Sen. Kelash: Government Shutdown 'Starving' the State

More than a week into the Minnesota government shutdown, Richfield Patch talked with the city's representative, State Sen. Ken Kelash (DFL-Richfield), to ask him about the tone of politics at the Capitol this past legislative session, his thoughts about the , and where Minnesota goes from here.

Richfield Patch: In these last six months, what has your experience at the Capitol been like?

State Sen. Ken Kelash: The whole session was frustrating. This shutdown isn’t a surprise. A lot of what happened this session was the fact that issues and bills weren’t well considered … Bills would be moved by the majority, which you expect to have happen, but were moved on without resolving any legitimate issues.

Richfield Patch: What were some of the policy changes you thought were being made too quickly?

Kelash: [Republican legislators] want to make this change in how you do things, [but] you need time to transition. [For example], going from MinnesotaCare to vouchers for health and human services or changing the way youth services are offered, those take time to implement. 

When you have to do [proposed changes to programs] within a few days or weeks with an already short staff of people, it keeps compounding … I’m really glad [Gov. Mark Dayton] is holding the line, and hopefully some of these policy issues can get tossed out.

Richfield Patch: Budget negotiations went up to the July 1 deadline and legislators failed to compromise. After a full week's shutdown, it appears the two sides are still pretty far apart. What most concerns you about the state of politics these days?

Kelash: One of the things concerning me is the trend not to compromise at the national and state level. What Grover Norquist brings together is a national trend—that the way to cut back on government spending is just to hack away without any regard to the consequences. If cutting money to people that are getting some help to pay for daycare means they lose their jobs and now suddenly they’re getting state help because they can’t get to work, is that a savings? If families have kids or a parent with disabilities, and one of the parents has to stay home to help take care of them and can’t get to work, is that savings? Those kinds of things are what’s missing in the discussion. The problem with this society is that everything is more complicated than the public has a tendency to understand.

Richfield Patch: What are some of the problems with the budget proposals currently on the table?

Kelash: Republicans are in exactly the same position they were at the start of the year—asking for $34 billion a year and a not a dollar more. If we use that budget, we are going to lose services to group homes. [People getting] round the clock care will need to find another place. The problem with that is you’re booking the savings of [shutting down] the group home and not adding the cost of the nursing home … You put that burden back onto the cost we pay in emergency room care. I think Minnesota has one of the lowest public health insurance costs of any state in the nation. With the preventative care we have, we keep people out of nursing homes and in their own homes, and those things save the state money. And those are some of the things [Republicans] are targeting. How do we get out of this?

The only question this session was, “How do we get to $34 billion,” not “What is good for the state and the state’s future?” The question of how we conserve the quality of life in Minnesota was not a consideration. I was told by Republican senators that if the they decided in caucus that they were supporting an issue, then everyone [in the caucus] supported an issue. They locked themselves into this all or nothing legislative strategy, and it kept compromise from happening on some very difficult issues.

Richfield Patch: How might some of the your own constituents feel the pinch?

Kelash: Richfield has been on the edge already with cuts to LGA (local government aid), and though they may have gotten some other funding for fire and police, the cuts to LGA in Minneapolis and Richfield and St. Paul will cut needed services for the most impoverished. The [proposed budget appropriations] will cut services that businesses that the public rely on. Minneapolis generates $400 million in revenue to the State of Minnesota … Cuts to transportation and transit will hurt people in Minneapolis and Richfield who rely on it. It’s bad for everybody; there will be more people on the roads, clogging them up, there will be more people spending money on bus fare before food. It's not that [transportation programs] can’t handle some cuts, but what I’m saying is that it ought to be proportional around the country, around the rest of the state as well.

The bottom line is that there is not enough revenue coming into the state to maintain quality of life in Minnesota. It ripples through the whole rest of the economy. When people can’t get to work, or are spending more money on transit or daycare, they’re not spending it on other business services.

Richfield Patch: In your opinion, what's at stake in the shutdown?

Kelash: This is a sad way to try to run the state, starving it like this. It gets down to the ultimate philosophical question: What kind of state do Minnesotans want? Do they want low taxes and no services, or [one that] offers and opportunities for people to get ahead and maintain a good quality of life? And are they willing to pay for it? For most of Minnesota’s there has been this is a small group of people trying to take us down a different path, which says that dismantling some of the things which make Minnesota great is okay.