Bad Budget Priorities
by Senator Steve Green
When it comes to priorities, Democrats continue to have things backwards. I find it concerning. Minnesotans have been pretty clear about what they expect from us: better oversight, ending the fraud, and making life affordable. These are commonsense asks. Yet Democrats have acted on none of these concerns. What have we seen instead? Land grab bills, new taxes, talks of federal immigration policies we have no control over… the list is endless. With a few weeks left to go, I’d like to see us refocus on things that matter. Given how Democrats in the Senate have operated over the last three years, I don’t see that happening.
Aside from what’s going on in the Senate, the Governor also released his budget proposal. It’s pretty bad. Again, our budget is not in balance. Our February forecast shows spending continues to outpace revenue by $3.3 billion. We have to contend with that. Imagine how quickly we could solve that by simply cracking down on fraud. Instead of that, Governor Walz is doubling down on his previous budget proposal. It’s a bad deal.
First of all, he wants to do education cuts. Remember that “Blue Ribbon Commission” language that Democrats passed last year? The goal was for this commission to find ways to make $250 million in cuts to special education. Well his new budget adds $50 million to that number. So now he’s proposing $300 million in special education cuts.
On the topic of education, he’s also proposed cutting transportation for both non-public students and students with disabilities. He also wants to eliminate nonpublic pupil aid for things like textbooks, health services, and counseling. At the same time, he also adds $30 million into the fund for unemployment insurance for summer staff at schools. You can see where his priorities are.
Another cut hurting our most vulnerable? Cuts to long-term care and nursing homes. We saw this proposal last year, and despite its lack of popularity, he’s bringing it up again. Many were very upset about this. And rightfully so. Yet here we are a year later and it’s being proposed again. We’re talking $120 million in cuts over two years to disability and mental health services, and an additional $57 million in cuts to nursing homes.
There are places to make cuts. And we should do that. But not to senior citizens. And if schools get any cuts, they should be in conjunction with mandate relief.
Another bad idea is the new tax on firearms and ammunition, which is estimated to raise about $28 million. Of course he wants to tax gun owners – yet another attack on law-abiding Minnesotans exercising their First Amendment right.
The kicker to all of this? Even though these things are being proposed as “cuts,” these things will really just drive up local levies and taxes. These cuts will save the state money, but will cost you more. People are already being priced out of their homes, and every cut the governor makes is just a tax that makes life even more unaffordable.
We know how we got here: Democrats doubled our budget over the last 10 years. And where is the $18 billion surplus? Gone! In 2023 alone, Democrats grew government by 40%. But it’s never enough. There was no long-term plan for any of this. And now how do we make up the difference? If you ask Democrats, it’s by cutting services to our kids and most vulnerable, taxing gun owners, and raising sales taxes. None of these proposals do a thing to address the fraud and affordability crises facing our state, because Democrats are not interested in making your life more affordable. In fact, the Governor and Democrat legislators are either blaming someone else or saying, “There is no fraud - nothing to see here!” It’s wrong and it’s unsustainable. Minnesotans should be very disappointed in this bad budget proposal and the direction our state is going.