Whatever happened to the Tim Walz-DFL tax cuts, Walz Checks?

There once was a time when Tim Walz made a promise on cutting taxes. Gov. Walz's promise happened in March, 2022 when the projected surplus was $9,240,000,000 (that's $9.24 billion.) According to this MPR article, "Gov. Tim Walz formalized a trial balloon he launched last month by formally proposing a supplemental budget Thursday that includes $500 one-time checks to individual taxpayers and $1,000 checks to couples. Using a New Hope gas station as the backdrop for his revised plan for a projected budget surplus that has grown to $9.24 billion, Walz said the checks will help Minnesotans dealing with higher gas prices and other everyday needs."

Fast forward to this week. A year+ after the first Walz Check proposal, that $500 rebate proposal for individual taxpayers and $1,000 for couples has shrunk. The article says "About 2.5 million tax returns would qualify for checks starting at $275, according to House Democrats. It’s significantly lower than the $1,000 starting point proposed by Gov. Tim Walz." Then there's this: there once was a time when Tim Walz made a promise on cutting taxes. Gov. Walz's promise happened in March, 2022 when the projected surplus was $9,240,000,000 (that's $9.24 billion.) 

According to this MPR article, "Gov. Tim Walz formalized a trial balloon he launched last month by formally proposing a supplemental budget Thursday that includes $500 one-time checks to individual taxpayers and $1,000 checks to couples. Using a New Hope gas station as the backdrop for his revised plan for a projected budget surplus that has grown to $9.24 billion, Walz said the checks will help Minnesotans dealing with higher gas prices and other everyday needs."

Fast forward to this week. A year+ after the first Walz Check proposal, that $500 rebate proposal for individual taxpayers and $1,000 for couples has shrunk. The article says "About 2.5 million tax returns would qualify for checks starting at $275, according to House Democrats. It’s significantly lower than the $1,000 starting point proposed by Gov. Tim Walz." Then there's this:

With about $3 billion in rebates, credits and tax cuts to Social Security, House DFLers have characterized their tax plan as the "largest tax cut in state history."

First, this tax cut is significantly smaller than the tax cut that was agreed to last year when the projected surplus was significantly smaller. Next, last year's proposed tax cut didn't include the massive number of fee increases that this year's tax bill includes. Further, as a proportion of the projected surplus and as a proportion of the biennial budget, this year's tax cut pales in comparison. The DFL apparently won't offer a real tax cut:

The important question is whether these Walz Checks (or whatever they're called this year) will trigger businesses to start here, expand here or move here from another state. The answer is no. This is just enough money to prevent people from lynching Tim Walz and the DFL. It's just small enough to cause small businessses to move to North Dakota, Iowa, Texas, Tennessee, Utah and Florida.

For all his bragging in his State of the State Address, Gov. Walz certainly is underdelivering. Gov. Walz peddled this BS:

Our plan starts by focusing help on the families who need it most, in the form of a nation-leading Child Tax Credit that would put billions of dollars in the pockets of parents struggling to make ends meet. If we got this done and nothing else, we’d reduce child poverty in Minnesota by 25 percent.

Florida doesn't offer a Child Tax Credit because families don't pay income tax. In this speech, Gov. Walz said "Fifty years after the Minnesota Miracle, we have another chance to be America’s North Star. An opportunity to carve out a corner of our country where no child is left hungry. No community is left behind. And nobody gets told they don’t belong."

Despite Gov. Walz's inflated rhetoric, successful people keep leaving Minnesota. Successful people keep finding Florida and staying there.