Minnesota’s office of Management and Budget (MMB) on Monday released its February revenue forecast, which provides information and an outlook for Minnesota’s financial picture. The report projects a surplus of $17.5 billion for the next budget cycle, which begins in July. 

Last week, the legislature passed a bill to automatically add inflation to forecast computations. Without that change, the true surplus number is closer to $19 billion.

Senator Carla Nelson (R-Rochester) issued the following statement:

“Minnesota has taken too much money from taxpayers. Nearly every day I hear from Minnesotans struggling with high inflation that is eroding their paychecks and retirements. As legislators, our first and foremost priority must be returning the surplus to those folks to help ease the stress on their pocketbooks. They badly need relief, and we are in a great position to help.

Much of this could have been done already, had House Democrat leaders been willing to work together. Last session, my Tax chair counterpart in the House – a Democrat – and I agreed to a historic tax bill that fully eliminated the state’s tax on Social Security benefits and provided a permanent income tax cut. Despite that bipartisan agreement, House Democrat leadership would not bring it up for a vote before we adjourned.

We have another chance. As we construct the new state budget, I will be strongly advocating to give the surplus back to taxpayers in the form of real, permanent tax relief.”