State economists shared an updated budget forecast with lawmakers this week, and the initial numbers are positive. Minnesota has collected $984 million more than expected over the past few months, meaning our previous projection of the state budget deficit of $6.2 billion has now fallen to $5.1 billion. Why the change? The analysts tell us [...]

Steve Drazkowski (28B) – Email Newsletter Hello from St. Paul, Though Governor Dayton’s State of the State Address was filled with gloom, I held out hope that in the days prior to his unveiling of a balanced budget for Minnesota, he would recognize that with a $6.2 billion deficit, state spending had to be reduced [...]

Fist up is Senator Miller. Greetings from the Capitol! Until this week our committee meetings were taken up with overviews by Senate Counsel and Research and by major stakeholders in our areas of responsibility, but now we have begun to consider our first bills. Legislating is a great responsibility: we are writing laws that will [...]