The results are in from a new Star Tribune Minnesota Poll, and Minnesotans are apparently evenly divided over what to do with the state budget surplus — 30 percent support refunding it, 31 percent support spending it and 30 percent support saving it ("State split over $1.2B surplus," Jan. 26).
But these poll results are meaningless due to a fundamental flaw in the poll. When the pollster asked registered voters what to do with the surplus, they were given the three choices just listed. The problem: One of the three choices — to "refund" most of the surplus — is not an option being seriously considered by legislators.
"Refunding" the surplus calls to mind the "Jesse checks" Minnesota taxpayers received during the Jesse Ventura administration's surplus years. And that's exactly the approach the Star Tribune highlighted in its article on the poll.
But no legislators are seriously considering Jesse checks.
It's true that the Minnesota Republican Party started a "Give it Back" campaign early last year. But as news of that campaign broke, the Star Tribune reported that Rep. Jim Knoblach, the House budget lead, said, "I don't think anybody's talking about giving it back in the sense of giving people checks."
And sure enough, there was no serious proposal from Republicans or DFLers in the Legislature in 2015 to write people checks.
There was a proposal to provide households with temporary, two-year income-tax relief, but this was less than 25 percent of the total tax-cut package offered. The rest was permanent tax relief.
Importantly, no one is talking about this idea today.