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Hello from the State Capitol,
On Thursday, Minnesota’s economic experts unveiled their latest financial forecast for the State of Minnesota.
What we found was a short term surplus and a continued long term deficit projection.
For the current budget cycle, Minnesota is expected to see a $2.465 billion surplus. For the next budget cycle, there is a nearly $3 billion budget deficit projection.
This is the result of Democrat overspending, overbudgeting, and disregarding.
Two years ago, Governor Walz and an all Democrat-led legislature took a nearly $19 billion surplus and blew it, growing government by nearly 40% and raising taxes on Minnesotans by $10 billion. Then, as Republicans sounded fraud alarm bells in this state, these same Democrats refused to take our call to action seriously. Today, Minnesota is a national embarrassment as nearly $2 billion – that we know about - has been swindled by fraudsters and national news outlets have had a field day reporting on Governor Walz’s unwillingness to do anything about it.
If Democrats had taken that fraud seriously instead of dismissing concerns and ignoring massive overruns, that deficit projection would be less than a third of what it is now. Likewise, if Democrats had budgeted responsibly two years ago, we would not be in this position.
Last session, we made necessary spending reductions. Budget staff noted that without them, the deficit would have been nearly 50 percent more than what it shows now.
Minnesota not only has a spending problem, but it also has a fraud problem. Both are extremely costly, and both are the reasons we have a budget deficit heading our way in the future. It’s clear the legislature needs to tackle both issues when we return to St. Paul for the 2026 session.
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