Republicans created surplus

To the Editor:

A recent headline in the Sentinel was “State enjoys $1.5B budget surplus” and then had the smiling faces of current Democrat Gov. Mark Dayton and the incoming Democrat Gov. Tim Walz. For anyone not understanding what is going on in Minnesota, one’s first thought might be that these two had something to do with that surplus. Do not be deceived. They had nothing to do with it, and if Gov. Dayton had had his way we would still be in debt and taxes would be higher than they are right now. It was a Republican state House and Senate that are fully responsible for this great windfall.

Dayton says that when he became governor eight years ago we were heavily in debt and many bills had not been paid. That is mostly true, but it was due to Democrat control of the House that we were in a giant hole. The people elected Republicans to control the Legislature and clean this up and they did — and that surplus is because of them. Gov. Dayton makes it sound like he cleaned up the massive mess — no, he helped make it before the Republicans controlled the Legislature.

Gov. Dayton fought Republicans every step of the way as he wanted to raise taxes and spend more. Those light rail projects in the Twin Cities are what Democrats spend your hard-earned tax dollars on. The ones that cannot get enough riders and have to be subsidized by millions just to stay running. Republicans forced Dayton to accept tax cuts and a controlled budget, and the tax revenue from this is why there is now a surplus. When the people are not saddled with massive taxes, they tend to then make more and the revenue goes up. Higher taxes forces them to not be able to make more and tax revenues then go down. How it was before the Republicans came to power in the Legislature.

I don’t know why the voters of Minnesota elected another tax-and-spend Democratic governor and why they voted so the House is now in Democratic hands, but the next few years will hopefully convince them of their great folly. Thank God that the state Senate is still in Republican hands — but only by one vote — so we can only speculate on how that will come out.

If the Democrats are able to get their wishes to spend and raise taxes then I suspect that in two years the voters will regret their choices in this fall’s elections. My prediction is that Gov. Walz and the Democrats will spend this surplus quickly, and then push for higher taxes so they can spend lots more.

Jack H. Hansen

Fairmont