NOVEMBER FORECAST: ANOTHER SURPLUS IS NOT ENOUGH FOR WALZ; HE WANTS TO MAX OUT THE CREDIT CARD TOO

St. Paul – Today, the Office of Minnesota Management and Budget (MMB) released its November Economic Forecast. Minnesota has a $1.3 billion projected budget surplus. The state’s long-term reserve fund nicknamed “the rainy day fund” has a 2 billion dollar surplus.

Representative Steve Drazkowski (R-Mazeppa) said, “Commissioner Franz presented today’s forecast announcement as “good fiscal management.” Nothing could be further from the truth. State government spending and budget reserves are both at the highest levels in history. Government is over-collecting money from workers and then squandering it on wasteful and fraudulent DHS spending. It’s time to shut off the money-sucking machine connected to the wallets and purses of hard-working Minnesotans.”

Rep. Cal Bahr (R-East Bethel) said, “The Walz Administration, like the Dayton Administration before it, has been obsessed with maxing out the state credit card as if not to do so is somehow leaving money on the table. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to take a longer view. If there is a structural surplus and an enormous amount in the rainy-day fund, we should be paying cash for capital projects and paying down our current debt.”

Bahr added, “With the exponential growth of government, compared to inflation, imagine what $1.3 Billion would look like in people's paychecks. How many new businesses would be started? How many seniors would not leave if we were not taxing their Social Security benefits? It is long past time to rein in spending to inflation and give the people of Minnesota back what is rightfully theirs; their money. I trust the people who earned that money, to make the best decisions regarding its use. Government repeatedly displays a lack of respect for taxpayer funds.”

Rep. Jeremy Munson (R- Lake Crystal) focused on the outlook presented in the forecast. “Last November, we were confronted with a forecast of slowing growth and even a possible recession. However, the legislature finally passed conformity to President Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act a year late. Now Minnesotans are starting to reap the benefit of those reforms. There is still more to do. For example, farmers and small businesses need full section 179 expensing conformity right now, so they aren’t being penalized for improving their operations. Nevertheless, the positive effect of the TCJA is undeniable.”

Rep. Tim Miller (R-Prinsburg) said, “The state now has a structural surplus –we are collecting a lot more money than the budget requires to run government each year. When I hear the word surplus with a government revenue forecast, my mind immediately goes to what that money could have done in our communities, for businesses, and Minnesota families, if they had been allowed to keep their own money. Minnesotans are overtaxed, and with headline after headline of the people’s money wasted and stolen, they are fed up.”

The NHRC is led by Rep. Steve Drazkowski (Republican-Mazeppa). It includes Rep. Cal Bahr (Republican-East Bethel), Rep. Tim Miller (Republican-Prinsburg), and Rep. Jeremy Munson (Republican-Lake Crystal).

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