Minnesota's projected budget deficit has nearly tripled since November -- growing to almost $1 billion. State finance officials blame a struggling economy, the credit crunch and lower income tax collections for the shortfall. Gov. Pawlenty and state lawmakers now have to balance the budget, and it appears that spending cuts are the main option.
OK you have TWO option for this blog--1)what spending cuts are being proposed? Or taxes increased?
--2) How are other states? Some were asking about other states that do or do not have budget deficits--do some research find out how another state is doing and report on it.
Ready, Set, GO....................
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Pawlenty said that he would like to cut back on funding for many agencies, but that he does not want to take back funding from schools and education facilities. These cuts will come from health and human services and other state agencies. He said that he would like to even lower taxes for some jobs so that the unemployment rate would go down and more people would have work. The gas tax law was passed, though Pawlenty vetoed it, saying that raising taxes is not the right way to approach this issue. Pawlenty said that some of the money from reserves could be used for the deficit and the cuts would help lower the deficit.
I think that the cuts will help lower our deficits and be better for our states economy. Lowering taxes on jobs could possibly even lower the unemployment rate and give people more chances to find a job. i think that raising taxes is not the way to go because it only makes things worse. like nader said pawlenty wanted to use money from the reserve to help with the defictit.. why not if it helps our state?
Pawlenty is going to cut sales tax, this will soften the effects on tax increase, and it will be a modest stimulus for the economy. Pawlenty has pledged not to cut school spending and still stands firm with the promise. Pawlenty also has other things that he would like to cut...and hopefully it wont lead to people getting laid off. I think our governor knows whats important to us and will make the right steps to fix things up. But the deficit needs to be lowered.
I did some research and found that Arizona's budget deficit for 2008 is projected to $1.15 billion, which is more than ours. In Arizona, the unemployment rate went up, as well as the number of bankruptcies.Our state isn't looking so bad compared to this.
Interesting Hannah...Thanks for finding that...anyone else??
I also used my resources to find a budget of another state, namely California. Their budget deficit, as of February, was 1.5 Billion. They're forced to release prisoners earlier, close state parks, and cut funding for K-12 Education. You tell me which would you rather have, ours or theirs? The areas where the state would get the most tax money were for some reason down this last year, sales tax, personal income tax, and taxable corporate profits. Either the businesses aren't doing as well, they're avoiding the tax, or something is seriously flawed in the Californian fiscal system. I prefer our 1 billion tax deficit to the early release of rapists into our midst.
Pawlenty has said that he would not cut spending on K-12 education which is good but he did propose reducing spending on higher education. This wouldn't affect me since I am going to college out of state. He also wants to decrease spending by all state agencies by 4%. These cuts along with an increase in taxes may curb the deficit and move us in the right direction.
I came across several articles talking about recent budget surpluses, but not right now, a couple years back. In November 2006, Minnesota predicted a budget surplus of 2 Billion dollars over the next 3 years. New York had similar findings. 2006 was a a year of huge budget surpluses in a lot of states. We're not the only ones who've gone downhill.
i think that makeing budget cuts is nessary to get the econmoy back in order. and i think what if education gets some cuts i mean eventully it is going to happen your going to have some govener that dosent care that much about education and just cuts some funding. but if something does have to be cut i would like to see other things than education but what has to be done has to be done.
i think the budget cuts will help and it will help out our whole economy. i dont think education should be cut they should find other things that can be cut thats less important
i think that if they cut these fundings this will help pay for our deficit. the state workers are the people that are feeling the pain as of now.
I think budget cuts will help lower our deficits and help out our economy. But they shouldn't cut eduction budgets there are plenty other budgets that could get cut.
Pawlenty is going to cut sales tax.. i think that it will help lower sales taxe and will be ok for our economy.. Palenty said that he will not cut school spending ans still stands strong wiht his promise... Pawlenty has other things that he can cut from. I just hope that it wont lead to people losing there jobs because then we will have a problem with unemployment and people wont get enough money if they have to join welfare... The deficit needs to be lower and hopefully he will make the right decisions to help fix things up and get us right back on track to where we need to be...
education shouldn't be cut. they should find other things to cut. the cuts will help lower our deficits and be better for out states economy. raising taxes will not help anything, probably just make things worse.
I say that we better do something like cut taxes and people will have more money to spend on things that will help alot. We have to stop spending money on things that we don't need. The senators do not need pay raises because they are a the jerks that got us here.
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