MINNESOTA STATE GOVERNMENTMinnesota exists as a state because people here wanted to run their own affairs. Early settlers in the upper Mississippi and Minnesota River valleys were not content to have much of their everyday public business determined in Washington while they were a Territory, so they petitioned and got the chance to be admitted as an equal partner in the federal union. State PowersIn fact, the people of Minnesota continue to operate a huge and rapidly expanding business and regulatory enterprise themselves, using the state government to shape the everyday quality of their existence in considerable detail. Nowhere is it possible to find listed the powers of state government. Unlike the powers of national government, which are spelled out, in bare bones, at least, in the United States Constitution, the powers of the State of Minnesota are not detailed anywhere. In truth, Minnesota has all the powers of the British House of Commons at the time of the American Revolution, which was virtually unlimited, except for such powers as the United States and Minnesota Constitutions have taken away. Not all the constitutional restrictions on states were obvious at the time they were written. In fact, courts to this day are still in the process of determining in what ways the state may affect religion, what the requirements are for treating an accused person fairly, and the specific meanings of “equality” that a state must not deny by its laws or official actions. Through the 14th Amendment, Minnesota is also covered from doing most things restricted in the federal Bill of Rights. States learned, too, that they could not block a legitimate power of the national government by trying to forbid, regulate, or tax its operations. Furthermore, since the people in Minnesota would never tolerate their government having all the power of the pre-revolutionary British House of Commons, they wrote out a large number of restrictions of their own. Minnesota’s Constitution contains its own Bill of Rights, stated as Article I. It reads much like the Bill of Rights that restrains the national government’s infringement of free speech, free press, and rights of the accused. Two items are missing: the rights of assembly and petition. And there is no equal protection clause (which the federal Bill of Rights also does not specifically state). There are, however, a few additions in the Minnesota document, such as a much more detailed statement forbidding the use of tax money for religious activities, and the right to sell farm vegetables without a license! Other restrictions elsewhere in the state Constitution restrict Minnesota’s legislature from enacting changes in railroad taxes without a popular vote, from passing special laws applying to an individual local government without consent of that municipality, or from enacting laws on some subjects that would apply only to named individuals. Churches, cemeteries, charitable institutions, and schools are not taxable. The state Constitution also spells out the proportion of motor vehicle taxes to be distributed to various kinds of highways, which therefore cannot be changed by ordinary statutes of the legislature. Because Minnesota is a government on its own, the Minnesota supreme court can by interpretation of the state Constitution, enlarge freedoms guaranteed against state action beyond what the United States supreme court defines the Fourteenth Amendment to require. But by and large, the people of Minnesota have not been desirous of restricting the state, and have left the state able, through the governmental structure they describe in the Constitution, to handle a very large number of important things such as:
Local GovernmentLawmakersThis means that the legislature is a very powerful body. The legislature has all the powers the people themselves could exercise except those denied it in the state Constitution. No money can be spent unless appropriated by the legislature. No government agency can be set up or changed except by the legislature and governor acting together. No act can be punished as a crime unless the legislature specifically so declares, and no punishment can be administered except for that which the legislature prescribes. The legislature redraws its own district lines after the census, as well as congressional district lines. The legislature even decides upon proposed amendments to the United States Constitution unless Congress provides for a special ratifying convention. Minnesota state representatives are elected every two years and senators every four years (except for a two-year term at the end of the decade when new census population figures require drawing new district lines). The state Constitution requires that the districts of both houses be laid out on the basis of equality of population, but this was ignored from 1913 to 1959, after which federal courts either required the legislature to draw new districts or did it themselves. Minnesota election laws provide that the political party’s official nomination, the right to carry the party’s label on the general election ballot, be conferred on the plurality winners of the primary election, in which all voters can choose in which primary to select candidates in the secrecy of the voting booth. But the major political parties hold precinct caucuses (local meetings of voters of each party) that elect delegates to a series of legislative district, congressional district, and state conventions where candidates are endorsed to the party’s voters. Then the parties assist in the campaigns, but the endorsed candidates do not always win the nomination. Members of the legislature from each party caucus for organizational purposes, to determine who will be the leaders and committee members. The majority group names the committee chairs and dominates the agenda of the sessions. Party members meet often for policy discussions and usually show considerable unity in voting on most controversial matters. ExecutivesAdministrative duties of the state are performed, according to a recent count, by about 150 administrative departments, agencies, authorities, boards, commissions, councils, and committees. The governor has power