Saturday, March 12, 2011

MN Budget Starting Point?

With all these budgets talking cuts and additions, and no one talking totals. I think I found the starting point.
MN Budget Related Documents and Forecast
MN Consolidated Report (ie actuals and budgets)

Checkout pg 6. To me it looks like the baseline has about a 6% yearly increase built into it. ($31,188,123 to $33,040,995 = $1,852,872 increase) To offset the negative 2013 forecasted Budget Balance of (-$3,824,012) we would need to to freeze spending and make a slight cut for the next 2 years. [-$3,824,012 + 2($1,852,872 {freeze}) + $118,268{real cut})

Of course that does not factor in the reality of inflation. If inflation is 3% per yr, then we are making significant cuts. (ie 3%($31,188,123) = $935,643/yr increase needed just to stay even... If that is true then we probably do need some additional revenue (ie taxes) in order to stay even... Though if the citizen's income is increasing with inflation, no tax rate increases would be need to achieve this...

For a bunch of interesting Education Legislation updates, checkout Parents United This Week at the Capital.

Thoughts?

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