Emmer Was Right

The revenue forecast is in.

State tax revenues jumped by over a billion dollars.

Just like Tom Emmer said, over and over, on nearly every stop on the campaign trail.

Just like the DFL sneered at him, and every Republican, for pointing out.

The economy – notwithstanding the DFL/media (pardon the redundancy’s) long-running meme that “Tim Pawlenty was a disaster” – generated about 3% more tax revenue than was expected last year.

State budget officials announced the new deficit number Monday as part of a larger revenue and economic forecast. Minnesota’s deficit for the next two year now stands at $5 billion, according to those who were breifed on the economic forecast. The old projection placed the deficit at $6.2 billion.

While the new deficit figure shows a marked improvement, it still means, as expected, state lawmakers and the governor have a massive deficit to fill this year.

And, as always, that’s buncombe; there is no “deficit”; merely a “budget forecast”, essentially the budget wish list from the last, DFL-controlled session.  Dayton – and his enablers in the media – have focused on this number, since it allows an over-20%-hike in spending, accomplishing their primary mission, keeping government fat and happy at any cost.

Dayton’s budget proposal calls for more than $3.3 billion in tax hikes on high earners, a plan Republicans reject. Republican leaders have pledged to balance the budget solely through cuts, which if it holds, would be a depth of reductions never seen before in the state.

The article – by the Strib’s Rachel  Stassen-Berger – parrots a DFL meme, knowingly or not.  “Cuts Only” is a DFL chanting point, used to try to frame the MNGOP’s approach to this session in the most pejorative terms.  It’s a budget that seeks to promote growth and reform our state’s budget system, which is built to foster inflation.

The session got off to a testy start when the newly-elected governor vetoed nearly $900 million in cuts proposed by Republicans, saying the reductions would have indirectly raised property taxes.

And I’ve spent the last week looking for any part of the GOP’s bill that forced cities and counties to raise property taxes.

The governor has said he would consider curtailing some of his proposed spending cuts — particularly to programs for the elderly — or stocking up cash in the state’s reserve fund if the new deficit forecast showed improvement.

As opposed to, y’know, slowing down the spending.

And did you notice the reference to the “state’s reserve fund?”  That’s a favorite of the DFL; “Let’s tax you, the private citizen, a little more, so that the next time times get tough, the government can get through with less muss and fuss, even if it makes it harder for you and your family to ride it out”.

His budget plan, released earlier this month, closed a $6.2 billion deficit.

As we’ve shown in the past, that’ s nonsense as well; jacking up taxes on “the rich” never brings in the revenue it’s supposed to, and at least one of Dayton’s purported “saving” – cutting state contracting in  half – is pure voodoo budgeting.

Republicans, who have yet to design a complete deficit fix, have said they will not consider tax increases.

Not sure if Stassen-Berger is just writing sloppily, or actively carrying water for the DFL here; the GOP has not released a complete budget yet.  Stassen-Berger has no idea if there is or is not a plan waiting in the wings; if there is, it’s certainly  not in the MNGOP’s best political interest to release it yet.

It’s in the DFL’s interest to portray it as “the GOP doesn’t know what it’s doing” – just as they did with Tom Emmer’s lack of a budget (until he released one, on Labor Day).  If it were Stassen-Berger’s intention to help the DFL further the meme, she did a fine job.

But maybe it was just sloppy writing.