BISMARCK – North Dakota’s strong economy has state government running a surplus of $107.2 million with barely a quarter of the two-year budget cycle gone, the state budget director said.
That represents 20.6 percent more funds than the 2005 Legislature projected for the July-through-January period. The biennium ends June 30, 2007.
“It is phenomenal,” Director Pam Sharp said Tuesday, on the eve of a formal report to legislators. “This is so telling about our economy.”
Republicans are saying that this means we won't have to raise taxes.
House Majority Leader Rick Berg, R-Fargo, said the surplus means the state is “stable and we’re going to be able to sustain the programs we put in place” without a tax increase.
He said it gives state and local government agencies confidence that there won’t be a need for cutbacks during the biennium, such as were necessary several times in the past 20 years.
Honestly, I'd be a bit more encouraged if Berg had said that they were planning on cutting taxes to give some of this surplus back to North Dakotans. This is no time for our leaders to be sitting on their haunches. Things are going great in North Dakota, but to keep that momentum moving we need to keep stimulating the economy. Across-the-board tax cuts are just the ticket. If North Dakotans have more money in their pockets they'll spend more in the state's economy. That means more economic growth and more jobs for everybody.
Plus, as history has shown, when government cuts taxes tax receipts typically go up thanks to the increased economic activity those cuts foment. If done right, North Dakota's government could be in the same surplus situation it is in now while taxing North Dakotans less.
Democrats, of course, make no secret about what they'd do with the money:
A Democratic-NPL legislative leader said the surplus is proof that the 2005 Legislature could have funded human service programs more adequately.
Leave it to the Democrats. Government has more money than it needs? Let's spend it as though it belonged to us and not the citizens of North Dakota!
(via Taking Back ND)