Today, Governor Mark Dayton released the following statement on the November 2012 Budget Forecast:

“We’re done with the gimmicks, we’re done with the games. And I would just point out, and the commissioner can articulate this better than I, but you know, we will see an attempt to compare this years biennium with last years in terms both of revenue and spending – and it’s not a valid comparison because of the shifts, nor is it a valid comparison with the biennium before.

“So, some will try to say all of this is a 4.7% increase in spending. Well, it’s not, its not an accurate comparison. You need that comparison. So the gimmicks have really muddied up the issue for everyone. And they said, the reason that we’re still paying off the school shift, which they instituted, and as a result the revenues, the additional revenues that we gain for this biennium will not carry forward into the next biennium, which puts us further behind in the next biennium. Capitol renovations totally avoided.

“There is just a lot of avoidance, and a lot of gimmicks, and a lot of unwillingness to take responsibility for the situation that faced them at that moment in time. And we are not going to perpetuate that. We’re going to make tough decisions, there will be unpopular decisions, there will be hard decisions, but that’s what we’re going to do.”

You can download the full radio actuality on the Governor’s website here: /governor/assets/budget_forecast-web_tcm1055-115331.mp3http://mn.gov/governor/images/budget_forecast-web.mp3