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Reps: Cutting deficit doable
Published 11:07am Friday, December 7, 2012The state budget deficit is projected at $1.1 billion, and with the DFL in the majority, Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen and Rep. Bud Nornes will have less involvement than Republicans in recent years.
“It certainly does change the role when you’re not in the majority anymore,” Nornes said. “In the minority, we are there to help and make suggestions, but the plan is always put together by the majority party.”
The projected $1.1 billion budget deficit is smaller than that of recent years, and both Ingebrigtsen and Nornes think the state can bring it down without significantly affecting residents.
“Two years ago when our party took office, the deficit was $5.6 billion, and we whittled down the deficit to nothing,” Ingebrigtsen said. “With the funds replenishment that has to happen with the school funding shift payments, it looks like we’re headed toward raising taxes, though I’m not saying I’m in favor of if.”
Nornes said balancing the $1.1 billion deficit is “pretty doable” considering the state brought down a $5.6 billion deficit in 2010.
“The $6 billion was balanced without having any new taxes, but some say we will need new taxes to pay down the $1 billion,” he said. “There’s going to be a difference in the way this is handled, and I’m looking forward to some spirited conversations and committee meetings in the coming months.”
Ingebrigtsen said there are still areas that can be trimmed back to bring down the budget, along with abuses and mismanagement to resolve in health and human services.
Nornes said the state needs to balance wants and needs based on realistic expectations of revenue.
“I guess you start by laying out the wants and needs, and then determine how many of those wants you can fulfill based on the revenue we can expect to have,” he said.
While the Minnesota DFL and GOP are not going to agree on the way in which the budget should be balanced, both parties want to see a zero in the budget deficit column.
“The voters sent a clear message they want us (the two parties) to get along, and that’s what we are going to do,” Ingebrigtsen said. “They don’t want another government shutdown.”
The government was shut down? I guess I didn’t notice.
I also love the repub lie that taxes were not raised.. my prop taxes went up as a result of the removal of the homestead exemption and the raising of fee like fishing licenses.. mittens raised all fees about 25% so he could claim the lie he did not raise taxes when he was gov of mass…he repub..dont whiz down my leg and tell me its raining
make that hey repubs as that statement was not directed at anyone
I worked with Bud at KBRF many years ago. I have never known him to say anything dishonest so I have to assume he was wrongly quoted by the Journal in this story.
ya tell us that he aint a liar.. lets fact check.. repubs caused the state to shut down because they refused to raise taxes…then repubs allowed a deal which involved the removal of the homestead exemption..ie raising property taxes on every struggling homeowner during this recession..so the rich did not get their taxes raised..then as a result of the grand deal fees went up which for poor and middle class that actually supplement their food supply with the fish and deer meat that hunting and fishing allow..they had a higher fee…THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A RAISED FEE AND A TAX..EXCEPT IN REPUBSPEAK.. so i submit mr nornes has MISPOKE as repubs dont lie they mispeak..just like romney and ryan mispoke when they said we dems had total control of congress for the first 2 years..when we minn residenats know thats an outright lie.. we minn DEMOCRATS know that normy coldslaw blocked al frankin the 60th filibusterproof senate seat from sitting till july 09.. and then ted kennedys seat was lost in jan 2010 …59 seats aint total control its a simple majority THAT CAN BE BLOCKED FROM BILL PASSAGE WITH A FILIBUSTER..THUS IT AINT TOTAL CONTROL… and therefore the repub statement made by romney and ryan in the debates that we dems had total control was in fact an out and out lie…but then this kind of intentional lies by repubs is one reason why i left that party permanently in the 80′s.. the other was the fact that trickle down is a failed policy..that repubs say worked under REAGAN..yet a fact check shows reagan did deficit spending to make it work..he raised the national debt from 900 million to over 2.6 trillion and gave us a bubble burst JUST LIKE BABY BUSH DID…do tell us again that repubs dont lie..I LOVE how easy it is to disprove you…just like your mittens did not raise taxes as gov of mass..he raised fees..so he could tell a half truth lie and say he did not increase costs to the mass taxpayer…dont whizz down my leg and tell me its raining repub..I now support the enemy of my proven enemy..i support dems as they are the enemy of the repub/libertarian/ALEC MEMBER/tea bag liars
I will be sure to tell him of your concerns when I see him later this week, Larry/Walt. If you could reveal your actual name perhaps he will remember you from those halcyon days of old.
In those darkest days of the radical right wing GOP majorities Bud and I talked about the comments of the Journal online being an asset. I hope he has been reading them. It is part of the reason I write. (Remember we worked in radio–sometimes we used a on air name to keep our private lives private. I want to be identified with my comments so badly I give both names I might be known by. hahahaha)
Don’t worry Larry, regardless the name you comment under it will never be enough for people only capable of making a username the issue, rather than the content of your comment. Especially for Jerome, the biggest name dropper and hanger-on in Minnesota. By the way, I met with the Mayor of Foxhome last week!