Who says state government doesn't have enough resources? Not the respondents to the Minnesota Citizen Compass report.

In this survey, 54% percent of Minnesotans stated that the state�s tax burden is too high, 42% believe it is just right and 2% believe the state�s tax burden is too low.

Meanwhile, 47% percent of Minnesotans report taxes and fees are growing faster than their income, 36% report their taxes and fees are growing (but not as fast as their income) while 9% reported taxes are going down compared to their income. Of those who reported their tax burden is increasing, 84% identify property taxes as the leading cause of those increases.

But you can't do many good things! The answer from the survey is, you don't need to.

79% of Minnesotans believe the State Legislature should determine how much money is available, and then decide what programs to fund, compared to 18% who believe the State Legislature should figure out how much is needed and then tax us appropriately. The intensity of opinion is most strongly felt by those who believe the state should spend what it has, not what it wants.

Support for this fiscal approach is consistent among demographic groups. For instance, strong majorities of Democrats (79%), liberals (75%), government employees (73%) and residents of core cities (75%) all supported the position of spending based on the resources available. Even those Minnesotans who believe that health care (84%) and education (73%) are among the two most important issues facing the state agree that the State Legislature should budget based on what they have, not what they want.

So when MPR says that "Senate DFLers are presenting a slimmed-down budget with the hopes that the public calls for increased spending to pay for new programs," you know they're speaking out of their, um, ignorance.

Labels: legislature, Minnesota, taxes