September 26-27, 2014
Sep 26 01:21 President Potter's legacy Sep 26 01:15 Westrom's high-profile endorsement Sep 26 00:54 Burke's stumbles continue Sep 26 13:58 Testing Reality Check's statements Sep 26 17:27 Dayton: Arsonist with a fire hose? Sep 27 00:19 Where's Minnesota's booming economy? Sep 27 11:08 Community Action shuts doors Sep 27 14:27 Dayton's latest MNsure fiasco
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Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
President Potter's legacy
President Potter's Legacy
by Silence Dogood
A fact of university life is that Presidents come and go. Some are good and some are not so good. Every once in a while you get a good one and you hope that they stick around. Unfortunately, most the time the good ones leave looking for greener pastures. Without a doubt, no matter what good he may have done, President Potter's legacy at SCSU will be his leadership of the university during the largest sustained enrollment downturn in modern SCSU history.
The website for the Office of Strategy, Planning & Effectiveness has the following link showing the enrollment at SCSU from FY2000 through FY2014.
http://www.stcloudstate.edu/ospe/research/documents/UniversityHistoricalFYEEnrollment.pdf
The figure below is reproduced from the SCSU website:
From its enrollment high in FY10, enrollment has dropped from 15,096 FYE to 12,381 FYE in FY14. This corresponds to a drop of 2,715 FYE and represents a drop of 18.0% over a four-year period.
The figure below is reproduced from the SCSU website showing the annual percentage change from year to year.
A look at the figure shows that the rate of decline in enrollment is decreasing from FY12 to FY14. This might be considered 'good news.'
President Potter formed the Data Analytics Group to accurately predict the enrollment at SCSU. In case you didn't know, enrollments are important for planning budgets since as much as two-thirds of the university's revenue comes from tuition with the other one-third coming from state appropriations.
Last March the Data Analytics group projected for FY15 a decline of 3.2% in FYE enrollment, for FY16 a decline of 2.3% in FYE enrollment and for FY17 a 1.3% decline in FYE enrollment. If true, this would really be good news and might make one believe that the enrollment decline has bottomed out and that the enrollment is beginning to rise or is at least holding steady.
Unfortunately, the enrollment for Summer 2014 was down 9.4% FYE from Summer 2013. As a result, the Data Analytics Group has revised its enrollment projection for FY15 from a drop of 3.2% to a drop of between 4-5%. Having looked at some of the preliminary data, it might be hard to be near the 4% drop unless the Senior-to-Sophomore numbers are significantly improved from last fall. More likely, it looks as if a drop of 5% will be wishful thinking and the decline may be in the range of 5.5%.
Although there is only a short history of projections of the Data Analytics Group, in February 2013 they projected an FYE decline of 2.4% for FY14. The actual decline was 5.1%. The projection in March 2014 for FY15 was for a decline of 3.2% FYE. Based on the data from summer and fall enrollments, their projection has now been revised to a drop of between 4-5%. So it is hard to actually believe that their FY16 and FY17 projections are much more than wishful thinking.
If the enrollment is down 5% for FY15, the FYE enrollment at SCSU will be 11,762 and represent a loss of 22.1% FYE enrollment in five years. So when President Potter's contract expires in 22 months, enrollment at SCSU may be down over 25% during his tenure. Not many university Presidents will be able to match that!
Posted Friday, September 26, 2014 1:21 AM
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Westrom's high-profile endorsement
Just minutes ago, I received this email announcement from the Westrom for Congress campaign:
Westrom Announces Endorsement from Ambassador John Bolton
(ALEXANDRIA, Minn.) - Torrey Westrom, the Republican nominee for Minnesota's 7th Congressional District, today announced the endorsement of former U.S. Ambassador John Bolton.
"I am honored to have Ambassador Bolton's endorsement and I share his commitment to strengthening America's national security,' Westrom said in a statement. 'Now, more than ever, it is critical that we maintain a strong national defense and sophisticated military in the face of growing international threats from groups like ISIS. When in Congress, I will fight tirelessly on behalf of western Minnesota for strong national defense and American leadership abroad.'
In his endorsing statement, Ambassador Bolton said, 'Torrey has fought for what's right his whole life and I am confident he will take this commitment to Washington, and lead on conservative policies that impact Minnesota, America, and our concerns overseas.'
