Woodard: $1.2 Billion Surplus Outstanding News

Dear Neighbor,

The budget we set last year continues to surpass initial projections. The new economic forecast released Wednesday shows the state of Minnesota’s budget has come a long way in a short amount of time. We have erased the $6.1 billion shortfall from last year and can now report a $1.2 billion surplus.

The current $1.2 billion surplus is a result of decreased spending and a slight increase in revenues which results in a $6.3 billion turn for the better in less than a year.

This is outstanding news and it is rewarding to see the difficult decisions we made last year start to take root and continue to pay dividends. The economy and state budget are looking better than anticipated due to our commitment to fiscal restraint and our refusal to raise taxes. 

Another bit of outstanding news from this surplus is at least $318 million of our surplus funds will go toward accelerating the payment of shifted K-12 education funds. The Constitution mandated prior funds be dedicated to replenishing our states reserves and cash-flow accounts and now we can turn our attention to addressing the shifts that have been in effect since 2009.

Small-business owners gain confidence when there is economic and regulatory certainty. We have focused our reform efforts on providing the freedom and flexibility our business community needs to build the Minnesota economy. The result is an unemployment rate of 5.7 percent that is significantly better than the nation’s 8.5 percent average and is falling faster than most states.

We have experienced stronger-than-expected revenue growth in Minnesota since our new budget went into place, including $93 million in added revenue since November. This type of growth may have never happened if we had raised taxes on hard working Minnesotans by billions of dollars as some proposed.

The decisions we make are not always easy, but they are working as evidenced in these latest budget numbers. Our state is in better fiscal position today than it has been for a number of years and that is something we can all celebrate.

Warm regards,
Kelby