Spend or Save?

I just finished reading an article in the April 7th newspaper titled "Soaring Oil Prices Could Boost Surplus to $3.4 Billion".  In the article the Legislature and the governor are already sparring off about what to do with the "EXTRA" money we have due to high oil prices.  Right now the Legislature is deciding how much money it wants to spend on maintenance and construction projects and with the predicted surplus they are thinking of adding a few more projects than originally planned.  The Legislators are also thinking it would be a good idea to save some of the surplus by putting $1 billion or more into savings.

The governor on the other hand is suggesting that the Legislature plan not to spend any or hardly any of the surplus as he wants to put it all (or most of it) into savings.  The governor has even threatened to slash some of the maintenance and construction projects that the Legislature is planning on if they don't agree to cut the state oil taxes.  Of course this threat isn't sitting too well with some of the members of the Legislature.  In the article, Senator Bert Stedman said "the Senate won't cut the oil tax this year and the governor can abuse his power by vetoing projects in revenge if he wants."

It will be interesting to watch the final days of the session and see what happens or doesn't happen with the surplus money.

Any thoughts as to what you think the state should do with the surplus money?  Education? Infrastructure? Savings?  Maybe gas money for my SUV?

Jeri Kenyon