Dear Neighbor,
Minnesota Management and Budget issued the state’s February economic forecast this week and it calls for a $329 million revenue surplus through the rest of this biennium (ending in June of 2019). That is a $518 million improvement on the bottom line since the November forecast, the largest three-month bump in 20 years. Also, the forecast projects even larger gains in the 2020-21 biennium, with a $650 million projected increase.
That is good news, but some would argue the report actually is selling short the progress we are making on the economy at the state and federal levels, and that our state very well could outperform the projections as we reach the end of the biennium. Regardless, it is good to see that our state’s economy continues to surge, with revenue growth that exceeds previous projections. The decisions we made last year, especially with the historic tax relief, are helping to boost our economy. Now, robust discussions will take place at the Capitol to determine the best uses for the surplus funds as we are positioned for another highly successful session and look to continue the momentum.
In other news, this week I participated in a press conference to unveil a bipartisan bill I am co-authoring to help exploited indigenous women and children. This issue impacts our region directly and the bill being offered would create a task force to look into the situation and hopefully help us arrive at some solutions. I will share more details on this subject as things develop.
Also, this week a House bill was brought forward that would require the Dayton administration to source the $10 million in funding reportedly needed to begin fixing the state’s broken vehicle licensing and registration system (MNLARS).
Much has been written on this subject, but the gist of it is that around $100 in taxpayer money has been used to build a system that doesn’t work. The Dayton administration then requested another $43 million and the Legislature responded by asking for more information regarding why more money is needed. Instead of providing those details, the administration came back last week and said they need $10 million more – in just one week or MNLARS operations will grind to a halt.
These developments follow investigative reports suggesting the Dayton administration ignored a number of red flags and rolled out the new system knowing full well that it was not ready for prime time.
It’s really sad that state officials are showing that little respect for taxpayers. The goal with the House bill is to bring some accountability to this issue by allowing the governor to access funding currently dedicated to his executive agencies to cover the first $10 million requested by his administration to continue MNLARS operations.
Just look at it as an opportunity for the people who created this mess to fix it on their own by becoming resourceful instead of going back to taxpayers yet again. It is time to quit throwing good money after bad and, if government is in over its head on this project, we have another bill that would look into bringing in a commercial vendor take over the job of replacing MNLARS.
On a final note, I'll be on the KB101 Chatabout today, so I hope you can tune in over the noon hour. Have a good weekend, look for more news soon and, as always, your input is welcome.
Sincerely,
Matt