Senator Bill Weber (R-Luverne), Republican lead of the Senate Taxes Committee, today released a video and the following statement in response to the Democrats’ budget targets:  

“We recently saw budget targets come out from the House, the Senate and the governor. This is atypical, as normally the Senate puts their budget bills together and the House does the same, and then, they come together in conference committee. It’s obvious that they’re trying to avoid that because, quite frankly, they don’t want to discuss what they’re proposing any more than they must.

“As we look at the targets, there are a few things that stand out to me. It’s clear that Democrats are shortchanging greater Minnesota with an extremely small target for agriculture. By saying that $3 billion for tax relief is all they can justify, they are also shortchanging the taxpayers of Minnesota out of a $19 billion surplus.

“You may have heard Democrats talk about all their great plans for education, all this extra money for education. While they may be providing some extra money for education, they are failing at their math. This is because, at the end of the day, my superintendents have been starting to put pen to paper and do their own math. If you look at all the mandates that Democrats are moving through the legislature, my superintendents are telling me it will require a 27 to 35% increase in their budgets. 

“Even if education gets a 5% per year increase on the formula, all the mandates mean it is going to be a net loss for our school districts. Our supposed ‘friends of education’ are destroying our schools. With that type of increase, our schools are either going to have to put a massive increase on the real estate tax levies or they are going to have to start cutting programs again. So much for being friendly to education.”