Governor Mark Dayton is following the form he has shown throughout his tenure in his latest state budget proposal. He has taken last year’s budget and increased it, adding spending without seeming to figure out some way to moderate the increases with spending cuts. Instead he is proposing more tax increases.

Dayton is proposing a $42 billion budget for the next biennium, which would be by far the biggest budget the state has ever seen, if approved. The state’s previous budget was $39.4 billion. Since 2011, Dayton has overseen a 23 percent increase in state spending.

Dayton focuses most of his spending increases on children and education, certainly a laudable issue, but not the only need in the state.

The governor’s budget proposal is just that, a proposal. It is up to Legislature to pass a budget and send it to the governor for approval, and the Republicans in control of the House will certainly have some ideas about fiscal responsibility and accountability to apply to the budget process.

We’re sure the governor truly believes all this extra spending is necessary. But this approach to budgeting, to set spending and then try to figure out how to pay for it, cannot be sustained year after year.