The billion dollar bummer: Why some Minnesota lawmakers are so conflicted about the state's not-

The billion dollar bummer: Why some Minnesota lawmakers are so conflicted about the state’s not-exactly-small projected budget surplus


When is news that your government has a $1 billion projected surplus bad news? When that excess is down by nearly one-third since the last time you checked.

Such was the odd math and harsh truth of the annual ritual that is the Minnesota Office of Management and Budget’s release Thursday of the February revenue forecast, which legislators will use to draw up plans for nearly $50 billion in two-year spending.

That forecast suggests — and let’s remember it’s only a forecast — that the state will have a little more than a $1 billion surplus into mid-2021. There are many qualifications: that carry forward budget doesn’t include much of the inflationary costs of state programs, and the projections are subject to uncertainties like global politics and trade policies.

Still, having a billion dollars to the good (it’s actually $1,052,000,000) is better than being in the hole. It was just eight years ago when a previous governor and a previous Legislature had to fight through a $5 billion deficit on a much smaller spending base of $32 billion.

Read more: https://www.minnpost.com/state-government/2019/03/the-billion-dollar-bummer-why-some-minnesota-lawmakers-are-so-conflicted-about-the-states-not-exactly-small-projected-budget-surplus/