Wednesday, February 16, 2011

How bad is Minnesota's budget deficit? Mega-bad

Minnesota is headed toward a historic budget deficit that could rock state government -- and the people who depend on it -- down to its core.

State budget officials put our deficit at $6.2 billion.

Unlike the federal government, the state is constitutionally required to balance its budget, a constraint that will force elected officials to consider options they've never looked at before.

"We can't tax our way out of this problem," said Senate Taxes Chairman Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook. "You cannot raise taxes by that much. You can't cut the state budget by that much, either. I would argue that everything -- every spending program, every tax -- has to be on the table. This will require a major re prioritization of programs."

What do you think about the state having to balance its budget every year? We can not carry a debt. Is this good or bad? Why?

Posted by at

17 comments:

  1. KristanFebruary 16, 2011 at 9:44 AM

    I think it is neccessary for a state to balance the budget. We can't just keep adding more and more money to this debt! I think it is a good thing for our economy statewid and country wide. If it is necessary for raised taxes and less spending, then that will be what will happen! We can't keep growing in debt, that will lead to disaster!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ms. BergFebruary 16, 2011 at 1:11 PM

    The state constiution REQUIRES Minnesota to balance the budget. They are going to HAVE to cut spending and/or raise taxes.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Laura Jean JosephsonFebruary 16, 2011 at 5:12 PM

    I think it is good that the state has to balance its budget. I think it is ridiculous that the federal government isn't required to balance its budget. The Minnesota and Federal debts are ridculous. Why would we spend more than we have! Stupid! Both the state and federal governments should cut some spending programs. The federal and Minnesota budget defecits have become out of hand, what happens when nobody will loan us money anymore because our debt is so huge? The budget defecit is huge and something has has to be done to reduce it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Taylor TFebruary 18, 2011 at 9:13 AM

    That is just crazy that a budget deficite can build up like that but its good that they are balancing it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Derek H.February 18, 2011 at 11:52 AM

    MEGA BAD!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. HeatherFebruary 18, 2011 at 12:09 PM

    I think it's good that we're trying to fix the problem, but I think we will always have some debt. So I think it's a middle idea (good/bad).

    ReplyDelete
  7. AmeliaFebruary 18, 2011 at 12:09 PM

    They need to start balancing the money. Hopefully the deficit will help. We need to start controling our government spending. It's out of hand.

    ReplyDelete
  8. LindseyFebruary 18, 2011 at 12:11 PM

    I think this is bad we shouldn't have gotten in so much debt, then we wouldn't have to worry about all this debt. Having to set a budget each year is alot of work and we shouldn't have to raise taxes to try and get out of debt.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ms. BergFebruary 18, 2011 at 7:16 PM

    Not DEBT, deficit. Remember the difference?

    And the state HAS to balance take csre of it.

    I'm putting these on the next test, so ask if you don't know!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Tom GruchowFebruary 22, 2011 at 1:01 PM

    I think it is good. And the guy is right, they can't raise taxes by that much to fix the problem, people just couldn't afford that. It is good that the state is balancing their budget but the federal government should do the same. We should get out of debt before we start spending more money.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Lindsey JosephsonFebruary 22, 2011 at 7:29 PM

    I think it's good that Minnesota has to balance it's budget. Otherwise we could end up spending money whenvever we felt like,like the federal government. And i agree with Laura it's totally foolish to spend more than you have. It just plain doesn't make sense.

    ReplyDelete
  12. colbypFebruary 23, 2011 at 6:46 AM

    It's good that were trying to get out of debt, but it's bad at the same time because a lot of our sources will be minimized. They will have to cut quite a bit of things to get the debt out of the hole. The state needs to do it because it will help out a bunch if we do it.

    ReplyDelete
  13. delilahFebruary 23, 2011 at 6:59 AM

    I think that balancing our budget is a necessity. Soon our dollar isn't going to be worth anything because we have so much debt. We can't just keep borrowing from everyone else to cover it up. I think if we balanced things better we wouldn't be close to 15 trillion dollars in debt. That's outrageous! We need to figure something out, higher taxes some people won't be able to afford and to cut spending might be hard to get used to but we are going to have to take the bad with the good.

    ReplyDelete
  14. AnonymousFebruary 23, 2011 at 12:40 PM

    This could be bad for our government since the state government could raise the taxes if they wanted to do so. As well that any form of government can't last long with a debt that big we our lucky that ours have not collapsed from being into the trillions of dollars of debt. I may not know what to do in order to help our government but there must be a way in order for them to help our government.

    ReplyDelete
  15. dreamweaverFebruary 28, 2011 at 9:35 AM

    i think it is bad because there would be less spending for us and noone would be able to aford anything.....

    ReplyDelete
  16. Meg I,March 4, 2011 at 11:52 AM

    It is good that state's have to balance the budget, beacuse otherwise all of our government would be soo it debt! The economy would be even worse than it is now!

    ReplyDelete
  17. mista daveMarch 28, 2011 at 11:52 AM

    i just took a lot of stuff away from it to make it a good deficit i agree with meg we would be an economic fail = EPIC FAIL

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)