Dear Neighbor,
Our focus in St. Paul should be on establishing responsible, sustainable state spending with a more efficient government.
Instead, we have received a report that breaks down the largest overall spending increase in state history, which Democrats unnecessarily passed earlier this year.
The non-partisan report from Minnesota Management & Budget shows our All Funds budget is set to increase by $6.2 billion over the next two years (to $67.8 billion in all). This is the largest dollar-for-dollar spending hike our state has ever seen and it only gets worse. The Democrats plan to spend even more in 2016-17, money they again will take from hardworking taxpayers.
Minnesota’s spending total for 2014-15 is far and away above what was projected when Republicans set the budget in 2011. The February economic forecast showed we were set for a 3.6-percent increase. Even that increase was too large for me, but at least it is more tolerable than the 10-percent increase Democrats passed. Their spending increase is 270-percent larger than what we left for them!
The state’s All Funds budget takes federal revenue into account. The General Fund is limited to state budgeting. The Democrats’ sharp increase in General Fund spending is largely responsible for the All Funds budget increasing by record levels. A February report showed the Republicans’ budget enacted in 2011 had us set to spend $33.8 billion in the General Fund for fiscal years 2014-15, but Democrats pushed that to $35.3 billion.
This lack of fiscal restraint is unsettling, especially since Minnesota was showing continued recovery from the Great Recession. A series of economic forecasts showed the state generated more than $3 billion in more-than-expected revenue over the last couple of years combined.
We could have balanced our budget, funded our priorities and carried a future surplus even without Democrats raising our taxes by a single penny. Instead, Democrats put our economic recovery in jeopardy by raising taxes and fees on all Minnesotans by around $2.5 billion. Many of those tax hikes went into place July 1 and will force even the lowest earners to pay more for everything from driver’s licenses and vehicle registration, to Internet purchases and cigarettes.
As if this were not bad enough, we also have received non-partisan projections showing the Democrat budget will raise property taxes by $13 million statewide. There also is a projected 6.5-percent increase on agricultural properties. You can click here to read the simulation report.
Detroit has shown what happens when you practice unsustainable budgeting. Will Democrats in Minnesota ever take this clue, or will they continue pushing us down the wrong road?
Sincerely,
Tom