Minnesota Voters Weigh Candidates' Economic Plans, Spending Priorities

Ray Suarez conducted it last night at Twin City's Public Television after the president's State of the Union address.

RAY SUAREZ: We have gathered seven Minnesotans with various party affiliations here in the state capital of St. Paul to discuss budget priorities, financial choices, the tough decisions that governments and their people will have to make down the road.

Just a moment ago, Fred de Sam Lazaro said the debate over taxes promises to endure. And we all watched the State of the Union address together. And George W. Bush seems to be prepared to be right in the center of that debate in his remaining year in office, and in the State of the Union address talked about great economic uncertainty.

Steve Becher, you are a publisher, connected to the real estate industry. When he said that, did you say, boy, oh, boy, is there ever uncertainty?

STEVE BECHER, Resident of Minnesota: Well, it has. It has affected us for the last two years, significantly cut into our business. So, we are waiting for the turnaround. And we're hoping some good things are going to come out of Congress to help our business.

RAY SUAREZ: Like what?

STEVE BECHER: Some of their stimulus packages.

RAY SUAREZ: Is that something that is going to take some time to actually sort of percolate through the system until people are taking ads in your magazine again?

STEVE BECHER: Absolutely. It's going to take at least another six months to a year before it will even start turning around.

RAY SUAREZ: Can you hang on?

STEVE BECHER: We can. And one of the reasons is we are changing our business model to make it through.

RAY SUAREZ: Any other impressions on the economy?

Terra Cole, you work for Hennepin County, one of the big counties in the state of Minnesota, in human services. What are you seeing at ground zero, where people connect with government and need help?

TERRA COLE, Resident of Minnesota: The biggest issue that we're seeing is what is happening with the economy is that are you seeing a lot of people who are in stable housing being pushed out of the market because of foreclosures.

So, the homeless population that we currently had before, while still intact, our shelters are being flooded. People are needing more services and needing more access to services in a way that we are struggling to find.

I would also say just from a neighborhood perspective, as you walk through neighborhoods, particularly my neighborhood, and you see the sheer number of boarded and vacant houses, what that does to the local economy when someone sees a vacant house...

RAY SUAREZ: Tom Sengupta, you are a pharmacist. Health care features a lot. And when you ask Americans what they are worried about, certainly that is one of the things that comes up.

TOM SENGUPTA, Resident of Minnesota: Ray, I will talk to you about you know that I see in my drugstore all kinds of people, people who could have been president with a touch of luck, could have been a great senator with a touch of luck, or people who are struggling every day.

They all are saying to me, there is something wrong, you know, something wrong that maybe that we lost our sense of confidence. We lost our sense of community. And nobody cares about anybody else. And all those things are very important. There is -- take a look what is happening to the middle-class America, with the demise of our unions, middle class also going down.

What is happening to our budget? What is happening borrowing money from the foreign countries? What is happening to our health care? People are quite afraid about this. It is not just giving out a certain amount of money for a short period of time, you are going to solve this problem. They all are realizing there's deep-rooted problems in our society.

And these are the tangible things. Intangible things are lack of confidence, lack of, you know, our community, that if you are breaking down, we are just bunch of individuals now. So, if you made it, you don't want to pay taxes for the other people. We have to get the sense of community back. And this disparity of income, if you don't look at that, pretty soon, we will be the richest Third World country in the world, if you don't stop this kind of disparity.

DUANE BENSON, Resident of Minnesota: Well, I think we're still a high-tax, high-service state. We're not as high taxed and maybe not as high serviced, but it not like we have fallen to the bottom of the 50 states. We're still in that category.

As you correctly point out, I live in rural Minnesota. Out in rural Minnesota, we still have a lot of Scandinavians. And they tend to start their sentence with yah, and then it's a little singy, and they close the sentence with then. So it is, yah, how you doing, then?

So, when you tell them the bridge fell and the Congress is going to solve the problem, and they appropriate a billion dollars, and then they have earmarks of a $1.4 billion, they say, ya, how does that work, then?

I don't have a good explanation. So, I think, as we talk about infrastructure, the basic infrastructure I think we need to fix -- and maybe everybody here would agree -- is government viable and does it provide value? And I think that is the question that we are all asking. And that kind of the debate of the presidential campaign.

RAY SUAREZ: Well, we heard Steve talk about problems in housing, and Terra talk about increased homelessness, and Tom talk about the difficulties people are having just keeping a roof over their heads. We heard the president talk about a lot of national priorities.

But there isn't money for everything, is there, Lois Quam? Doesn't something have to give?

LOIS QUAM, Resident of Minnesota: Well this debate about taxes is a debate about priorities. And Minnesota is a great state. We invested in education. And that has created a bedrock for our economy.

