Dear neighbors,
Today, Minnesota Management and Budget released the February economic forecast. The February budget forecast shows a projected budget deficit of $627 million for fiscal years 2014-15. This is an improvement of $463 million from the November budget forecast that showed a projected deficit of $1.1 billion.
Today’s economic forecast shows that Minnesota is making real progress. This is in part because Minnesota is outperforming many parts of the nation in job recovery. The state is projected to reach pre-recession levels of employment by the end of the year—much earlier than the country as a whole.
While this is good news, we unfortunately still have a large budget deficit to overcome. A decade of irresponsible budgeting has left state finances in a cycle of structural deficits. Now is the time to responsibly balance the budget and set our state on stable financial footing for years to come.
As we work to close the budget gap and end the decade-long cycle of budget deficits, it is important that we look to Minnesota’s future. We cannot continue to grow our economy without investing priorities to make our state strong and competitive. I support making wise investments now to fix Minnesota’s financial problems for the long term. Investing in education, infrastructure and reforming our regressive state tax code will keep our state successful as we move into the future.
Please contact me with your input as we work to put forth a responsible budget. You can reach me by phone at (651) 296-4224 or by email at rep.john.lesch@house.mn. You can also follow me on Twitter at @johnlesch. Thank you for the honor of representing you in state government.
Sincerely,
John Lesch
State Representative
District 66B