“Today, state officials announced that Minnesota has a $1.6 billion surplus of tax money for the 2022-23 budget year. The state owes a debt of gratitude to the men and women in our union, nurses, police officers and firefighters, and the many other workers who fought to stay on the job to provide the critical services we all need and to keep our economy going through this pandemic.
Over the last few years, the investments made in our infrastructure, including last year’s infusion of cash into the building of roads and bridges, created good-paying union jobs. These workers pay a large amount of taxes, which is why the state is in such good financial health even through a pandemic. Our workers and our employers kept the economy from collapsing, which is why the state should immediately invest this extra money into rebuilding our state to spur the next economic boom. All options should be on the table, including: dedicating the rest of the auto parts sales tax to road and bridge infrastructure, passing another large bonding bill with a major portion dedicated to infrastructure, or a onetime significant cash infusion for building our infrastructure.
An economic recovery, the likes of which we haven’t seen in some time, is at hand. Rebuilding our state’s infrastructure is the path forward that will lift all boats. This is something we hope both political parties will agree on.”
– Jason George, IUOE Local 49 Business Manager
