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west




Dear Neighbor,

Minnesota Management & Budget issued a new economic forecast [ [link removed] ] for Minnesota on Thursday. This provides the framework from which the legislature will construct a new state budget this session.

In short, it's bad news.

We went from a $5.1 billion budget deficit to a $6 billion budget deficit.

This dire bottom line is a remarkable achievement of irresponsibility when you consider Minnesota recently enjoyed a historic $18 billion surplus – over four times as large as the previous record budget surplus. Now we are staring at a near-record deficit, with the projected $6 billion shortfall only edged out by a $6.2 billion gap in 2010 on the heels of the Great Recession.

The largest driver of this deficit is runaway state spending. The Democrat trifecta spent the $18 billion surplus, increased state spending by nearly 40 percent and raised taxes in the process. For perspective, that $18 billion surplus they spent accounted for around one-third of our previous state budget. Imagine if you had an extra third of your total yearly spending in your family budget!

We have until the third week in May, when the legislature is scheduled to adjourn, to clean up this mess and gain agreement on a new two-year state budget.

We know the state has a spending problem, not a revenue problem, so there’s no need to raise taxes. It has been well publicized Minnesota has a problem with waste, fraud and abuse that is costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. Actually, this problem may only be getting even worse since the state budget recently exploded by nearly 40 percent.

That makes rooting out fraud and waste and abuse an especially good place to start in getting our bottom line in order. Hats off to the new House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy for the work it is doing on this front. We’ll be fighting for fraud protections, which could save the states hundreds of millions of dollars.

Another angle we need to thoroughly explore is clawing back unspent money. Last session, Democrats, allocated $194 million for a train to Duluth, assuming the federal government would pick up the rest of the tab. The state failed to land the full amount from the Biden administration. Now, given the federal budget deficit, it is exceedingly unlikely the federal government will fork out over a hundred million dollars for a passenger train to Duluth.

Let’s cut our losses on this train. It is destined to fail – see: Northstar commuter rail [ [link removed] ] – and we would be better served by clawing back unspent tax dollars and applying them toward restoring our bottom line.

It will be interesting to see what transpires between now and the end of May. Feel free to send me your ideas on how the state can save more money.

Sincerely,

Nolan






west

 





State Rep. Nolan West
2nd Floor, Centennial Office Building
658 Cedar St., St. Paul, MN 55155
[email protected]       (651) 296-4226







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