New from the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce

The following was in my mail box today, it seems everywhere you turn people of intelligence are worried about what the dems are doing to us, and finally are beginning to call the culprit party by name..instead of the generalized "house" or generic statement about the government

STATE BUDGET
We don’t need tax increases to balance the state budget, yet that’s the direction House and Senate DFLers are headed with their tax proposals unveiled this week.
HF 4103, which could become a key component of the House DFL tax bill, would reduce Minnesota’s corporate tax rate to 8.8 percent, but it also eliminates many existing tax credits and deductions such as foreign royalties and incentives for research and development. The net effect is a $170 million tax increase for businesses in FY 2009 and a $288 million tax increase in FY 2010-2011.
The Senate DFL bill would remove cabin owners from paying the statewide property tax and leave businesses to pay those dollars, thus increasing commercial and industrial property taxes by about $35 million a year. Business property taxes – without this shift – already are expected to increase 7 to 10 percent this year.
Remind your legislators that the state should be able to operate under existing general fund revenues. State spending still would increase 9 percent under the Governor’s plan to address the 2008-2009 shortfall.

House GOP Responds to Budget Deficit

HOUSE REPUBLICANS CALL FOR FISCAL RESTRAINT

Seifert Says: "Stop growing government. Start growing jobs."

Saint Paul - (November 30, 2007) - House Republican Leader Marty Seifert today said the state's $373 million budget deficit demands fiscal restraint and accountability in the upcoming legislative session.

"We need to spur the economy with business development and job growth," said House Republican Leader Marty Seifert. "Government should not grow at a faster rate than the private sector. Government needs to make sacrifices so we don't increase the tax burden on job creators and families. Our financial ground will continue to erode until we acknowledge that we cannot grow government and tax our way to prosperity.

"The state's budget forecast reflects the impact of a national economic slowdown that is being largely driven by slower projected economic growth, record high oil prices, an increasingly weak housing market and the resulting tightening on lending.

"Minnesotans across the state are seeing less discretionary income and that has a direct impact on the state's economy," Seifert said. "While businesses, families and farms are looking to tighten their budgets, the Democrats are working on plans to raise their taxes to fuel the growth of government."

Government spending has grown rapidly in the past 10 years. State general fund spending has increased nearly 40 percent in the last 10 years from $24 billion to $34.5 billion.

"Now is not the time to raise taxes. We do not need more money from taxpayers to fund unsustainable growth in government programs. We need to prioritize, cut wasteful government spending and use taxpayer dollars more efficiently," Seifert said.

Seifert said the budget deficit presents many challenges to the spending proposals and large bonding bill already being discussed for the next legislative session.

"The state budget should operate like the family budget. When there is less revenue, we spend less money," Seifert said. "The Democrats already spent the $34 billion in the state's budget and squandered away a $2 billion surplus. We simply do not have the money in the checkbook for more spending. The bonding bill must stay within the $965 million threshold. It should focus on fixing our state's core infrastructure needs. Festivals, theaters and ice rinks come in a distant second to funding for safe roads and bridges.

Seifert said the budget deficit could have been higher if the Democrats tax and spend proposals were all signed into law. Governor Tim Pawlenty line-itemed veto more than $32 million in spending and vetoed a pork-filled bonding bill.

"The Democrats overspent last session and then tried to raise our taxes," Seifert said. "Government doesn't need relief. Minnesotans do. We need to protect the taxpayer pocketbook, not use it as a never-ending cash machine."

Economic Forecast for Minnesota

You can find the November 2007 Economic Forecast at Minnesota’s Department of Finance. A budget deficit of $373 million is now projected for the biennium. Previously a balance of $294 million had been expected.

House Minority Leader Marty Seifert held a brief media response to the budget forecast. His comments include:

We do not need tax increases.

Sacrifices need to take place. The question being asked is who is doing the sacrificing? Republicans believe sacrifices need to take place within government. Democrats believe sacrifice happens with businesses and families.

Republicans and Governor Tim Pawlenty brought fiscal discipline to the legislative process last session. Without the Governor's line item vetoes, bonding bill vetoes the budget deficit could have been more than $500 million. We need fiscal accountability. The Democrats should stay within the debt limit of $965 million for the bonding bill. The bonding bill should be focused on infrastructure like roads and bridge. It would be irresponsible to blow that limit and put that much more on the state credit card.

All levels of government must live within their means — state, county and local.

The House GOP will look toward cuts in government spending to resolve this budget deficit. We talk about fiscal restraint but we need cuts in wasteful spending. FY2010-2011 has a projected major deficit. We need to prepare and get spending under control.

We will again bring fiscal discipline to session. There should be no permanent spending with one-term money, the bonding bill should stay within the debt limit and we don't need to raise taxes.


Sen. Dave Senjem also responded:

This is a wake up call.

We live in a highly taxed state. Our business climate is suffering. We rank 42 in the nation for business climate. We need to create investments in our business climate. We should be in the top 10. Business expansion is not happening in Minnesota because there are no incentives to grow business.

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This is good advice from our Republican leaders. By incentives, I assume Senjem means cutting government regulation and taxes that drive businesses out of the state. Minnesota needs to compete in a world economy. More importantly, Minnesota must compete with all other states. If Dems keep creating a deleterious climate for business, they will leave for other states that do not make business unprofitable.

We keep hearing the ads from Sioux Falls begging for business to leave Minnesota’s high tax rate behind. That’s not good for Minnesota, but Sioux Falls doesn’t realize it’s creating its own growth problems with congestion and the need for ever more infrastructure.