to appoint and remove these officials. An open appointments provision allows ordinary citizens to apply for these positions, and some are picked for the lesser jobs. Except for top departmental executives (called “commissioners”) and their staffs, most state employees are under a merit personnel system. State employees have the right to organize unions to bargain for their wages, and most have the right to strike. Minnesota was the first state to implement “comparable worth,” to make sure jobs traditionally held by women are evaluated and paid according to the responsibilities they entail. Administrative agencies have power derived from the statutes that created them to issue rules, but an independent hearing examiner reviews the proposed regulations in a proceeding similar to lawmaking before they are published as administrative law. The principal power of the governor over the agencies is through the power to recommend a budget. The commissioner of finance receives spending requests from the several state agencies and assists the governor in deciding what program priorities to recommend to the legislature. Of course, the legislature ultimately decides the exact amount of money to be spent for individual programs of each agency, but the governor’s recommendation is carefully considered and typically becomes the range of the final amount. The governor can veto individual items in an appropriation bill as well as whole bills. After a gradual series of measures concentrating executive power in this office, the governor of Minnesota is considered to be among the strongest in the nation in formal powers. In recent years several imaginative programs of administrative improvement have attracted national attention, resulting in Minnesota’s being named among the most effectively administered states. Ultimately, the real power of any governor depends upon his leadership of public opinion, and the effectiveness of his political party organization in electing majorities to the legislature and in securing a measure of uniformity of views among officeholders. In terms of the influence of political parties in shaping governmental programs Minnesota stands, perhaps, midway among the states of the Union. Some have much stronger parties and some much weaker. Conversely, and not unrelated, Minnesota is considered to be less dominated by interest groups than most states. The parties in Minnesota are policy-oriented and different enough that it matters in public policy which controls the government. Over the years Minnesota has often experienced split control between the governor and the legislature, requiring fierce negotiation. JudiciaryAll judges in Minnesota are elected for six-year terms, but virtually all judges come to the court initially through appointment by the governor. A commission on judicial selection recommends several people for the governor to consider appointing to a vacancy on the district court. This provides some check on the governor’s power over the judiciary, since his court appointments are not subject to state senate approval as are appointments to administrative positions. Judges are usually re-elected to successive terms without challenge, but some have been replaced. Judges are designated on the ballot for a specific seat, so challengers are required to file against a specific sitting judge or for an open seat. A board of judicial standards reviews allegations of misconduct by judges and recommends discipline, including removal, to the state supreme court. ExpendituresThe state operates on a biennial budget, framed in odd-numbered years right after the general election signals a new legislative session. The fiscal year starts the next July 1. In the even-year session, the legislature adopts the capital (building) budget and tinkers with the operating budget for the second year to reflect changed needs and revenue estimates. The budget that concerns the governor and the legislature is the general fund. But in reality this constitutes only about two-thirds of all state spending. About a quarter of the total funds come from the federal government to assist in a host of programs, and these are budgeted separately. In addition there are several dedicated funds established with separate revenue sources only for specified purposes, such as the gas tax that funds the highway programs and user fees and gambling revenues that support environmental programs. The general fund by itself amounted to about $10 billion per year in 1997. Education, health and human services, and aids to local governments get most of the money. Local school districts are expected to bear the major share of the expense of kindergarten-through-twelfth grade education, although there is a continuing debate about whether the state should take on more or even most of this cost. To insure that at least a minimum educational program is carried on by every district no matter how poor it may be, the state contributes a certain amount per pupil, less the amount received from a minimum local tax level. The state also pays special aids for transportation and special education. Currently, the state supplies about $3 billion per year for K-12 education. Higher education gets about one-eighth of the general fund, more than $1 billion per year. Besides the University of Minnesota with four campuses, a second system includes seven state universities, 13 community colleges (some with more than one campus), 16 technical colleges (again some with several campuses), and three consolidated community and technical colleges. The University of Minnesota actually gets most of its money from tuition, fees, and federal grants. Minnesota spends about $2.5 billion a year on health care and financial support for the indigent. Most of this money goes to county-administered programs, but several state institutions serve the chemically dependent, mentally ill, and the aged. Another eighth of the general fund, well over $1 billion per year, goes to local governments as direct aids or to provide property tax relief for homesteads and farms. Criminal justice requires about 5 percent of the general fund budget. Environment and natural resources: agriculture, forestry, state