Minnesota Management and Budget office released today the most recent economic forecastwhich is used by legislators and the governor to determine the next biennium budget. If you open a newspaper or tune into the 6 o'clock news, you'll hear the same talking point: Minnesota projected to have a $1.5 Billion surplus. But this is a fallacy. The government is overtaxing us by far more than that!

Projected revenues for the next biennium are $48.3 Billion. The expenditures used in the report assume government will automatically increase by 4.2%, but if the government didn't grow and remained the same size it is today, total expenditures would be $45.5 Billion. That means there would be a surplus of $3.5 Billion.

More importantly, our state government has taken our money at an unprecedented level and put it into a rainy day fund. They are holding onto over $2 Billion of cash that is not being used in our economy for investment and expansion, or for you during the Christmas season. If we released half of that money, the scenario we face is actually a $4.7 Billion surplus.

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