Tuesday morning, King announced that he was running for the HD-15B seat currently held by Larry Haws. In this morning’s edition of the St. Cloud Times, Rep. Haws said that Minnesota’s budget can’t be balanced by spending cuts alone:

“I don’t think we can entirely do this by reduction, nor can we spend our way out of it,” Haws said. “The key to balancing (the budget) is sustainability and true reform.” Haws also said he’s working on legislation to allow counties and cities to combine services and operate more efficiently.

That’s a nice sounding soundbite but it doesn’t reflect Rep. Haws’s record. For instance, Rep. Haws’s idea of health care reform is to move more small businesses onto MinnesotaCare. By contrast, King told KNSI’s Cassie Hart that eliminating health insurance mandates that drive up costs but don’t improve health care outcomes would be his priority.

When it comes to education, Rep. Haws is out of touch with Central Minnesota. In September, 2007, Rep. Haws attended the League of Women Voters Education Forum, along with Rep. Gottwalt and Sen. Clark. On the issue of funding, Tarryl said that the state needed more revenues to improve educational outcomes. Rep. Gottwalt disagreed, saying that the legislature had to do a better job of prioritizing spending. After hearing Rep. Gottwalt’s answer, Rep. Haws replied “Maybe we do need to prioritize.” Based on the stunned look on his face, this wasn’t Rep. Haws being sarcastic. It was like it was a new concept for him.

King’s first priority with the budget is to determine where each dollar is spent, whether we’re talking about K-12, Higher Ed or elsewhere, then determining whether the money that was spent in the previous biennium can be justified again this biennium.

Another plus in King’s favor is that King can tell the difference between needs and something from a political ally’s wish list. That’s essential in prioritizing spending and in protecting taxpayers’ wallets.

Rep. Haws’s record doesn’t suggest that that’s how he arrives at what should be spent. It’s more likely that he pays more attention to his special interest allies than to his constituents’ priorities.

In fact, King said that the first piece of legislation he wants to submit if elected is to make zero-based budgeting Minnesota law. Leader Zellers said that he totally supports King’s reform before telling King that he’d want that to be the first bill submitted in the 2011 session.

Another difference between Rep. Haws and King is how they’d prioritize on what to fund through the bonding bill. At Tuesday morning’s announcement, King said that he’d like to see legislators not look just at the construction jobs generated by the bonding projects but also what value the community would get from the project after it’s built.

Based on the things he’s recommended for past bonding bills, Rep. Haws’s requests have been more reactionary than visionary. To be fair, Rep. Haws supported the building of the science building on the SCSU campus, as did King.

Economically speaking, the biggest difference that I’ve seen is that Rep. Haws views the bonding bill as the state’s main jobs bill whereas King thinks in terms of building an economy that relies on innovation and the private sector creating new and sustainable jobs.

The next biggest difference between Rep. Haws and King is with taxes. Rep. Haws has voted too often for tax increases. King believes that we should first find out whether we’re spending the taxpayers’ money wisely before thinking about raising taxes.

King believes that stabilizing Minnesota’s budget sends the signal to businesses that Minnesota won’t attempt to pass tax increases each year. That alone will strengthen the private sector while giving small businesses the incentive to invest in their businesses and create long-lasting, high paying jobs.

A couple of years ago, I had the privilege of working with King, Rep. Laura Brod and Rep. Matt Dean on what essentially is a vision statement for Minnesota. The central theme to that document was essentially to get government out of the way so that Minnesota’s entrepreneurs would unleash their creativity in creating a more prosperous Minnesota.

That meant lowering taxes, shrinking the regulatory burden Minnesota puts on small businesses and keeping unfunded mandates to a minimum.

I’ve known King long enough to know that he’s a man of gravitas and a great public policymaker. When I look at Rep. Haws’s record, what I see is a man who is a reactionary and a man who votes too often for status quo policies.

Central Minnesota needs a visionary leader. The only man fitting that description is King Banaian. That’s why we must elect King this November to represent the residents of HD-15B in the Minnesota legislature.

Technorati: Job Growth, King Banaian, Entrepreneurship, Regulations, Taxes, Spending, Small Businesses, Fiscal Restraint, Laura Brod, Matt Dean, Kurt Zellers, Matt Dean, MNGOP, Larry Haws, Special Interests, Tax Increases, Bonding Bill, DFL, Election 2010