Dear Neighbor,
You should see their faces when I tell people how big the state’s budget really is.
The scenario goes like this: A citizen approaches me in our district or at the Capitol to talk about state spending. They usually are expressing disapproval over Democrats increasing it by around 8 percent, all the way up to $38 billion.
So, I ask, “Don’t you mean nearly $68 billion?” They clutch their heart and stammer around like Fred G. Sanford preparing to join Elizabeth. Then, I explain the $38 billion is just the General Fund budget, which is driven by state revenue. This is just a part of Minnesota’s much-larger All Funds budget, which is now almost $68 billion.
The All Funds budget - with federal funding included - is what the state actually spends and the excessive spending Minnesota Democrats passed this year leads to the largest dollar-for-dollar increase in state history. A Minnesota Management & Budget report shows All Funds spending is set to rise by $6.2 billion in 2014-15, compared with the last two years. This is a full 10-percent spike, 270 percent more than what Republicans put in place when they set the budget in 2011.
All the way up to nearly $68 billion.
Just to get things straight: The state economy produced at least $3 billion in more-than-projected revenue the last two years. Jobs are on the rise, to the tune of 55,000 last year alone. Yet Democrats responded by raising taxes and fees on all hardworking Minnesotans by some $2.5 billion and drove up All Funds spending by an unsustainable 10 percent.
I do not know too many Minnesota workers who received a 10-percent raise this year. I also do not know why government needs one and do not see a return on taking more money from hardworking taxpayers.
We could have balanced the budget this year without raising taxes and were projected to enjoy a future surplus if we had just budgeted within the 3.5-percent revenue growth we are experiencing. Our real focus should be on finding ways we can eliminate wasteful state spending and promote economic freedom, but that is a different talk for a different day so I will begrudgingly concede Democrats a 3.5-percent spending increase to match revenue growth.
If only they could have stopped there. Instead, they raised our taxes to cover additional spending this biennium. We, the taxpayers, will be told to pay even more in 2016-17.
As if this were not bad enough, another recent report from non-partisan House research shows the Democrat budget will raise our taxes by $13 million statewide. There also is a 6.5-percent increase coming on agricultural properties. This is on top of the new tax on farm equipment repairs, higher energy rates because of new solar power mandates and the new warehousing and storage services tax Democrats enacted.
Democrats have been touring the state to tout the $400 million they put toward property-tax reductions, but this report tells a different story. It makes you wonder how the combined impacts of these ill-advised budget decisions will affect our recovery from the recession.
Sincerely,
Mark