Ambassador Bolton served as the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations from 2005-2006, and served as the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security from 2001-2005.
This is a little different than other endorsements because Ambassador Bolton isn't a politician. It'll be interesting to see what impact this will have but it's interesting from this standpoint: Politicians aren't held in high regard. People have much more respect for diplomats than they have for politicians.
Further, Ambassador Bolton is a straight-talking diplomat, which is definitely a rarity. That's definitely something we haven't seen from the Obama administration. It's important to couple Ambassador Bolton's endorsement with this news:
The Westrom campaign has released new internal polling numbers that report Republican Torrey Westrom is essentially tied within the margin of error, with 12-term incumbent Democrat Congressman Collin Peterson. Attached is a memorandum from our pollster, Brian Tringali of The Tarrance Group, that underlines key figures and points to an extremely favorable environment for Westrom, the challenger.
The ballot score reports an incredibly close race. 12-term incumbent Congressman Collin Peterson sits well below the majority threshold with just 45% of the ballot share, while Westrom is just 5-points behind with 40% support. Fully 15% are still undecided.
Important to note, the Westrom camp has yet to air a single television ad. Peterson has been on the air for two weeks running positive spots, while in contrast the DCCC is airing negative attack ads against Westrom.
The Tarrance Group is a well-respected Republican polling organization. When I first heard about them, Ed Goeas was the chief pollster. If this poll is accurate, then Collin Peterson is in trouble. The fact that Peterson is well below 50% even though Sen. Westrom hasn't run a single TV ad isn't good news for Peterson. It's bad news for Peterson that 2 weeks of DCCC attack ads haven't stopped Torrey's momentum.
There's no question that it'll be a tight race to the finish. Still, Peterson's campaign can't be happy at this point.
Posted Friday, September 26, 2014 1:15 AM
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Burke's stumbles continue
Apparently, Mary Burke will continue stumbling towards the finish line a little longer:
Asked by reporters to define plagiarism, Burke said: "This, this probably, using words, exact words, from a source that doesn't, that isn't cited and isn't attributable."
As tortured as those words look on paper, they look infinitely worse in this video:
Burke's biggest problem isn't that her campaign plagiarized other people's ideas. It's that she's playing into the narrative that she just isn't that interested in policies. That's sapping her momentum at the worst time. She started her campaign talking about her jobs plan and how she'd talked with some of Wisconsin's brightest people in putting her plan together. Now that the campaign is in the stretch drive, the wheels appear to be coming off Burke's campaign bus. In the video, it's torture listening to her try and answer the question about plagiarism.
Burke's other problem is that people are questioning whether she's honest or whether she's just another slick politician. Christian Schneider's article didn't portray her in the most flattering light:
But for Burke, this solidifies the impression that she is the pyrite candidate; her flashy bank account gives her credibility, but she lacks even a modicum of substance. Her campaign is being buttressed by a cadre of consultants and media professionals who evidently hand her a jobs plan and say, 'Here, now go sell it.'
Christian Schneider is a reporter for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, a newspaper not prone to treating Scott Walker with kid gloves. If the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel is saying these types of things about Ms. Burke, rest assured that more conservative papers serving places like Green Bay and rural Wisconsin aren't casting Burke in a flattering light.
At a time when people are satisfied with how things are going, it isn't helping that Ms. Burke is seen as a marketing specialist. Wisconsinites are looking for a policy wonk, a solutions-oriented person with Wisconsin's best interests at heart.
Throughout this fiasco, Burke hasn't fit that part. That's why the wheels keep falling off the bus.
Posted Friday, September 26, 2014 12:54 AM
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Testing Reality Check's statements
After reading Pat Kessler's Reality Check article , I thought a test of Reality Check's statements were in order. Let's start here:
'A few years ago, things in Minnesota weren't going very well,' says the narrator, a thick-Minnesota accented hockey player. 'So we got a new coach.' In fact, Gov. Dayton won re-election after Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty decided not to run again.
But the ad accurately describes an economic turnaround. 'We've added over 150,000 new jobs and have one of the fastest-growing economies in the nation,' according to the ad.
It's true.
