Governor Tim Walz this morning (10am) rolls out his revised plan for using the state’s expected 1.5-billion-dollar budget surplus, which is now 200 million dollars higher than when he made his initial proposal. The governor says still a high priority is having the state’s “rainy day” budget reserve at full strength. “My first response — and this was months ago, before COVID-19 was on the scene — but with a belief that there were yellow flashing lights on an economy… well before the last couple days on Wall Street,” he says.
Walz says he also wants funding so the state can borrow two billion dollars for public works projects. And Walz says he’ll propose additional money be put in contingency accounts for emergencies. Lawmakers have a different wish-list: Democrats want 500 million dollars for early childhood education. Republicans want a billion dollars of the surplus returned to Minnesotans through tax cuts.