Tom Emmer’s campaign headquarters has been busy firing attacks at a new ad
from Alliance for a Better Minnesota (ABM), which features an Eagan
parent expressing concern about Tom Emmer’s plan to make extreme cuts in
funding for Minnesota’s school.

“Tom Emmer can continue to use fuzzy math to pretend that spending
$1.8 billion less on our schools doesn’t mean he’s cutting it, but
Minnesotans aren’t fooled,” said Denise Cardinal, Executive Director of
ABM.  “Earlier this summer, Emmer tried to pretend a tip penalty was not
a wage cut — and now he’s trying to pass nearly $2 billion in cuts to
education off as an increase.”

“The truth is that Tom Emmer has been no friend of education in the
legislature, and would be a disaster for classrooms across the state as
governor.”

ABM Action Fund’s sixth ad in this election cycle, “Schools” began running yesterday. It is a $500,000 buy, running for 12 days.

The ad and the accompanying fact-check can be seen here.

Emmer’s “Fact Check” Ignores
The Truth About His Education Plan

Claim: Tom
Emmer’s budget plan provides for funding K-12 education in FY 2012-13 at
$13.836 billion, an increase of a half-billion dollars over the current General
Fund appropriation of $13.336 billion. 
[emmertruth.com, accessed 09/28/2010]

Truth:  While it is true that Emmer budgets
$13.836 billion for education, his plan ignores the State of Minnesota’s
statutory obligation to provide $15,621,575,000 in K-12 education funding in
the FY 2012-13 biennium. Meanwhile, Emmer’s budget calls for only $13.836
billion in FY 2012-13 K-12 funding, a difference of nearly $1.8 billion.  [Minnesota Department of Management and
Budget, accessed 09/24/10
(.pdf);
emmerforgovernor.com/budget/chart, accessed 09/24/10]

Claim: The “$1.8
billion…in cuts” refers to the shift in state aid payments. Mark Dayton
recently flip flopped and said that he would also consider delaying repayment
just as Tom Emmer has proposed. [emmertruth.com, accessed 09/28/2010]

Truth: The claim
that Tom Emmer’s plan contains $1.8 billion in education cuts does not refer to
the education funding shift from the 2010 legislative session.  The claim refers to Emmer’s $13.836
billion K-12 budget, which represents a cut of nearly $1.8 billion from the
legislature’s current allocation of $15,621,575,000 for in K-12 education
funding in the FY 2012-13 biennium. [Minnesota Department of Management and
Budget, accessed 09/24/10
(.pdf);
emmerforgovernor.com/budget/chart, accessed 09/24/10]

Meanwhile, Emmer still will not repay the education funding
shift in the 2012-2013 biennium. 
In his proposed budget plan, Emmer writes, “If elected Tom Emmer will
begin repay the $1.4 billion education shift in FY 2014.”  [emmerforgoverner.com, accessed 09/20/2010]