To the editor:

Why must we refer to our current state budget as a "surplus" that must be returned? Did we ask the people of the state to pony up when we were running a deficit?

The current state budget is like a family living at the poverty level finally making more money. That doesn't make them rich, and it doesn't mean they have too much. It means that they now have enough to eat and get health care, and maybe live in a home that isn't falling apart.

Minnesota has been educating our kids in crowded classrooms based on money borrowed from them. Local governments have had to cut their services and raise property taxes because the state cut local government aids. Sadly, low-wage earning parents have had to leave their children untended because of cuts in state child-care budgets.

A "surplus" is only a surplus when there is more money than there is need. That is not the case today.

Denise Sjoberg
Eagan

Thisweek Newspapers
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