Political jargon is the enemy of informed public opinion. Winston Churchill, whose wartime leadership against Adolf Hitler saved Britain and maybe the world, also warred against jargon. Bemoaning bureaucrats who took to calling the poor the “lower income group” and homes “accommodation units,” he mused, “I don’t know how we are to sing our old song ‘Home Sweet Home.’ ‘Accommodation Unit, Sweet Accommodation Unit, there’s no place like our Accommodation Unit.'”
Some things never change. Minnesotans were told last week by the state’s leadership that in a few years the state budget will come up $2.3 billion short. But, they explained, although future spending will exceed revenue, this isn’t necessarily a deficit. Rather, it’s a “structural imbalance.”
Let’s describe where we are in jargon-free terms: The most hard-left Legislature in Minnesota history went on a spending spree unlike anything the state has ever seen. Those who warned about future deficits were ignored. And now we’re about to come up a couple billion dollars short. But what’s a couple billion dollars among friends?
Just last year the state, flush with COVID-related cash from the federal government and a previously robust national economy, enjoyed the largest budget surplus in state history. At $19 billion, the biennial surplus was larger than the full annual budgets of 17 U.S. states.
With such an immense surplus, state leaders could have held fast to campaign promises to deliver meaningful tax rebate checks and still have plenty of money to spare for long-term tax relief.
Instead, they broke their election-year promises and the state’s “progressive” leadership raised taxes by $10 billion and issued small rebate checks to some Minnesotans. Then they increased general fund spending nearly 40%.
Notable in the state’s new spending commitments is the reconstruction of our State Office Building. The $730 million price tag for this project, including interest, approaches the cost of the Minnesota Vikings’ stadium. For another comparison, that amount could purchase the largest two buildings in downtown Minneapolis. Or, the amount spent on this one government building is more than double the amount appropriated last session for cities to address police shortages and increases in violent crime. As I write, there is a memorial to this folly in the now-desolate wasteland adjacent to the existing State Office Building where dozens of huge trees have been clear cut to make room to massively increase the size of the building. This project is, in jargon-free terms, absurd.
Another absurdity contributing to our future deficit is the $200 million spent for a train to Duluth. It seems relevant to any discussion of a rail project that few people ride the rail the state currently has. Also relevant is that the new rail we are currently building — the 14-mile track known as the Southwest light rail — is $1 billion over budget and a decade late. Add to this the fact that the Duluth train will deliver Minnesotans to and from Duluth in the same amount of time as a car, and at a higher cost, and we have a new entry in Webster’s for the definition of frivolous spending.
Remarkable waste in our state government is helping lead us to massive future deficits. That we have come to this point is not surprising. As the Star Tribune’s Evan Ramstad has pointed out, the Minnesota economy is growing more slowly than at any time in its history. But despite this lackluster economic growth, our government has grown at historic rates. Since 2010 our economy has grown by just 22%, but far-left governance has grown our budget by a stunning 130%.
No amount of jargon can conceal that the math doesn’t add up. As we approach the coming deficit, the response of those now governing the state will be to raise taxes yet again. This would be a huge mistake given that the state is already the fifth-highest taxed state in the nation and that jobs, people and investment are fleeing our state in part due to the state’s ever-increasing tax burdens.
The answer to the coming budget deficit is to institute responsible spending reform alongside tax and regulatory reform that can generate jobs, grow wages, and attract people and businesses to the state. It is a path well-trodden over the last decade by states as diverse as Arizona, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Iowa and Michigan.
The same far-left politicians who squandered a $19 billion surplus and created a massive deficit will certainly oppose such common-sense reforms. If they succeed and “solve” our deficits with yet more taxes, countless more Minnesota businesses and Minnesotans will seek out “accommodation units” in other states, and we will have planted the seeds for future “structural imbalances.” We must reject that path.
Jim Schultz is the president and executive director of the Minnesota Private Business Council and was the Republican nominee for Minnesota attorney general in 2022. He can be reached at jim@growthmn.com.
I think among the best words to describe not only this event but our state government more broadly right now, is that it is just plain weird. Once a proud bastion of pragmatic governance and Midwestern sensibility, on event after event, issue after issue, Minnesota government has become weird.
Minnesota faces serious challenges on the economy, on education, on public safety, and on many other issues. On many of these is deep disagreement that will not be resolved anytime soon.
There is a lot of disagreement right now on the state of our state. A few weeks ago, in his State of the State address, Gov. Tim Walz depicted Minnesota as a progressive utopia that should be an example for all of America. On the other hand, some on the right describe the state as something approaching a barren hellscape (a description some of us have reserved for Wisconsin (in jest of course)).
The Minnesota Private Business Council (MPBC) today announced the formation of its Advisory Board comprised of key Minnesota political and business leaders and dedicated to helping MPBC advance its goals.
Other states have similar high environmental standards but have efficient permitting systems, and we can do the same.
As the 2024 legislative session begins, state Democrats in St. Paul are pushing the North Star Act, aiming to make Minnesota a sanctuary state, further extending benefits to illegal immigrants despite the ongoing crisis at the southern border.
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