Another Budget Surplus? for now
While MMB has released their November budget forecast showing 2.4 billion in surplus, that number quickly disappears in subsequent years that start to show increasing deficits as inflation and increased structural spending eat away at Minnesotan?s tax dollars.
Democrats in the Minnesota Legislature continue to display their economic illiteracy. They have turned the $17.5 billion surplus from last year into $10 billion in new taxes and are now facing a structural shortfall in the next biennium. With inflation at a record high, family budgets are suffering at a cost of almost $13,000 per year. (CBS News) It is crucial for this legislature to focus on providing significant tax relief instead of an additional burden on hard-working Minnesotans.
It is essential to bring balance back to Minnesota by ensuring fiscal responsibility for the benefit of our state. The reckless spending is unsustainable, and I hope my fellow lawmakers will realize the errors of their ways before driving our state off the fiscal cliff.
This week the Legislative Task Force on Child Protection met to review the Legislative Auditor?s evaluation of Child Protection Services (CPS) and to hear comments from DHS (Department of Human Services) commissioner. This also included a presentation on how the current dual-track Family Assessment and Family Investigation system works. The entire meeting can be viewed here.
This comes after a major Star Tribune investigation uncovers the disturbing evidence of shortfalls in CPS protocols that have led to several deaths. As more details are uncovered this will become a critical issue for the legislature to address next session. Children are the future of our great state and we must do everything we can to protect them and provide a safe future in our state.
The Democrat?s new state flag commission continues to make a farce of our great state?s flag and what it stands for. After looking through hundreds of submissions the commission has worked its way down to 6 finalists which will likely be trimmed down to a final selection or used as inspiration for a final design.
 The deadline for the commission is January 1st, 2024 so we will likely see what abomination the hand-picked panel of woke activists choose to erase another page from our state?s history with. Our state seal has been the centerpiece of the state flag since its inception in 1893 and now easily offended activists want to replace the history with an overly simplified post-modern design.
If the commission can put together a finalized report to the governor and legislature by their January 1st deadline?this flag could be flying as early as May. While I don?t see my colleagues across the aisle having any wherewithal to undo the mess they have created, there will still be a window to try and negotiate some sense into the Democrat?s total control of state government before statehood day when the design would be ratified.
If that wasn?t enough, now far-left progressives want to use this as an opportunity to promote ranked-choice voting. As pointed out in this tweet by @Blios Olson, FairVote Minnesota has set up a poll to showcase how a ranked choice process would select the winning design. Never mind how ranked-choice voting has proven to be a complicated disaster in the cities it has been implemented in here, as well as across the country.
From erasing our state's history to pushing ranked-choice voting this entire project has turned into another disaster by the Democrats.
You can share your comments and stay up to date on the commission's progress at their website here.
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