2/8/05
Morality drama overshadows budgetary realities
The 2005 legislative session may not play out as cleanly as a Medieval morality drama, with characters announcing "I am Vice," or "I am Charity," but the pageant will be acted out on an old stage.
Questions of morality cut across central issues of the session.
Like alchemist of old, trying to make gold out of baser materials, lawmakers and Gov. Tim Pawlenty are attempting to pull virtue out of gambling. The outcome of the exercise, beyond its molecular contradictions, is heightened by the fact a $200 million gap exists in the governor's two-year state budget without an infusion of gaming dollars.
If not gaming dollars - or from cutting spending - the money must come from somewhere else. And No New Tax politics limits the range of
where to look.
That leaves gaming.
Civil War soldiers, before going into battle, use to stash their decks of playing cards, unwilling to risk the odds of standing inspection
at Heaven's Gate with a deck of greasy cards in their pocket.
Apparently, Minnesota has moved beyond such lingering Puritanism.
The question is to what?
Does the benefit to three Northern Minnesota Indian tribes, possibly helped by a gambling expansion, justify the state sanctioning in essence a regressive tax and a something-for-nothing mentality? "I am Doubt," an old character might have said.
And there's issues of charity.
The Pawlenty Administration proposes cutting back a state health care program providing coverage to thousands of poor people. The rationale is simple enough: the state cannot afford the cost long term, they argue.
The administration notes that Minnesota, even with the end of MinnesotaCare, will still be ranked as generous or more so than neighboring states in treating the needy.
Is that good enough? Or is defining charity through the actions of others reduce the virtue to the level of a commodity?
That's another moral dilemma lawmakers must ponder.
Other profound moral issues before lawmakers include the proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, questions of bonding - of placing debt on future Minnesotans rather than paying
now - of education funding, criminal justice, health.
Though budgetary realities exist and cannot in good faith be ignored, ultimately it will be how the Legislature reacts to the larger moral questions that will be remembered, not partisan rhetoric or
ill-advised No New Tax pledges to political parties.
The pageant lines were written long ago.
The question is who will utter them? -- Editor's note: This editorial was a product of the ECM Editorial Board.
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