Gov. Tim Walz issued his budget proposal for the upcoming biennium. He calls for another $2 billion in spending, on top of the $47 billion in the current budget, an increase of 8.5 percent. He plans to spend it on a lot of worthwhile things, to be sure. He wants to invest more in education, more in health care coverage, more in transportation, more in Local Government Aid, more in statewide broadband. He wants to provide tax relief for farmers, families and seniors. All of these are great causes.

But this all comes with a cost. An additional $2 billion, an 8.5 percent increase in spending. Walz proposes a 20 percent increase in the gasoline tax to help pay for transportation improvements.

We’d like to know what measures the governor and his staff are taking to look at the current budget with an eye to eliminating waste, preventing fraud and finding programs that aren’t needed as much as they were when they were first established.

Before we start raising taxes and spending more money, we should be looking at staying within our already ample $47 billion budget.

The governor’s budget proposal is a starting point for the state’s budget process. The Legislature is responsible for writing the budget, and we hope their final document will look quite a bit different from Gov. Walz’s.