House Minority Leader Rep. Paul Thissen says the state’s new approach to property taxes won’t provide relief.

“The bottom line: Republicans eliminated a program that provides $538 million each biennium in property tax relief and replaced it with a program that provides $0 in property tax relief,” Thissen wrote in a recent e-mail to constituents.

Thissen’s claim is correct.

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Grand Forks Herald, July 25, 2011

The longest shutdown in state history is over. Thank goodness.

As the smoke clears, it is fair to ask what the new Republican majorities accomplished — other than missed deadlines and a painful state government shutdown — in their first year leading the state Legislature. The answer to that question, unfortunately, is nearly nothing other than a beg, borrow, and steal budget that jeopardizes the future of our state.

Let’s look at the facts. This was supposed to be the “jobs, jobs, jobs” session. All too many are struggling these days: 200,000 still are without jobs, and many of those lucky enough to have one are facing pay cuts and still are struggling just to make ends meet.

Unfortunately, the Republicans did not lift a finger to support good-paying jobs for middle-class Minnesotans.

They chose instead to attack job protections, and the budgets they proposed actually will cause layoffs — including many in the health care industry, one of the only parts of the Minnesota economy that is growing right now.

The Republican beg, borrow and steal budget also continues the failed financial shenanigans of former Gov. Tim Pawlenty, balancing the budget on the backs of middle-class Minnesotans.

We’ve paid more and gotten less for far too long. Yet instead of defending our wallets, the Republicans raided them — resorting to the old pass-the-buck plan of cutting aid to communities across Greater Minnesota, which means residents will be paying increased property taxes and getting less police and fire protection.

And they are solving a $5 billion state budget deficit by borrowing $1.4 billion and leaving a multi-billion dollar deficit two years from now. That is the height of fiscal irresponsibility.

So, if the Republicans weren’t standing up for middle class families, who did the Republicans work for this session?

Corporate special interests — those who donated hundreds of thousands to Republican campaigns to gain legislative majorities — got to keep their special tax breaks that allow them to hide their profits overseas.

Millionaires also did very well, thanks to the Republicans. In fact, the Republicans were so adamant that the wealthiest Minnesotans not be asked to play a role in solving our historic budget deficit that they took our state to shutdown in order to protect them from paying the same amount of taxes that middle class families pay — not even temporarily.

Not even in order to prevent historic cuts to our state colleges and universities, or cuts to nursing homes and support for seniors and the disabled.

By the way, only 7,700 people would have been affected by the so-called “millionaire tax” — and just half of those even are Minnesota residents. Talk about priorities.

Republican legislators are not working for us. Their budget begs for money from seniors who can’t afford it, borrows from ourselves at a terrible rate and steals from our future by shifting funds for our children’s schools.

It’s a budget that protects millionaires in Wayzata at the expense of folks in Worthington, Willmar, and Wadena.

Those aren’t DFL priorities, and they certainly aren’t Minnesota values. We deserve legislators who will put our kids, our schools, our seniors and middle-class families first.

And that’s exactly what I and my DFL colleagues will continue to do as long as we have the honor of serving Minnesota.

http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/210670/

Campaigns and Elections Magazine, October 2010

“I think it’s largely political theater to advance his presidential ambitions,” said State Rep. Paul Thissen, a Democrat who is chairman of the chamber’s health-care and human-services committee. “We may miss out on a few hundred thousand dollars of federal money but…the damage he can do is going to be over in four months.”

Dems move to override Pawlenty’s GAMC veto

Paul Thissen earned the highest rating of any candidate for governor in either political party on the Legislative Report Card on Racial Equity.  Thissen was the second-highest scoring legislator, overall.

The Organizing Apprenticeship Project, a Minnesota non-profit that advocates for racial equity, compiled the Report Card. Thissen was named a “champion for racial equity” because of his efforts to advocate for racial equity in the 2009 legislative session.

“Last session, because of the leadership of Paul Thissen, Minnesota made progress toward racial justice.  Progress included requiring hiring equity for green jobs and advancing parity in the criminal justice system,” said Jermaine Toney of Organizing Apprenticeship Project. “Unfortunately, Governor Tim Pawlenty’s unilateral cuts to programs providing critical support for communities of color and low-income families undermined many of the good legislative accomplishments in the 2009 session.”

Thissen was thrilled with the rating, adding, “Minnesota is a changing state.  We are more diverse, growing older, and competing in a global economy.  As Legislators and leaders, we need to be vigilant about the impact that our decisions have on diverse Minnesota communities.  It is rewarding to have that vigilance recognized by advocates for racial equity.”

For a complete copy of the 2009 Minnesota Legislative Report Card on Race Equity, please go to OAP’s website at www.oaproject.org

“Unless there is a broader discussion on who we want to be as a people,” Thissen said the budget and related issues won’t be resolved for the long term.

While he agrees with Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s statements that health care costs are increasing at an unsustainable rate, Thissen disagrees with Pawlenty’s approach.

Recent cuts in General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) mean more people will be without insurance, because the cuts in the long run mean more expensive visits to emergency rooms, Thissen said.

The cuts also mean an increase in those with mental illnesses who will be without insurance, he said. That will also be more of a long-term cost to the state. At the least, the state must make sure those with mental health issues have insurance coverage for their medications, Thissen said.

“The dominant idea that the best way to succeed is for everybody to make it on their own, (needs to change),” Thissen said.

Minnesotans must consider the obligations they have to each other and then, talk more broadly about solutions and priorities, Thissen said.

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