To the Editor:

Minnesota’s economic experts say a budget surplus is expected for our state’s next two-year budget cycle. This is positive news.

There’s no doubt that it has better to have a windfall than a shortfall. Republican policies over the past four years led to this good fiscal news, and we should be looking at more ways to return this money to the people who created the surplus in the first place — the taxpayers.

According to Minnesota’s economists, the good fiscal news is due to higher-than-expected revenue collections and lower-than-expected state government spending.

Minnesota has a $1.544 billion budget surplus for the 2020-21 biennium. Lawmakers are expected to have just over $1 billion to redirect next session after $491 million is added to budget reserves as mandated by state law. Minnesota now has more than $2 billion sitting in this account.

As we’ve seen in the past, radically increasing our future state spending obligations is the surest way to bring back the cycle of budget deficits. We need to use some common sense as we determine how to utilize this surplus and our focus should be tax relief policies that allow Minnesotans to keep more of their hard-earned money.

In addition, the next budget cycle, Fiscal Year 2022-23, shows a projected budget surplus of $456 million.

State Rep. Bob Gunther,

R-Fairmont