On the same day last week that President Trump asked Congress to slash federal spending in ways that would be sorely felt in this state, Republicans in charge of the Minnesota Senate announced their intention to cut state taxes by $900 million in the next two years.
The news from Washington went unmentioned as Senate Republicans offered to give more than 80 percent of Minnesotans their first state income tax cut in 17 years. Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka defended a large tax cut as affordable in light of a projected $1.65 billion state general fund surplus through mid-2019 — a forecast made weeks before Trump showed his hand.
But Trump's plans registered in another corner of the State Capitol. DFL Gov. Mark Dayton cited the negative impact the president's budget would have in Minnesota as he announced a revised 2018-19 budget recommendation. His new plan would keep an additional $202 million uncommitted for at least the next year — above and beyond the existing reserve fund of nearly $2 billion.
That prudent idea is worthy of a named line on state budget spreadsheets. We'd call it the Trump Storm Relief Fund, and urge the Legislature to add it to the budgets they will assemble in the next few weeks.
It's unlikely that Congress will go along with all of the draconian cuts proposed in Trump's "budget blueprint." But even if Congress blesses only half of what Trump recommends, Minnesotans are bound to look to state government to replace a portion of lost federal aid. Among the things on Trump's chopping block are home-heating subsidies for low-income and disabled people, affordable-housing subsidies, future mass-transit lines, medical research at the University of Minnesota, after-school programs for needy children, Meals on Wheels, and AmeriCorps, which in Minnesota staffs an effective literacy tutoring program.
The value of those federal outlays to Minnesota's quality of life should be on state lawmakers' minds as they begin their biennial budgetmaking. Tax cuts have unquestioned political appeal, and some relief is in order this session to help those still struggling with the aftereffects of the Great Recession. But our bet is that many Minnesotans would forgo a few hundred dollars in state tax relief in order to continue some of the good work that federal tax dollars fund now.
