This post originally appeared at https://www.bootsandsabers.com/2023/12/08/states-slip-into-deficits/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=states-slip-into-deficits
Hmmm…
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota is projected to have a budget surplus of $2.4 billion this biennium, state officials said Wednesday. But there are warning signs in future years that could lead to a potential deficit.
The $2.4 billion surplus is $800 million more than end-of-session estimates, but smaller than the eye-popping $17 billion surplus the state legislature had to work with when they began session this past January, before it passed a $72 billion state budget by adjournment in May.
California is facing a major budget crisis due to a “severe revenue decline,” and a record $68 billion budget deficit, likely forcing Democrats running the state to cut spending as the mass exodus of people and businesses moving to Republican-run states continues.
According to California’s non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) report released Thursday, the state’s budget deficit has grown exponentially in just a few months’ time, up more than $54 billion from just $14.3 billion in June.
Minnesota has burned through a healthy surplus with massive spending and California already has a massive deficit. Both states are run by Democrats and are merely at different points in a very predictable trajectory.
There’s a lesson for Wisconsin here. We have a surplus right now that Democrats, and some Republicans, are fighting over how to spend it. The lesson is that politicians will spend whatever you give them and then some. The only way to control the size of government is to limit the money they can spend. If Democrats manage to retake the Legislature, this generation of Democrats has shown absolutely no willingness to restrain their spending. It would be a balance sheet bloodbath.
Just say no.
No means no.