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Minnesota GOP leaders call for spending cuts after forecast shows $6 billion shortfall
Summary
House and Senate Republican leaders said a recent state budget forecast shows a roughly $6 billion shortfall and urged spending reductions, fraud prevention and agency savings while pledging no tax increases as they work toward a May 19 budget deadline.
At a press conference in St. Paul, Speaker Damoth, a House Republican leader, said Minnesota faces roughly a $6 billion budget shortfall and urged immediate spending reductions while ruling out tax increases.
The forecast “We are now at looking at a $6,000,000,000 deficit,” Speaker Damoth said, adding that Republicans plan to pursue “tax saving cuts and absolutely no tax increases.” He also said, “We have 6,000 new FTEs that were created in the state of Minnesota just over the last 2 years,” and cited “over $600,000,000 in known fraud” as reasons to seek savings.
Republican leaders framed the shortfall as the result of two years of Democratic control, saying an $18 billion surplus two years ago and $10 billion in subsequent tax and fee increases left the state exposed when costs rose. “Just in 2 years, 2 years ago, we had an $18,000,000,000 surplus and then hit family budgets even harder…
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