State budget officials Thursday said falling tax revenue from struggling businesses and workers will push the deficit to nearly 14 percent of the state's total budget.

(News release from governor's office below).

Earlier this week, state Rep. Paul Kohls, a Republican from Victoria, launched a Web site and is collecting signatures for a state spending freeze. Here's info from his Web site at www.mnspendingfreeze.com. [1]  
  
The MN Spending Freeze Proposal

Minnesota is facing yet another significant budget deficit. In the past few days, I've had countless people ask me why the State cannot seem to get away from these deficits. This is a simple question, and I believe it deserves a straight forward and simple answer.

Minnesota's political leaders - both Democrats and Republicans - have been unwilling to make the difficult decisions to prioritize our spending and end or significantly reduce programs that are either unnecessary or inefficient.

As a result, our spending commitments exceed our revenue, and without significant changes this trend will almost certainly continue.

My spending freeze proposal will limit overall general funding spending to the $34.6 billion appropriated for the current two-year budget. It will be up to the legislative leaders and the committee process to decide how to divide up the "pie", but overall spending will be limited to $34.6 billion.