MINNEAPOLIS, April 2, 2008—Sen. Linda Berglin, DFL-Minneapolis, is suggesting that Gov. Tim Pawlenty's proposed transfer of $250 million from the Health are Access Fund may violate the law.

In March Pawlenty proposed moving $250 million from the HCAF to the state’s general fund to address an estimated $935 million budget shortage.

“I would say that it [the transfer] is not in accordance with the law,” Berglin, chair of the Health and Human Services budget division of the Senate Finance Committee, and longtime health care advocate, told Finance & Commerce.

Berglin should know. It was she who wrote the bill prohibiting transfers of money from the HCAF for non-health-care uses the last time the Governor made such a transfer, in 2003.

After HCAF funds helped solve the 2003 budget problem, Berglin drafted the prohibition on non-MinnesotaCare transfers from the HCAF. “That was language I insisted be put in there,” Berglin said.

Brian McClung, a spokesperson for the Governor, justified the use of the state fund’s health coverage funds for lower-income citizens.

“We believe it is fair and appropriate to use some of the Health Care Access Fund surplus in order to avoid cuts to these programs,” McClung told Finance & Commerce.

The newspaper featured remarks by MMA President James J. Dehen Jr., who believes that lawmakers use the fund as a go-to source to patch budget shortfalls and other non-health uses.

“My position is that we never approved of this tax in the first place. And it’s just salt in the wound, so to speak, to tax the sick.”

These transfers from HCAF, which the MMA characterizes as a "slush fund" for legislators,  are particularly appalling, Dehen said, "because it’s an absolute absurdity to balance the budget on the backs of the sick.”

Berglin said she expects Pawlenty and/or other legislators to try to reverse the law to allow for such HCAF transfers.

Finance & Commerce story