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Our View: Surplus not a ‘windfall’

The Minnesota economic forecast on Friday indicates the state could have a surplus of $1.4 billion at the end of the biennium. This is a much better problem than the billion dollar deficits that preceded the big tax increases in 2012 when Dayton and the DFL controlled the  Legislature and government. But it is a problem nonetheless for the taxpayers who have overpaid their taxes to create the surplus.

This surplus is not a “windfall,” money from nowhere that just shows up to make everyone happy. This is money that the government collected from working people trying to make it from paycheck to paycheck, from businesses trying to stay in the black, and from shoppers trying to make their dollars stretch as far as they can. The government has a responsibility to levy the taxes it needs to fund its programs. One would hope that it would return that which it doesn’t need.

Of course, this surplus comes along at a time when the state has needs that are not being met. For several years now state leaders have known, have agreed, that we must invest more in transportation, some $600 million a year over the next ten years to keep up with road and bridge maintenance and improvement projects. There has been an impasse on how to fund it. Perhaps some of this surplus can help pay for that.

Some of it could be used to help those Minnesotans who are trying to buy health insurance on the individual market without having to sell a kidney to pay for the premiums.

Of course, a great use for excess funds is in the form of tax reform and adjustments to allow taxpayers to keep more of their money in the first place.

In the coming legislative session, it will be incumbent on legislators and the governor to set its budget wisely. Republicans are in the drivers seat here, with control of the House and Senate for the first time since 2012. We trust they will resist the temptation to spend more just because it’s there.

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