Minnesota budget surplus grows to $1 billion
Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune
Minnesotas well-performing economy has left the state with a budget surplus of $1 billion, the Minnesota Management and Budget Office reported Thursday.
The surplus, though expected, will set the table for the start of the upcoming budget process as Minnesota legislators figure out what to do with the windfall.
Since February, when the Minnesota Management and Budget agency published its last forecast, the states economy has expanded largely as projected, aided by stronger employment growth. The job gains have shrunk the unemployment rate to its lowest level in more than eight years 3.9 percent.
The state's fiscal picture has brightened considerably since February 2012, the last time the state faced a deficit, which stood then at $627 million. The states budget reserve is now replenished, and tax revenue is pouring in.
Read more: http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/284649071.html
NoJusticeNoPeace
(5,018 posts)ChairmanAgnostic
(28,017 posts)Hong Kong Cavalier
(4,573 posts)*peers over the border at Wisconsin and shrugs*
jwirr
(39,215 posts)you vote for.
savalez
(3,517 posts)jwirr
(39,215 posts)Elmer S. E. Dump
(5,751 posts)I was born and raised and still live in Madison. I've never voted for a Refucklican in my life. Please watch the broad brush stokes!
I did not get what I voted for.
mazzarro
(3,450 posts)Elmer S. E. Dump
(5,751 posts)Kip Humphrey
(4,753 posts)cilla4progress
(24,760 posts)Of Washington state in the black, as well!
calimary
(81,419 posts)Thank you DEMOCRATS - in the governor's office, and in majorities in both houses of the state legislature.
Proof - meet pudding.
That is all.
Botany
(70,552 posts)n/t
MinneapolisMatt
(1,550 posts)Poor repubs, they can never be happy about anything. Sad, really.
turbinetree
(24,710 posts)That and is what happens when you have good jobs wages, environmental and regulatory concerns geared to the state and the citizens BEST interests at heart , health care , education benefits , tourism and you look at the above Title it say it all, I am truly proud of this state and love this state for looking past the fear and hate-------
not like in;
Wis----CON---SIN;
(how's the job picture in your state doing for you now and your criminal governor treating you like scum of the earth, spreading more hate and fear to keep his job, which he won by proxy, 37th in job creation, no high speed train service to Chicago to create jobs, but he attack UNIONS and FARMERS and blame them for your ills, like NO BUDGET SURPLUS .
I forgot he and your legislature your right wing republicans that do nothing except get phone calls from KOCH brother bidder, remember the fake phone call)
Go Minnesota keep up the good work look
jwirr
(39,215 posts)lunasun
(21,646 posts)With cash and fairy tales
So much pristine land the rivers and lakes
little ones to Superior with a sane and successful government .
They will target MN - stay strong for the fallen midwest ( Mich , Wisc etc.)
& show an alternative to Koch madness
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)would allow this article in it's present form. Watch Hubburd and his ilk do a number on this. Last time we had this kind of surplus our state media gave us Jesse the Ego. And we now know what the results of that was. This surplus is wonderful,but,doesn't it just cover the Education Budget that was raided years back?
turbinetree
(24,710 posts)There has been over 14 Democratic and Democratic Farmer Labor governors in the state, and 25 republicans and then, they had Tim Pawlenty for over eight years and a republican controlled legislature.
He and his band of merry men raided the Education fund and promised there pie in the sky rhetoric of lower taxes in its short falls on funding or lack of there of.
But now you have a legislature and a Democratic Governor which is saying to those that have the means and the wealth you have to pay your fair share on earned income---plain and simple, no tax cuts being subsidized by blaming the poor and the middle class like Pawlenty and crew.
They have said you will help fund the education and other programs from your wealth just like everyone else has too, this is not a one side shop of the haves not paying, and the have not paying everything .
They Pawlenty treated the education bond fund and other programs like it were a HEDGE FUNDS, so lets put the blame squarely on his and on there shoulders of those still the state government who are republican and who keep getting re-elected to bring this stuff back and they now have former governor turned lobbyists called Pawlenty not being held accountable for this issue, which he should and others of his ilk
Yavin4
(35,445 posts)There really is no such thing as a surplus when you have pension plans to cover.
MinneapolisMatt
(1,550 posts)I completely agree - we need to make sure that is in place! And also pay back the Education fund that the repubs raided "to balance" their budget.
LW1977
(1,236 posts)..working out for ya? Wisconsin?
Elmer S. E. Dump
(5,751 posts)calimary
(81,419 posts)Glad you're here. And keep asking that.
Once upon a time, I proposed a meme here - "That's what you get when you vote republi-CON." Let's build some connectivity here. Help the gullible and ignorant and brainwashed start connecting the dots. The evidence certainly is out there. OUR talking points should be, too! Repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat. And did I say repeat?
Oh yeah - almost forgot...
Should be REPEATED, too!
RiverNoord
(1,150 posts)You might be better off not referring to the people you wish to persuade as 'gullible and ignorant and brainwashed.' People tend to arrive at decisions pretty quickly that someone isn't worth listening to when they treat their views and opinions with such disdain.
lark
(23,138 posts)Liberal policies expand the working class and the rising tide floats all boats. Repug policies hurt the working class, driving down their income and buying power, hurting small businesses and large. However the fat cats at the top of the really large corporations get MUCH richer, and don't give a fuck about the rest of us who are struggling to get by.
snappyturtle
(14,656 posts)MN...I've loved this state since I was a child....now this news is even more welcoming to my decision.
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)Prepare for another round of state government shutdowns because the idiots will refuse to compromise with the Senate and Dayton.
happyslug
(14,779 posts)Translation into English, the number of people on what people call Welfare DROPPED like a rock while the number of Senior Citizens in nursing homes sky rocketed.
Families with children get Transition Aide to Needy Families (TANF) which is a Federal-state program where the Federal Government matches whatever the state pays up to the "Standard of Need" of $721 per month (No state pay has EVER paid welfare up to the "Standard of Need" so how much one get on welfare is set by the State, but the Feds pay half of the costs). As to medical costs, the 50% State and 50% federal share exists, but tied in with eligibility for Welfare otherwise (and tied in with Obamacare, Minnesota is one of the States that have a State Exchange under Obamacare).
People on TANF has dropped, sounds like most ended up with employment. On the other hand the number of Senior Citizen in nursing homes increased. This is another State-Federal program where the Federal Government pays 1/2 of the cost, the state the other half but the Senior Citizen must be on welfare to get the benefit and to be on welfare must have almost no assets.
Now, the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare) increase eligibility rates for Medical Welfare and agreed to pay 100% of the cost of that increase in the number of eligible people. Minnesota was one of the states that adopted ACA and thus gets that extra funds.
In effect the surplus is do NOT only a booming economy but also to the State adopting Obamacare.