A top Dayton administration official says state budget bills the Republican-controlled legislature is passing rely on fake savings, gimmicks like shifting payments into the future, and cuts that are unrealistic given Minnesotans’ needs. Management and Budget Commissioner Myron Frans says “fuzzy math” is a problem particularly in health and human services funding bills. He says, “Behind the positioning is math that just doesn’t work. It’s one thing to have a different position; it’s one thing to say that DHS ought to be cut by 10- or 20-percent, but it’s another thing to make up fake savings or to push expenditures down the road.”
Frans paints a pessimistic picture on the legislature finishing its business by the deadline in the third week of May. He says Republicans’ current bills are not a valid starting point and is “concerned that we may not get there on time.”