The forecast released Tuesday projects a $1 billion state budget deficit in the current biennium — a $209 million improvement over the November forecast. It predicts a $5.8 billion deficit in the 2012-13 biennium — $363 million worse than previously thought.
“While this budget deficit will take sacrifice from everyone to solve, working Minnesotans are bearing more than their fair share,” Knutson said. “It’s time for the richest to also sacrifice to get Minnesotans back to work.”
The latest unemployment figures show Minnesota added 15,600 jobs in January, the biggest one-month gain in state employment since April 2005. That left an unemployment rate of 7.3 percent for the month, a slight improvement over December\'s 7.4 percent.
Still, Knutson urged Governor Tim Pawlenty and lawmakers not to head backwards.
“If the governor’s proposed budget made entirely of cuts is enacted, many teachers, nurses, public employees, and others will lose their jobs,” said Knutson.
Earlier this session, the Minnesota AFL-CIO called for a plan to create jobs and help solve the budget deficit by passing:
• A job-creating bonding bill of at least $1 billion.
• A state wage subsidy in Minnesota of up to $12 per hour.
• The construction coalition jobs bill that leverages and stimulates private investment in commercial, industrial, energy-efficient retrofitting, and residential projects across the state.
• Tax fairness through a rate increase on the richest Minnesotans.
“We can’t entirely cut or tax our way out of this budget deficit; it will take a balanced approach,” added Knutson. “We need bold and decisive action that makes taxes fair and creates family-sustaining jobs across our state.”
Eliot Seide, executive director of AFSCME Council 5, the state’s largest public employee union, agreed.
“How we respond to the recession will define who we are as a people,” he said. “We can fix the budget with fairness and compassion if we ask the richest Minnesotans to pay their fair share of income taxes. It’s simply wrong to continue shifting their burden onto the middle class, the jobless and the vulnerable.”
He cited figures from the Minnesota Department of Revenue’s “2009 Tax Incidence Study” that show the average Minnesota household pays a greater share of income in state and local taxes (12.8% today as compared to 11.4% in 2002), while the richest 1 percent of households pay less (8.8% today, down from 9% in 2002).
At the same time, median household income has dropped from $65,371 in 2002 to $57,288 today, while the average household income of the richest 1 percent has doubled during that same period, to more than $68 million.
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The forecast released Tuesday projects a $1 billion state budget deficit in the current biennium — a $209 million improvement over the November forecast. It predicts a $5.8 billion deficit in the 2012-13 biennium — $363 million worse than previously thought.
“While this budget deficit will take sacrifice from everyone to solve, working Minnesotans are bearing more than their fair share,” Knutson said. “It’s time for the richest to also sacrifice to get Minnesotans back to work.”
The latest unemployment figures show Minnesota added 15,600 jobs in January, the biggest one-month gain in state employment since April 2005. That left an unemployment rate of 7.3 percent for the month, a slight improvement over December\’s 7.4 percent.
Still, Knutson urged Governor Tim Pawlenty and lawmakers not to head backwards.
“If the governor’s proposed budget made entirely of cuts is enacted, many teachers, nurses, public employees, and others will lose their jobs,” said Knutson.
Earlier this session, the Minnesota AFL-CIO called for a plan to create jobs and help solve the budget deficit by passing:
• A job-creating bonding bill of at least $1 billion.
• A state wage subsidy in Minnesota of up to $12 per hour.
• The construction coalition jobs bill that leverages and stimulates private investment in commercial, industrial, energy-efficient retrofitting, and residential projects across the state.
• Tax fairness through a rate increase on the richest Minnesotans.
“We can’t entirely cut or tax our way out of this budget deficit; it will take a balanced approach,” added Knutson. “We need bold and decisive action that makes taxes fair and creates family-sustaining jobs across our state.”
Eliot Seide, executive director of AFSCME Council 5, the state’s largest public employee union, agreed.
“How we respond to the recession will define who we are as a people,” he said. “We can fix the budget with fairness and compassion if we ask the richest Minnesotans to pay their fair share of income taxes. It’s simply wrong to continue shifting their burden onto the middle class, the jobless and the vulnerable.”
He cited figures from the Minnesota Department of Revenue’s “2009 Tax Incidence Study” that show the average Minnesota household pays a greater share of income in state and local taxes (12.8% today as compared to 11.4% in 2002), while the richest 1 percent of households pay less (8.8% today, down from 9% in 2002).
At the same time, median household income has dropped from $65,371 in 2002 to $57,288 today, while the average household income of the richest 1 percent has doubled during that same period, to more than $68 million.