ST. PAUL – In an effort to right size Minnesota’s budget, leaders in the Minnesota House have agreed to a budget framework that recognizes our state’s future economic woes and begins to address them.
Last session, a Democrat legislative majority and Governor Walz approved a budget that wasted an $18 billion surplus, raised taxes by more than $10 billion, and grew state government spending by 40%. Because of these decisions, Minnesota is projected to face a $6 billion deficit during the next budget cycle – which could be the largest budget deficit in our state’s history.
State Representative Paul Torkelson (R-Hanska), who is the chair of the powerful Minnesota House Ways and Means Committee, helped negotiate this session’s House budget framework.
“We made some progress, but it’s worth remembering that this agreement is a compromise,” Torkelson said. “The House proposal avoids increasing taxes while potentially closing the gap between available resources and projected spending.”
Torkelson said the agreement reduces spending by $3.9 billion when compared to the 2024-25 budget and is $1.159 billion below the 2026-27 budget base. For the 2028-2029 projected budget, more than $2.6 billion in spending would be eliminated.
“We didn’t get everything we needed to right the ship, but with the House in a statistical tie between Republicans and Democrats, a compromise had to be made,” Torkelson said. “If this had been a Republican proposal we would have gone much further. Of course, if Republicans had been in charge last session, Minnesota also wouldn’t be facing a deficit situation as we would not have raised anyone’s taxes and would not have squandered a record surplus by growing government spending by 40 percent.”