Part V: Candidate Comparison

Revenues

Job-Creating Tax Relief

• Sen. Dayton’s plan offers no proposed job-creating tax relief.
• Tom Horner’s plan will delay job-creating tax relief until FY2014-15

Tax Increases

• Sen. Dayton’s plan burdens the middle class with a $4.0 billion “Tax Fairness” proposal. His plan also includes $400 million in “additional sources” but Dayton’s plan does not balance the budget unless the top income tax rate increases to over 15%.
• Tom Horner’s plan sights an ambiguous $2.15 billion “net increase” as Horner’s revenue projections are not verified.

Gaming Revenue

• Sen. Dayton avoids making any explicit statements on the revenue numbers that justify his stated $300 million in revenue from gambling.
• Tom Horner simply projects a $250 million in revenue increases but lists no specifics.

Total Revenue

• Sen. Dayton’s plan lists a projected revenue of $37.607 billion but is based on unverified calculations.
• Tom Horner’s plan projects a $35.307 billion which is on top of a proposed ½?% county sales tax increase.

Spending

K-12 education

• Sen. Dayton’s plan spends $14.36 billion plus calls for spending to “increase every year,” but does not specify how much or where the funding would come from for such increases.
• Tom Horner’s plan spends $14.72 billion on K-12 education but offers no specifics.

K-12 shift

• Sen. Dayton’s plan does not expressly detail when or how he would repay the shifts but he has said only that he “hopes” to be able to repay them in the next two years.
• Tom Horner’s plan calls for repayment beginning in FY2013-14.

Higher Education

• Sen. Dayton’s plan does not include any details on higher education spending.
• Tom Horner’s plan assumes $2.92 billion plus undetailed $360 million in “investment”, minus something in “redesign”.

Health and Human Services

• Sen. Dayton’s plan does not include any details on health and human services spending.
• Tom Horner’s plan assumes $12 billion in spending plus $140 million in new federal Medicaid spending minus unspecified cuts to health and human services.

Aids and Credits

• Sen. Dayton’s plan does not include any details on aids and credits.
• Tom Horner’s plan does not include any details on aids and credits.

Agencies and Other State Spending

• Sen. Dayton’s plan does not include any details on agencies and other state spending.
• Tom Horner’s plan does not include any details on agencies and other state spending.

Uncatergorized Increases

• Sen. Dayton’s plan includes a property tax increase.
• Tom Horner’s plan includes $145 million in “innovative funds” but does not give any details beyond that.

Uncatergorize Decreases

• Sen. Dayton’s plan calls for $672 million in spending cuts (items #9-17 in his plan) and expressly states he has “$635.4 million to go” in order to balance the budget. This is based on Dayton’s pie in the sky revenue projections which according to Politics in Minnesota will fall at least $2.0 billion short. This will leave over $2.6 billion in unspecified cuts.
• Tom Horner’s plan calls for $2.45 billion in unspecified “cuts and redesigns” ($1.35 billion in cuts and $1.1 billion in “redesign”).

Total spending

• Sen. Dayton’s plan is incomplete which only allows for a rough guess as to what his budget would actually allocate for total spending.
• Tom Horner’s plan is also incomplete, it comes close to balancing the budget at $35.1 billion but revenue amounts are unverified and no cuts are specified.

Bonding Bills

Bonding

• Sen. Dayton’s plan briefly mentions, without detail, a bonding bill in his “Jobs Plan” but offers no other information regarding bonding.
• Tom Horner calls for unspecified $400 million in unspecified bonding.

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Dayton and Horner: On the Record