire budgets of 17 U.S. states and even dozens
of countries Walz barely gave any of it back to Minnesotans and even
went on to raise taxes by an additional $9 billion. In a poll of key
Minnesota House districts released by my organization, the Minnesota
Private Business Council, those new taxes are opposed by over 65% of
voters.
Walz crows about our low unemployment rate, but that reality is driven by
a lot of people retiring from the workforce, an exodus of many workers out
of the state, and a lot of COVID-relief dollars still sloshing around the
state. An unbiased look at the data shows that Minnesotas long-term
economy is at the most precarious moment in its history, substantially
driven by the anti-jobs policies of the far left.
On crime, liberals in St. Paul for years told us COVID-19 was the cause of
the most violent period in Minnesotas history, but murders statewide in
2022, well after COVID dissipated, were still 75% higher than in 2019,
before the pandemic. In Minneapolis, murders are nearly 50% higher than in
2019. And, also in Minneapolis, 23 cars are being stolen every day. Yet
Walz responded to the continued crime epidemic by letting criminals out
even earlier.
On basic government functions, Minnesota is living through the worst
period of financial mismanagement and fraud in its history. We have a 14-
mile track of light rail, the Southwest Light Rail, that is $1 billion
over budget and a decade late. We had the Feeding Our Future fraud in
which $250 million were given away to fraudsters despite numerous red
flags.
Preceding Walz, there have been the other extraordinary failures of the
Department of Human Services in which hundreds of millions of dollars were
overpaid, uncollected, or otherwise lost to fraud. And Walz has responded
with a few ad-hoc changes that amount to moving around the deck chairs on
the Titanic.
On education, only half of Minnesota kids are proficient in reading and
math, with steep drops beginning before the pandemic and continuing
throughout Walzs tenure. That statistic, and the consequences for our
kids and our state, should haunt every public official. But no solutions
are forthcoming from our governor who loves to remind everyone of his
background as a teacher.
Why is Walz failing so dramatically? The policies he has adopted are so
kooky (and the response to crises so slow) that one is tempted to
attribute them to the influence of the products regulated by the
aforementioned Office of Cannabis Management.
But no, the cause isnt any substance. The cause is our governors
willingness to turn over the governance of our state to extremists like
Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, U.S. Rep.
Ilhan Omar, and Attorney General Keith Ellison. And so Minnesota is led
down the path of tax hikes despite a $19 billion surplus, crushing burdens
on small business, defunding police and kicking them out of our schools,
and inaction in the face of historic challenges.
The problem with Walz isnt occasional mistakes. The problem is his
destructive, San Francisco-style policies that have had catastrophic
consequences for Minnesota families, workers, and small businesses.
Minnesota is a great state with a proud and worthy history, but it needs a
governor who rejects far-left extremism and instead delivers the common-
sense solutions Minnesotans need.
Walz has an opportunity to change course in the 2024 legislative session.
Minnesotans should demand he does.
https://www.growthmn.com/local-view-mistakes-are-one-thing-catastrophic-
failures-another-for-walz/
Gov. Tim Walz is taking it on the chin these days for the short tenure of
his pick for the head of the Office of Cannabis Management. It turned out
that Erin DuPree, who would have been in charge of regulatory compliance
for the states weed growers, appears to have illegally sold cannabis
products at her hemp shop. She resigned one day after her appointment.
The governor definitely made an embarrassing and dumb mistake, but hiring
mistakes happen in any large bureaucracy, whether in the public or private
sector.
I dont think Minnesotans really care that much about a public officials
occasional stumbles. They do care about persistent catastrophic failures,
though, and Walz is delivering those in spades.
Lets go through the list.
On the economy, Minnesota is falling behind, and Walz is to blame. The
growth rate of our private sector is at the lowest point in decades, and
the governor seems to have no answer for it other than increasing state
spending by 38% in a single legislative session. Despite a $19 billion
surplus larger than the entire budgets of 17 U.S. states and even dozens
of countries Walz barely gave any of it back to Minnesotans and even
went on to raise taxes by an additional $9 billion. In a poll of key
Minnesota House districts released by my organization, the Minnesota
Private Business Council, those new taxes are opposed by over 65% of
voters.
Walz crows about our low unemployment rate, but that reality is driven by
a lot of people retiring from the workforce, an exodus of many workers out
of the state, and a lot of COVID-relief dollars still sloshing around the
state. An unbiased look at the data shows that Minnesotas long-term
economy is at the most precarious moment in its history, substantially
driven by the anti-jobs policies of the far left.
On crime, liberals in St. Paul for years told us COVID-19 was the cause of
the most violent period in Minnesotas history, but murders statewide in
2022, well after COVID dissipated, were still 75% higher than in 2019,
before the pandemic. In Minneapolis, murders are nearly 50% higher than in
2019. And, also in Minneapolis, 23 cars are being stolen every day. Yet
Walz responded to the continued crime epidemic by letting criminals out
even earlier.
On basic government functions, Minnesota is living through the worst
period of financial mismanagement and fraud in its history. We have a 14-
mile track of light rail, the Southwest Light Rail, that is $1 billion
over budget and a decade late. We had the Feeding Our Future fraud in
which $250 million were given away to fraudsters despite numerous red
flags.
Preceding Walz, there have been the other extraordinary failures of the
Department of Human Services in which hundreds of millions of dollars were
overpaid, uncollected, or otherwise lost to fraud. And Walz has responded
with a few ad-hoc changes that amount to moving around the deck chairs on
the Titanic.
On education, only half of Minnesota kids are proficient in reading and
math, with steep drops beginning before the pandemic and continuing
throughout Walzs tenure. That statistic, and the consequences for our
kids and our state, should haunt every public official. But no solutions
are forthcoming from our governor who loves to remind everyone of his
background as a teacher.
Why is Walz failing so dramatically? The policies he has adopted are so
kooky (and the response to crises so slow) that one is tempted to
attribute them to the influence of the products regulated by the
aforementioned Office of Cannabis Management.
But no, the cause isnt any substance. The cause is our governors
willingness to turn over the governance of our state to extremists like
Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, U.S. Rep.
Ilhan Omar, and Attorney General Keith Ellison. And so Minnesota is led
down the path of tax hikes despite a $19 billion surplus, crushing burdens
on small business, defunding police and kicking them out of our schools,
and inaction in the face of historic challenges.
The problem with Walz isnt occasional mistakes. The problem is his
destructive, San Francisco-style policies that have had catastrophic
consequences for Minnesota families, workers, and small businesses.
Minnesota is a great state with a proud and worthy history, but it needs a
governor who rejects far-left extremism and instead delivers the common-
sense solutions Minnesotans need.
Walz has an opportunity to change course in the 2024 legislative session.
Minnesotans should demand he does.
https://www.growthmn.com/local-view-mistakes-are-one-thing-catastrophic-
failures-another-for-walz/