Republican leaders at the Capitol are facing down sharp criticism on the left, from Democrats complaining about "draconian" cuts to the state's budget. But they also are fending off complaints from their right flank, where the message is: You're still spending too much.
Just as Tea Party members are swaying the budget battle in Washington, an internal struggle within Minnesota's Republican Party is manifesting on talk radio, among conservative groups and even some legislators in St. Paul.
Republican leaders are getting peppered by their own for proposing a general fund budget that, while substantially smaller than the governor's proposals, would still spend more over the next two years than in the last two.
"I understand that there is some serious frustration out there by some of your listeners and some of our constituents," Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, R-Buffalo, said last week on KTLK-FM. "And what I would say is I'd just like people to look at all the amazing, really aggressive reforms we're doing."
At issue? Republicans have passed a $34 billion general fund budget for the next two years that allows them to fill in behind federal stimulus dollars and education shifts. That's $2 billion more than what was proposed last year by failed GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer. Some hardline fiscal conservatives want spending capped at $32 billion, staying well below the $33.3 billion in revenue the state is forecasted to collect in 2012-13.
"I would prefer not to be growing our general fund expenditures as much as we are," said freshman Sen. Dave Thompson, R-Lakeville. "And I think there are a lot of people within the conservative movement that agree with me."
The most conservative members of the GOP argue that the state should have more breathing room, particularly in case the forecast is wrong.
"That's why we got into the position we're in, because we spent everything we had for the last decade," said Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, who called the K-12 education budget "irresponsible" in an e-mail to constituents. He was one of three Republicans to vote against the omnibus bill.
Rep. Mark Buesgens, R-Jordan, is among those who want to cap spending at the amount of revenue already collected and eliminate reliance on projected revenue figures. The problem, he noted, is that Republicans now need to negotiate with a DFL governor willing to raise revenues in order to spend more. "The biggest question is, how do you negotiate if you've spent every penny and that's now the base?" Buesgens asked.
On her talk show on KTLK, former gubernatorial candidate Sue Jeffers asked, "Who taught these people how to play poker? You never put your best shot out there first thing. Because where are you going to go?"
Buesgens proposed a K-12 amendment that would have cut per-pupil funding increase to set aside money that could be needed for flooding. It failed, but 16 Republicans supported it, including freshman Rep. Mary Franson, R-Alexandria.
Franson recently complained on radio about being pressured to abandon her principles.
"We were told that there is principles and there is governing," Franson said late last month. "And sometimes you gotta go down to St. Paul and you just gotta throw your principles aside and govern."
Franson would not divulge who made the comment but said some in her caucus have already compromised with the governor with their current budgets. "We compromised at the level that we did," Franson said.
House Speaker Kurt Zellers, who spent about half an hour playing defense on KTLK last Friday, said the calls to freeze spending outright have not had a major effect on his budget considerations. He noted that the extra spending includes tax cuts, which are marked as costs, and that their budget stays true to the "living within our means" mantra of the campaign.
"What we've said all along ... was we'll just live within our means, we'll spend what comes in," Zellers said. "That's all we're doing is spending what's coming in."
Republicans in the Senate, meanwhile, have tried to present their budget as about equal with last year's.
Senate Majority Leader Koch contended at a recent press conference that "$34 billion is what we spent last biennium." That calculation includes stimulus money and assumes the state paid billions in shifted education dollars, which it did not.
Simmering criticism
The question of why state spending rose is bubbling up in local Republican circles.
"We do question whether the increase ... was necessary," said Jim Carson, chair of the Fourth Congressional District Republicans. "That's a question that I'm sure every Republican legislator in St. Paul has been asked from their own organizations."
The chair of another local group, Senate District 56 Republicans, said they are pressuring their local legislators to lean on leaders for more cuts.
It has also spurred such groups as Minnesota Majority to seek a meeting with Republican leadership.
"We think $32 billion is the right thing," the group's executive director Dan McGrath said. "And we've been trying to impress that on our leadership here in the House and the Senate."
But, Thompson noted, any spending will have to be approved by a governor who wants to spend $37 billion. He said that the Republican spending targets generated a "robust discussion" among members of their caucus, but that if those targets remain intact by the end of session with no new taxes, "that's a reasonable ending compromise."
Eric Roper • 651-222-1210