Let's check whether that 150,000 jobs figure is accurate. Bill Glahn's post is the definitive source on Minnesota's job creation statistics. Here's what Mr. Glahn said:
Let's start with the 150,000 jobs claim. There is simply no support for that figure. Based on data at the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, if you give Dayton credit for the high-water mark for jobs while he has held office (May 2014) and subtract the employment level from before his election (October 2010) you get only 111,626 net jobs created, a far cry from 150,000.
More to the point, if you take today's figure (July 2014) and subtract the figure prior to his inauguration (December 2010) you get only 96,515, less than 2/3 of the amount claimed by ABM.
Mr. Glahn even created this graphic to quantify his statements:
Glahn's graphic shows that the 150,000 jobs figure is a myth and that most of those jobs were created before the DFL took total control of state government. In fact, more jobs were created in 2011 than have been created in 2013-2014 combined .
Let's summarize. First, the 150,000 figure isn't accurate. It's off by, at minimum, 35,000 and by 50,000 in the worst case scenario. Next, it's dishonest for Gov. Dayton to take credit for the jobs created because job creation ground to a screeching halt when the all-DFL government budget went into effect.
I'd give this section a C- because the statistics are off and because it's misleading.
The ad continues: 'Cut taxes while increasing our rainy-day fund and investing in education.'
This is also true. The DFL governor and legislature did cut taxes for middle-income earners. But they also passed a $2 billion tax hike on Minnesota's highest earners: workers who earn above $250,000 a year.
Actually, that's misleading, too. Raising taxes and fees by $2,400,000,000, then repealing $508,000,000 worth of the tax hikes they just passed isn't cutting taxes. It's reducing the size of the original all-DFL government tax increase.
Finally, I'd add that Gov. Dayton's job creation figures deserve an asterisk. Minnesota's economy created almost 60,000 jobs before the Dayton-DFL budget went into effect. The Dayton-DFL budget passed in 2013 is the budget he wanted to pass in 2011. Had Gov. Dayton's budget gone into effect in 2011, it's quite possible that Minnesota's economy would've created far fewer jobs. (Yes, I realize that that's an opinion but it's worthy of consideration.)
I'd give this section a D+ because it omits the important information that much of the imaginary Dayton-DFL tax cut is the repeal of major portions of the Dayton-DFL tax increase .
Posted Friday, September 26, 2014 1:58 PM
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Dayton: Arsonist with a fire hose?
Jeff Johnson's campaign is highlighting what's been happening with the Community Action Partnership of Minneapolis fiasco. This time, the Johnson campaign highlights Gov. Dayton's past statements about the Community Action Partnership of Minneapolis:
Johnson has proposed performance and fiscal audits of all state programs, beginning with human services programs, to determine which ones work and which ones are a waste of taxpayers dollars. In a September 14 Star Tribune story on Johnson's audit proposal, Mark Dayton said: ' The decades-old accusation that Minnesota government recklessly wastes money on people who are poor, sick, or elderly is unfair and unfounded .'
Actually, Gov. Dayton, Commissioner Johnson's statement is accurate. Since Gov. Dayton made that ill-advised statement, he's changed his perspective:
'It's incredibly ironic that, after criticizing my plan to audit all state programs - beginning with human services programs - this egregious waste of taxpayer dollars has surfaced,' Johnson added. 'My audit plan is clearly needed, and Mark Dayton is clearly out-of-touch.'
Actually, Dayton's statements aren't as much out-of-touch as they are a predictable defense of liberalism. The most important principle behind liberalism and budgeting is that every penny ever appropriated is forever justified. In fact, in 2007, the DFL legislature fought to have inflation calculated into the budget :
That's bad enough but Democrats pushing to install 'an automatic inflator put into the calculation of the state budget forecast' ain't gonna fly. This is something that should be rejected before it's ever proposed. There should be a public outcry against this type of reckless spending. We should recognize this scheme for what it is: an attempt to codify into law liberalism's dream of ever-increasing taxing and spending.
The thought that government was spending money foolishly was the farthest thing from the DFL's mind. I had multiple arguments with liberal commenters about that at the time. Gov. Dayton certainly would've agreed with the principles behind baseline budgeting, which is based on the thought that budgets must increase each year.
