One more back post from Bemidji, on the way out of town here, we also ran into one of the very sad stories in all of these unallotments. The Upper Mississippi Mental Health Clinic in Bemidji, which has seen it’s funding cut, and recently announced salary cuts of 10% for top level staff and 5% for everyone else. Those among us most in need of help are finding that rather than making our tax system more fair, they and the people that care for them are being targeted to bare the brunt of these cuts.

We’ll have more on the impacts of health care related cuts when we get the interivew from yesterday with Cassie up and edited, but seeing these buildings in person (and the full parking lots in front of them) just brings it home. Instead of looking at making these cuts in a fair or smart way, Tim Pawlenty and his friends in the legislature went after those who need our state to stick to it’s compassionate roots the most.