Even with a $17.6 billion budget surplus forecast, Gov. Walz wants to hike your taxes

In the budget biennium 2024-2025, Minnesota’s state government is forecast to take in $17.6 billion more than it says it needs. You might have expected a debate over whether the government should spend this money or leave it with the citizens of the state in the form of tax rate cuts.

What you might not have expected is a debate about raising taxes on Minnesota’s workers. But that is what Gov. Walz is going to give you.

Fox 9’s Theo Keith reports:

Yes, that’s right. Under this plan, every worker in Minnesota will see their taxes increased.

As I noted recently, this new tax will be necessary to fund a large new state bureaucracy with wide powers to regulate the leave arrangements of all businesses in Minnesota. All this when:

The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce says 80% of its member companies already provide paid family leave. A 2019 analysis by nonpartisan House researchers found that just under 200,000 Minnesota workers would take up benefits in the program annually — less than 7% of the state’s workforce.

…

The National Federation of Independent Business, an association of small businesses in the United States, says:

The vast majority of small business owners provide flexibility for employees to pick up kids from school, attend tee ball games, and attend to family emergencies. A one-size-fits-all government mandate is both financially and administratively burdensome. NFIB opposes these unnecessary mandates.

As I’ve noted before, “a scheme for paid family and medical leave… will construct a very expensive, over-engineered hammer to crack a relatively small nut.” Under this scheme, 93% of Minnesota’s workers will be paying a new tax for something they already get.