ST. PAUL – On March 21, Governor Walz, the Minnesota Senate Majority Leader, and the Speaker of the Minnesota House – all Democrats – agreed on budget spending targets for the upcoming biennium.
With Minnesota sitting on a $17 billion budget surplus, the three Democrat leaders agreed to increase state government spending by $17.9 billion over the next two years. State Representative Marj Fogelman (R-Fulda) said she was disappointed with their budget priorities.
“I spent a lot of time meeting with local residents last fall, and none of them told me to waste our entire budget surplus on new and ongoing government programs,” Fogelman said.
Fogelman said the Democrats’ $17.9 billion in new spending is a 35 percent increase from the current $52 billion budget. Most of their spending priorities will be permanent.
“With a mammoth budget surplus, we had the opportunity to provide every Minnesotan with meaningful, permanent, tax relief,” Fogelman said. “Instead of putting more money in their pockets, the Democrats have decided it’s more important to radically grow government and ultimately raise some taxes and fees because $17 billion just wasn’t enough to spend.”