A group that advocates tax cuts and government spending limits has enlisted former GOP Gov. Ed Schafer to promote a series of public meetings on how to handle the North Dakota treasury’s budget surplus.
Schafer said he hopes the forums will provide a counterweight to rising pressures for the Legislature to spend “every last nickel” of the surplus, which is expected to soar over $500 million by June 30, when state government’s current budget cycle ends.
“I’m really worried that everybody has got their hand out,” Schafer said. “The propensity is to spend it. The momentum is to spend it. Then you get in trouble down the road ... It scares me to thinking, ‘Here we go again.’”
Gov. John Hoeven said he wasn’t told of the forums, which begin Tuesday in Fargo and Grand Forks. A dozen are planned during October, with additional events in Grafton, Devils Lake, Valley City, Jamestown, Wahpeton, Lisbon, Williston, Dickinson, Minot and Bismarck.
Hoeven has proposed a number of budget initiatives for the next Legislature, including $116 million for local property tax cuts, at least $60 million in higher spending for local schools, and a new round of economic development grants for colleges.
“We think we have the right balance,” Hoeven said. “But I respect anybody and everybody who’s out there who has some ideas. We look for good ideas wherever they come from.”
With North Dakota running a half a billion dollar budget surplus this is exactly the debate we need to be having in this state. The impulse by government bureaucrats when presented with a budget surplus is to spend it, but I think North Dakota would be better served by giving as much of this surplus back to North Dakotans as possible. Our state’s economy is booming right now, but it’s going to take pro-growth policies to keep that boom rolling. The best way to promote economic growth is to put more money in the pockets of North Dakotans, and that means tax cuts.
Let North Dakotans keep more of their own money, and then let the state’s arrogant liberals explain to them why they shouldn’t get to keep more of their own money.