Candidates diverge on education, taxes

Jul 31, 2010 — Pioneer Press

Bill Salisbury

Jul. 31, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- MANKATO -- The three Democratic-Farmer-Labor candidates for governor took jabs at one another over education and taxes Friday night during a debate at Minnesota State Mankato.

Eleven days before the Aug. 10 DFL primary, House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton and former House Minority Leader Matt Entenza used the forum to highlight their few policy differences.

The three agree on most basic issues, including the need to create jobs, invest more in education, expand access to health care and hold down property taxes.

But Entenza and Kelliher butted heads over former President Bush's pet No Child Left Behind Act.

Entenza called it a "total disaster. Scrap it. It doesn't work." It just mandates "useless, standardized tests," he said.

If elected, he said, he would pull Minnesota out of the program, even if the state would lose federal funding.

Kelliher said that would cost the state $500 million in aid from Washington.

"Matt, we have to be honest. No state has opted out of No Child Left Behind," she said. Minnesota should not be the first.

She argued for reforming the program, not abandoning it.

"You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig," Entenza responded. "No Child Left Behind is a pig."

Although the next governor will inherit a projected $5.8 billion deficit, all three DFL candidates called for more spending for preschool, K-12 and higher education.

Dayton said he is the only one

who has pledged to increase taxes enough to deliver on that promise.

"I will increase funding (for education) every year. No excuses, no exceptions," he said.

Entenza warned that Dayton's tax-the-rich proposal could hurt Minnesota's economy by producing the highest income tax rates in the nation.

He said he'd get the economy growing first before providing more funding for education.

Kelliher took the middle ground, saying she wouldn't increase taxes as much as Dayton while pledging more funding for preschool programs and "fair funding" for K-12 schools and state colleges and universities.

"A great education is the foundation of a strong economy," she said.

Dayton has proposed closing most of the hole in the state budget by increasing income taxes on the wealthiest Minnesotans, starting with single people making more than $130,000 a year and couples with incomes of more than $150,000. Those taxpayers are only paying about three-fourths as much in state and local taxes, as a percentage of their income, as other Minnesotans, he said.

Kelliher and Entenza have proposed erasing the deficit with a "balanced approach" of smaller tax increases, budget cuts and delays in state payments.

About 200 people attended the forum sponsored by Debate Minnesota, a nonpartisan, nonprofit foundation that sponsors a series of candidate forums each election year.

Before the primary, the three DFL candidates are scheduled to participate in three more debates sponsored by the League of Women Voters, Farm Fest and Minnesota Public Radio.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0190-47489706