State Roundup – March 1, 2024

CA budget deficit set to spike to record $73B under Newsom

It’s no secret that Governor Tim Walz’s eyes glaze over and his heartbeat quickens over Anything California. Well, California’s budgetary deficit is headed toward a record $73 billion during the 2024 fiscal year under Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, according to a new report released by the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO).

That’s actually $15 billion higher than the $58 billion the LAO had initially predicted. State revenues, which LAO projects will decline by $24 billion, are driving the increase in the state’s budgetary deficit, according to the LAO report.

The report’s projection coincides with large numbers of taxpayers, one of California’s primary sources of revenue, leaving the state. The state’s population dropped by about 75,400 between July 2022 and July 2023, according to census data, by folks who are fed up with its unbearable conditions, such as high electric rates, an unreliable grid, and other radical far-left policies.

Some Democrat pundits are so impressed with Newsom that they have floated him as a possible alternative to President Joe Biden to run on the Democratic ticket in the 2024 general election. Frankly, there is not a single viable Democrat candidate that would do anything different policy-wise than Newsom or the current Obama-Biden regime.

Former Gov. Arne Carlson: ‘I deeply regret’ endorsing Walz

Former Republican governor—a self-professed moderate who served as governor from 1991 to 1998—expressed regret for one of his recent endorsements, that of current Democrat Gov. Tim Walz.

During a podcast interview last Friday with Pioneer Press columnist and long-tenured radio talk show host Joe Soucheray, Carlson blasted the current atmosphere at the State Capitol and the general tone of politics in Minnesota. As to Walz, he said, “I supported him, campaigned for him—and I deeply regret it.”

Carlson, who endorsed Walz for Congress and governor over the years, also criticized the DFL “trifecta” for its decision to spend a nearly $18 billion surplus during the 2023 session, calling it “reckless financial planning.”

Carlson lamented what he views as the “demise” of Minnesota’s citizen legislature. “I’m afraid you’re right,” he commented when Soucheray suggested that the legislature has become “the job of choice for career activists.”

“And you can see that in the actions,” Carlson agreed.

Jude announces bid to replace DFLer Dean Phillips in Congress

A former judge and longtime elected official on the county and legislative levels has thrown his hat into the race to represent Minnesota’s Third District in Congress. Tad Jude officially announced he will be seeking the Republican endorsement to replace retiring Dean Phillips, in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“The promise of Minnesota and the promise of America need saving,” Jude said. “We have urgent problems that need to be addressed. Community safety, a broken immigration system, and a budget running out of control are at the forefront.”

Jude, who served as a district court judge for a decade before retiring in 2021, is the fifth candidate to file his campaign for CD3 as a Republican, but the first with elected to office experience. The field that also includes two far-left DFLers: one-term state Sen. Kelly Morrison, and “political organizer” DNC member Ron Harris.

At one time Jude held the distinction as the youngest person elected to the state legislature at the age of 21 in 1972. In total he served across terms in the state House, state Senate, county board, and as a judge. A pro-life DFLer, Jude switched parties in 1992 at the end of a seven-year stint as state senator. He then ran (and won) as a Republican for the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners, where he served a four-year term.

MISO warns ‘Immediate and Serious’ issues threaten reliability

The regional grid operator to which Minnesota belongs, the Midcontinent Independent Systems Operator (MISO), issued its latest Reliability Imperative report warning that the nation’s electric grid faces several immediate and serious challenges.

MISO CEO John Bear wrote that “many existing ‘dispatchable’ resources that can be turned on and off and adjusted as needed are being replaced with weather-dependent resources such as wind and solar that have materially different characteristics and capabilities.”

Bear’s statement on the retirement of dispatchable resources is welcome, but it would have held more weight if he had not equivocated about the possibility of reliably running a grid on carbon-free resources because it gives the general public the impression that wind and solar are feasible.

In many ways, MISO allowed the reliability of the grid to degrade to its current state by refusing to tell the people the truth about the necessity of keeping our coal and nuclear plants online and by obscuring the poor performance of wind and solar. Isaac Orr, Policy Fellow at Center of the American Experiment

Are they kidding?

The latest WalletHub study lists Minnesota’s City of Hate, Minneapolis, as the 13th Happiest City in America. Slap happy, maybe.