That's the principle behind not spotting the mismanagement seen in the Community Action Partnership of Minneapolis fiasco. The DFL thinks that budgets should increase each year. Therefore, in the DFL's thinking, auditing special interest organizations that get government grant money isn't needed.
'I'm very troubled by and tired of Mark Dayton's continuous pattern of creating or contributing to problems and then trying to claim credit for fixing them after the damage is done,' Johnson said. 'Today, for the second time this week, Dayton's DHS has employed its 'arsonist with a fire hose' strategy. Dayton's ties to the leaders of Community Action Partnership of Minneapolis are numerous, and if he and his DHS commissioner were competent and aware of what's happening, they would have discovered these issues long ago, without a tip from a whistleblower.'
It's one thing for Gov. Dayton and the DFL to propose spending more money. It's quite different, though, for Gov. Dayton and the DFL to initially pretend that money is being spent wisely, then expressing outrage once it's proven that the money is getting spent foolishly.
It's unacceptable that the all-DFL government didn't care about Community Action Partnership of Minneapolis until it became a political liability. It's better to be proactive in preventing these fiascos than to clean up the mess after the fact.
Jeff Johnson's audit plan will identify organizations and agencies that are spending money foolishly. There's no question that Jeff Johnson will implement proactive policies to prevent these things from happening. There's no doubt that Gov. Dayton has operated government with a clean-up-the-mess-after-the-fact attitude.
It's time Minnesota took a proactive approach to protecting the taxpayers. Only Jeff Johnson will bring that approach to governing. Gov. Dayton certainly hasn't.
Posted Friday, September 26, 2014 5:27 PM
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Where's Minnesota's booming economy?
I've written several posts highlighting the fact that the DFL won't stop yapping about Minnesota's supposedly great economy. See here , here and here . Though this article won't prevent the DFL's spinmeisters from telling everyone within earshot that Minnesota's economy is fantastic, it gives me this chart to prove the DFL spinmeisters wrong:
The key statistic to pay attention to is the 1 year change percentage in terms of private sector jobs created. The number of private sector jobs in Minnesota grew by a pathetic .8% over the past 12 months. That's the worst in the Midwest. The other noteworthy stat is that the 2-year change for Minnesota is 2.9%. That means job growth in Minnesota totally stagnated in the last year. That's the direct result of the Dayton-DFL policies put in place in 2013.
The DFL's statements that the Dayton-DFL economy is flying high aren't substantiated by the facts. Let's remember, too, that 21,523 of the jobs created by the Dayton-DFL economy are government jobs. That isn't proof of a healthy economy. That's just proof that the DFL's default position is growing government.
The DFL has spent the last 3 years fighting amongst itself on whether they should create mining jobs or if they should fight the creation of mining jobs. The anti-mining wing of the DFL, unfortunately, is the dominant wing of the DFL. Part of that wing of the DFL is located in the Arrowhead and Duluth. Most of the people who fit into the anti-mining wing of the DFL live in the Twin Cities.
At some point, the Iron Range will wise up and realize that the DFL isn't their home. I hope this is the year that the pro-mining activists choose to vote for the no-excuses pro-mining party. They're known as the Republican Party of Minnesota. Technorati: Jobs , Private Sector , Mark Dayton , Minnesota , Iron Range , Environmental Activists , Job Stagnation , The Bakken , North Dakota , Jennifer Granholm , Rick Snyder , Michigan , DFL , Election 2014
Posted Saturday, September 27, 2014 12:19 AM
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Community Action shuts doors
After fleecing taxpayers, Community Action Partnership of Minneapolis has shut its doors :
DHS auditors accused the corporation of spending more than it helped. The state wants Community Action Minneapolis to repay more than $850,000 in grant money that was spent incorrectly. The audit showed more than $200,000 paid for unallowable costs like cruises, golf trips and alcohol. William Davis, the Chief Executive Officer, is accused of receiving an excessive bonus and spending thousands on a personal car loan.
Initially, Davis tried rationalizing the expenditures:
Auditors blamed Community Action's board, which includes several well-known politicians and community leaders, for a lack of oversight and for personally benefiting from $34,892 worth of activities that 'do not appear to serve a business purpose, and are considered waste and abuse as defined in state policy.'
