What About the $2.2 Billion Dollar Surplus?
State Sen. Steve Murphy (DFL) the chief proponent of oppressive tax and spending increases that will bankrupt this state and leave fiscal liberalism messes our children will be forced to deal with, has an LTE in the St. Cloud Times. (Via Gary at LFR)
Minnesota has $1.7 billion in annual unmet transportation funding needs. It is critical that the state make a real, dedicated investment in our roads, bridges and transit systems this year. By continuing to rely on borrowing to fund our transportation system, we will only put our state further behind and shift the costs of today’s projects onto our children and grandchildren.
Minnesota has a $2.2 billion dollar surplus, so quit your partisan bitching Murphy. DFLers are trying to pass these new tax increases because they know that taxes are nearly impossible to take away. If they can put in place billions of new spending, it will require new tax increases.
Liberals like Murphy have never seen a tax increase they didn’t like. And in the case of roads, they’d rather tax us now, and build it later. Even if the Guv would sign their tax increases, the roads wouldn’t be built for years.
But the key to this particular argument is where did the surplus go?
If I was king of Minnesota, We’d cut spending to pay for our needed transportation projects. I would not let one dime be spent on trains. And I’d give back the surplus. But I am not king. And the people in charge of the state Senate would consider that plan radical.
Instead, Murphy and his fellow social engineers and tax and spend liberals would rather keep raising taxes and pray that those same tax increases, new spending, and burdensome over regulation don’t devastate the state’s economy. Think about it, taxes have been lower, and revenue was up. (seriously think about it!)
Personally, I don’t want to even try Murphy and the DFL’s way. We can’t afford it. That’s why the MNGOP activists, no matter how upset and demoralized, must be motivated to see to it that a Republican holds the gavel in the House after the next election. But….. well ….. you know why I am worried about that. [sssssiiiiiggggghhhhhhh]
The marvelous thing about the DFL’s tax schemes is that they always say it’s for “our highest priority.” In this case, that’s transportation, but I know from experience that there will not be a single pothole repaired as a result of any new DFL tax. They tax for the love of taxes, and what they spend on is not only unimportant, but generally unrelated to what they promised.
Besides, in a $34B budget, we ought to be able to find a Billion or so for our “highest priority,” don’t you think? The problem is that DFLers don’t really think about “priorities” in a budget. They simply want to spend every nickel they have, on something, and then when they think of more “stuff” they want to raise taxes. Or maybe it really is the other way around– raise taxes first, think up ways to squander it later.