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Minnesota House of Representatives

State Representative Duane Quam

323 State Office BuildingState Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-9236

For more information contact: Jason Wenisch 651-296-2317

Posted: 2011-02-17 00:00:00
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NEWS COLUMN

HIGHER TAXES, INCREASED SPENDING HIGHLIGHT GOVERNOR’S BUDGET

Following much speculation about whether or not he would raise taxes to balance the budget, Governor Mark Dayton wasted little time keeping his campaign promise. After unveiling his balanced budget proposal, Dayton not only proposed tax increases, he proposed them at record levels.

With a projected $6.2 billion deficit to tackle, the governor proposed raising taxes by $4.1 billion dollars for the 2012-2013 biennium. But in terms of net spending reductions, Dayton only proposed $485 million.

In lay terms, that raises about $8.50 in tax increases for every $1 of spending reductions.

As for overall government spending, Governor Dayton wants that to expand rapidly as well. Currently, Minnesota spends $32 billion on state government programs. Under the governor’s proposal, we would spend $5 billion more for the 2012-13 budget cycle – or $37 billion.

Governor Dayton also promised to reform spending, but with these numbers it appears he’s more willing to throw more money at the problem rather than make the tough choice of making government more efficient.

Overall, I found Dayton’s budget proposal to be extremely disappointing. A growing and expensive state government must not be held harmless when the state is out of money. Government needs to change the way it operates to be more effective and more efficient because the status quo has grown too large and too expensive for taxpayers to maintain.

Keep in mind, the Legislature recently approved a bill that would have cut our deficit by nearly $1 billion through budget cuts, but the Governor vetoed that proposal. Instead, he’s handed us a plan that’s the largest tax increase in history and would give Minnesota the highest tax rate in the nation.

I ran for office on a platform of fiscal responsibility, and I fully intend to honor that pledge. Our state is broke, and lawmakers cannot continue digging themselves into a financial hole and expect the taxpayers to bail us out. Governor Dayton should have recognized this and offered some budget solutions that actually could have been implemented. Instead, he punted the problem away by composing a budget that he knows is destined to fail. Now that the Legislature has the ball, I expect we will have a balanced budget plan – complete with budget reductions and no tax increases – on the governor’s desk by the end of March.

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