EDITORIAL: Minnesota finances "above average"

Aug. 13—Thumbs up to Minnesota state leaders for achieving a top AAA credit rating from all three rating agencies for the first time since 2003.

Last week Fitch rating agency affirmed its top AAA rating as Standard & Poor did the previous week, while Moody's upgraded Minnesota to AAA also.

Political leaders in both parties deserve credit for agreeing to balanced budgets in a timely manner and allowing for robust reserves. Minnesota Management and Budget, the agency charged with managing the state's finances, also has done an excellent job of recommending prudent policies and helping carry those out.

The rating agencies cite Minnesota's strong fiscal management, large reserves and balanced budgets among the reason the state's bonds are rated high and therefore will carry lower interest rates. That saves taxpayers' money while the state makes prudent investments in roads, public buildings and other infrastructure.

According to Fitch, the high bond ratings reflect "the state's solid and broad-based economy, highly educated workforce, expanding population and a revenue structure well-designed to capture economic growth. The ratings also reflect a low long-term liability burden and strong control over revenues and spending that, in conjunction with a sophisticated approach to reserve funding, leaves Minnesota well positioned to manage through economic cycles while maintaining a high level of financial flexibility."

And Moody's had a different take for the state's success: "The State of Minnesota ... ranks among the strongest U.S. states in high per capita income compared to the cost of living, robust financial reserves, and low leverage and fixed costs. The state has demonstrated improvements in fiscal governance including implementing relatively conservative and timely budgets, building up very high reserves, contributing to pensions at healthy levels that prevent growth in liabilities and refilling its unemployment trust fund after depleting it during the pandemic."

We can all take pride in Minnesota being above average.

Little League sportsmanship

Thumbs up to the display of sportsmanship in a Little League baseball playoff game Tuesday broadcast live on ESPN.

In the first inning of the Southwest Regional championship game, Texas East pitcher Kaiden Shelton hit Oklahoma's Isaiah Jarvis in the head. Jarvis was on the ground for a while before getting up and taking his base. Then, noticing that Shelton was shaken by the incident, Jarvis walked to the mound and hugged the pitcher to assure him everything was all right.

It was a beautiful moment. And of course the trolls of social media — led by Dave Portnoy, the repulsive "El Presidente" of Barstool Sports — had to try to ruin it.

The "winning attitude," according to these trolls, is to charge the mound. "Trip to Williamsport on the line," tweeted Portnoy, referring to the site of the Little League World Series. "Time for pattycakes later."

Ahem. These are kids. The Little League playoffs are popular programming on ESPN, but if it's going to feed that sour, only-winning-matters attitude, better to pull the plug and starve the trolls.

Pots and black kettles

Thumbs down to Republicans who criticized the FBI for its lawful search warrant and search of ex-president Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in search of stolen records, possibly classified, that belong to the United States and its people.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy accused Democrats of weaponizing the Justice Department and threatened Attorney General Merrick Garland with a retaliatory investigation if the GOP wins back the House, saying to Garland, "preserve your documents and clear your calendar."

Former Vice President Mike Pence described the search, approved by a federal judge, as partisan use of the department and that no other president had ever been subject to what he called a "raid."

But Pence was all in favor of such FBI searches when the target was former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016.

And finally, to show GOP ire is mere gaslighting, the FBI Director Christopher Wray who signed off on the search was appointed by Trump, who at the time called him "a man of impeccable credentials."