Now we need to turn our attention to an economy that is struggling. And we need to use this as a time to address the key challenges before us. In the part of rural Minnesota I'm from, southwest Minnesota, we have invested a lot in wind energy. And that and creates good jobs and clean energy. We can do a lot more.

Health care costs are both a challenge for our families. And, in this economy, as people face challenges with their jobs, what will come with that is challenges and being able to afford to go to the doctor. And we all know that we all get sick, no matter what happens.

RAY SUAREZ: Susan Gaither, you call yourself a Republican. When you hear Lois talk about government involvement in these kinds of enterprises, do you instinctively reach for your wallet? Are you a little worried? Or...

SUSAN GAITHER, Resident of Minnesota: Absolutely.

I think that, as Duane mentioned, something that has been fundamental to our country since day one is, what is the role of government? And I think, as we look at the successes of government and the not-so-successful elements of government, I come to the conclusion that it's the private markets that are going to provide the biggest bang for the buck.

So, I think what government needs to do is get out of the way of businesses and provider a climate with lower corporate taxes and lower capital gains taxes, so that private businesses can invest and can create jobs, because the private market can do it like government can't begin to.

RAY SUAREZ: The president talked about a horizon where revenue coming into the government may be reduced at the same time as calls for government action are growing.

Steve, you are a Republican. Did you, at any point, say, gee, maybe we shouldn't spend money on this?

STEVE BECHER: Oh, absolutely.

I don't think you can do it all. Even helping the economy, our business in the short term, those need to be short-term responses in spending. That shouldn't be a permanent program put in that will spend money forever. You have to get economy out of this. Then it will recover itself.

JENNIFER GODINEZ, Resident of Minnesota: That's right.

RAY SUAREZ: And we may be entering a time of conflicting priorities and reduced revenue. Are you worried?

JENNIFER GODINEZ: Exactly. I'm very worried.

I hear from college access problems that belong to my network and from individual families that want the American dream, they want their students to go on to college, that they are really making a choice between college tuition and paying the bills, and paying down credit, looking at gas prices.

And this a really worrisome time for our community, especially Minnesota. You have demographic shifts happening. These are Somali, African-American, Latino students. We want them to access this education -- a college education. We don't want them to have the high dropout rates that we currently see in our community. That is one thing about Minnesota, Ray, is that there is this national look at the state as if we are this high education state.

And that may have been true about 20 years ago. But with demographic shifts, we actually don't have students accessing their K-12 experience the same way as students prior have.

RAY SUAREZ: But health care, housing, homelessness, education access, people don't want to pay more taxes. How do you set the priorities? Who says "no" when all of you know people who are clamoring for access to this pot for investment, to rebuild the bridges, to do all the things that need to get done in Minnesota? Who says yes and who says no? Who makes things happen and who makes things stop?

DUANE BENSON: I don't think there is any easy answer. I will go back to what I said earlier.

Government, at some point, in my mind, has to prove that they are of value. And we do these things really well. I don't think we have necessarily bought into that when you say we should look at health care and why are these things happening, education and all those other things?

Maybe we have done it to ourselves: I'm here from the government and I'm here to help you. And we have all these simple jingles.

But it seems to me, if we want to get off the dime, we have to start demonstrating as a society that government has real value. Then people may choose to invest more. But I think, right now, they are hesitant.

RAY SUAREZ: Well, Terra, let me -- you're from the government and you're here to help.

TERRA COLE: I'm here to help.

RAY SUAREZ: Please sell Duane on the idea that it is a worthwhile investment to fund Hennepin County government.

DUANE BENSON: I'm easy. So, go ahead.

TERRA COLE: I look at the county and government as a necessary tool, for lack of a better way of looking at it, but a necessary entity in order to make things work.

You like your roads. Guess who is going to do that? You like having your public utilities. Guess who does that?

RAY SUAREZ: A lot of you have talked about priorities, things you want to see done. Can we do these things that have been mentioned and still pay for a commitment in Iraq?

Susan?

SUSAN GAITHER: I don't think we should do all the things that have been mentioned. I think that the number-one priority of the government is national security. And that's the priority.

And I think local governments can take over more things. I think private industry can take over more things. Again, it goes back to that overall longstanding question, which probably will never be solved, which is, what is the role of government?

TERRA COLE: If our priority is national security, than what are we doing at home? In order to be secure abroad, we need to be secure at home. And what do you do to be secure at home? Make sure that people are fed. Make sure that people are housed. Make sure that people are educated. And you make sure that people have jobs to go to, so they can afford all of these different things.

So, while I see our role as being the great democracy, and as much as we would love to spread democracy everywhere, again, as your mother told you, take care of home first before you go somewhere else. And we really have not taken care of home as well as we can.