parks, game and fish, and water, land, and mineral management, takes another 2 percent. The actual operation of the state government amounts to only 3 percent of the general fund, $250,000,000 per year. Interest on the debt (spent for capital construction, since Minnesota is forbidden to borrow for regular government programs) also costs about $250,000,000 per year. RevenuesFederal money for all purposes comes to about $3 billion a year. Federal grants typically are tied to program requirements, buying for the national government power over matters traditionally in state hands. An example is the requirement that persons under 19 (Minnesota had said 18) could not buy liquor or Minnesota would lose its federal highway aid. Considering state taxes alone, Minnesota receives more than 40 percent of its general fund revenue from the individual income tax, 6 percent from the corporate income tax, and 2 percent from gross earnings taxes on railroads and telephone companies. The general sales tax provides about a third of the revenue, with special sales taxes on liquor and tobacco bringing in more than 2 percent. The state does not tax real estate property, leaving this source of revenue for local governments. But the state deeply affects property taxes through its authority to differentially classify what percentage of market value each type of property: agricultural, homestead, apartments, commercial, industrial, and recreational, should bear. Aids to local governments and school districts reduce the amount they have to levy on real property. And the state has a “circuit breaker” that pays part of the property tax of low income-people. The high levels of spending and taxing in Minnesota appear to satisfy the public. Opinion surveys have shown that most people think they get good service from state and local government and would support higher spending on programs they value most, such as education, roads, and criminal justice. TrendsPopulation growth provides a constant challenge. Population is increasing in Minnesota faster than in surrounding states, although not as fast as in the nation as a whole. Soon 5 million people will live within the state’s boundaries. But the characteristics of the population are also changing. The percentage of residents over 65 (who are major consumers of health costs) and the number of children (who are major consumers of education costs) is increasing, while the percentage of people in the earning and tax-paying years becomes smaller. This means that merely maintaining present services will require drastically increased expenditures from a smaller base. Minorities constitute about 7 percent of the population, a much smaller proportion than in many states, but that group is growing fast, and many new arrivals require special language and education services. An even greater impact on state agencies will be produced by the changing nature of service to individuals. In the past, Minnesota has led the nation in applying new concepts of treatment of the physically and mentally ill. Breakthroughs are making possible vast improvements in preventing, diagnosing, and treating disease, but at great expense. Longer life expectancy means more people survive into non-working and possibly dependent years. The information age requires a substantially different emphasis in education and re-education for many. Far higher proportions of college age people are wanting further academic and professional education. Demand for recreational facilities is skyrocketing because of increased leisure time and rising standards of living. Metropolitan sprawl now extends from St. Cloud to Rochester, and the profusion of automobiles is overloading the transportation infrastructure. Water supply, in quantity and quality, will plague even the land of 10,000 lakes. New types and standards of food production and marketing are in view, needing to be developed, promoted, and regulated. The public perception of increased crime demands expanded costly long-term detention facilities and underscores the need for new social programs for prevention. Meanwhile the federal government is reducing its contributions for human resource programs and devolving more responsibility on the state. All of these developments and others must be faced by Minnesota’s decisionmakers in the very near future. What kinds of programs to adopt to deal with them is only part of the question. How to pay for them is the rest. The state is a helpless bystander, except through its political influence, in the realm of national fiscal and monetary policies designed to regulate and promote the growth of the nation’s economy. By and large, if the nation prospers, Minnesota will too. More money comes in from existing taxes. But the competitive place of Minnesota among the fifty states is within the control of this state to some extent, which limits how much people can be asked to pay. Minnesota can promote and encourage its own growth through programs of education and development of its resources, including the fostering of industrial and business growth within its borders. The level of taxing and spending for public purposes is not fixed. It is a judgment of values and priorities people must make, within limits of economic reality. The aim is to meet the real needs of the people within the fairest and most productive distribution of costs. Solving this complicated formula will strain the wisest heads in the state. It will take energetic and dedicated officials to cope with the problems and a political structure that enables decisions to be made in the most efficacious, yet the most democratic, way possible. And it will require the enlightened participation of the citizenry in accepting local and state responsibilities. If Minnesota’s governmental system works well in its continuing and expanding job, it will prove that the present inheritors of the sky-blue water lands are indeed fit to run their own affairs, as their forefathers believed when they took on this task more than a century and a third ago. By: Charles H. Backstrom, Emeritus Professor of Political Science, University of Minnesota/Twin Cities. |
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