Those activities included two weekend trips, between 2011 and 2013, to Arrowwood Resort in Alexandria, where board members and senior management spent $9,000 for lodging, $3,200 for food and $900 for spas.
Davis defended the trips as a 'small gesture on our part to offer them a moment of relaxation or entertainment. It's not like we do this every single week of the year.'
What's telling is that Davis didn't think he'd done anything wrong. The only thing more appalling than Davis attempting to rationalize his reckless spending was Gov. Dayton's statement denying that something like this could happen :
Initially, Mark Dayton responded to Jeff Johnson's call for an extensive audit of NPOs by saying ' The decades-old accusation that Minnesota government recklessly wastes money on people who are poor, sick, or elderly is unfair and unfounded .'
Later, Dayton backtracked quickly:
Gov. Mark Dayton on Monday said that a Star Tribune report of a nonprofit using state funds to subsidize cruises, a director's car lease and spa treatments was very concerning and alarming. 'I was personally really appalled,' Dayton said. 'I take it very seriously.'
Let's revise Gov. Dayton's statement. Gov. Dayton was "personally really appalled" the minute he thought that the fiasco might damage him politically. Prior to that, he pretended that Community Action was totally trustworthy.
The truth, I'm afraid, is that Gov. Dayton knew about this audit prior to the story going public. Since the Strib article was published, DHS has tried pushing the notion that they should get credit for spotting this during their audit of the organization. Gov. Dayton can't first say that he's surprised by this, then say that his administration spotted this during an audit.
I've never bought into Gov. Dayton's I-didn't-know-about-[Fill in the blank] schtick. I've always thought that he used that gambit to get through a politically embarrassing situation. See FarmFest . The DFL legislature should've taken their oversight responsibilities seriously. Then again, with tons of prominent DFL politicians and activists on Community Action's board, it probably didn't take much to get them to look the other way.
Posted Saturday, September 27, 2014 11:08 AM
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Dayton's latest MNsure fiasco
Gov. Dayton's MNsure problems just got bigger. KSTP's investigation into MNsure has led them to "emails between Minnesota House Research staff and the Minnesota Department of Health" that show state officials and MNsure have known that MNsure was placing people incorrectly on Medicaid :
Internal emails obtained by 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS show MNsure and other state officials were aware people who made too much money were placed on Medicaid, which is for low-income people.
We first reported Tuesday the Minnesota Legislative Auditor was investigating complaints that MNsure was placing people incorrectly on Medicaid. Now, we have emails between Minnesota House Research staff and the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) that show state officials and MNsure have known about this problem since January of this year.
Mike Franklin is one of those people. Franklin and his wife combined make more than the $65,000 limit for dependent children to qualify for Medicaid, yet Franklin says he received notice from MNsure that his children had been placed on Medicaid without his consent . Franklin says he even received notices that Medicaid had paid some medical bills for his two children, even after he asked MNsure to discontinue the coverage because he did not qualify. Franklin says it took six months and action by an Administrative Judge to discontinue the Medicaid policy.
Now that we know what happened, it's time to find out why this happened. Why would MNsure and the Department of Human Services knowingly put the Franklin's children into Medicaid when they should've been put on the Franklins' private insurance policy?
Why wouldn't MNsure and the Department of Human Services want people on private insurance plans? More importantly, why would MNsure and/or Minnesota's Department of Human Services obey the law? The $65,000 limit isn't a suggestion. It's the law. Don't Lucinda Jesson and Scott Leitz think that the laws pertain to them? Is it that they think that they know what's best?
DHS declined an interview request and issued this statement: "We are closing cases (Medicaid) every day and will continue to do so."
TRANSLATION: We'll obey the law the minute we're caught.
The Dayton era of mismanagement and corruption keeps rumbling along.
Posted Saturday, September 27, 2014 2:27 PM
Comment 1 by walter hanson at 27-Sep-14 11:14 PM
Gary:
When I see posts like this I keep thinking there has to be a reason. how about this?
If MN Sure says they signed somebody up for Medicaid instead of being on a private plan can that inflate the numbers that MN Sure is saying that they signed up to get health insurance?
If yes how many of these signups are possibly illegal and shouldn't be counted?
Walter Hanson
