State Sen. Paul Koering (R-Fort Ripley) is pleased with the Minnesota Department of Finance's announcement that the state has a projected surplus in the current budget of $1.038 billion.
"I'm ecstatic about this huge budget surplus," said Koering. "After some tough times, we're now headed in the right direction."
As a sign of the health of Minnesota's economy, the largest share of the new money is from higher individual income tax payments-the state's economy is still adding jobs, unlike the national economy. The second largest portion of additional money came from corporate income taxes.
"What we need to do now is continue to encourage businesses to move to Minnesota that provide good jobs with benefits so that Minnesotans can make a decent living and provide for their families," Koering said.
Legislators will use these budget numbers, which will get a final update in February, to approve a budget for the next two years. In addition to this substantial new surplus, the state has $1 billion in the bank - $350 million in a cash flow account and cash reserves of $650 million.
"I believe that we should do several things with the surplus. The first thing that we should do is work on property tax reform. Property taxes are out of control, and we need to put money into local government aid and county aid so that there is less reliance on property taxes.
"We need to put more money toward early childhood and K-12 education and try to get a handle on the rising cost of college tuition.
"Finally, I believe that we should put some money in reserve in the rainy day fund on the off-chance that the economy has a downturn and we have a budget shortfall."
