Corina Eckl, policy director for fiscal affairs at the National Conference of State Legislatures, states that Minnesota is one of many states to have extra money in recent years. The NCSL conducts an annual survey of year-end balances or surpluses. Right now the state's surplus is projected at three billion dollars over the next two-and-a-half years.

Governor Ventura has released a plan that calls for more than a billion dollars in tax relief and holds spending to about the level of inflation. Ventura's also wants to boost the reserves, in case there is an economic slowdown.