Dear Neighbor,
The 2026 session has adjourned after a busy weekend of passing good, bipartisan bills in our tied House. We delivered major victories on affordability, fighting fraud, and increasing accountability in state programs.
House Republicans focused heavily this session on combating fraud, providing property tax relief, improving school safety, cutting car tab fees, delivering relief for counties, and modernizing government systems. We passed bills addressing each of those priorities this year, including approximately $400 million in tax relief, with $125 million in property tax cuts and $250 million in car tab fee reductions approved last weekend.
Work in the Agriculture Finance and Policy Committee this past session was frustrating, as we couldn’t agree on a major bill that could be voted out of committee. In the final days of session, working with Senate ag committee leadership, we put a pared-down version of an ag bill together. But that, too, was blocked as every DFL member voted against it on the House floor. That bill would have made beneficial changes to the Down Payment Assistance Program, added funding for wildlife depredation and local foods, in addition to extending the time available to make use of meat processing grants.
Earlier in the session, Republicans defeated a bill in committee that would have severely curtailed the use of treated seeds by farmers when planting their crops. Language in the bill would have made farmers wanting to use seed treatments apply to the Commissioner of Agriculture for a waiver. That application would have to be done annually by a third-party agronomist. It would have added cost and complexity, in addition to making the use of these products uncertain from year to year.
There was positive agriculture legislation passed this year, but most of it came from the Tax Committee. The spending cap was removed on a very popular program known as the Beginning Farmer Tax Credit. In previous years, demand for this program was so high that not all young farmers who applied were able to qualify. With this new legislation, there is no limit on the total amount of tax credits available so all who apply should qualify. This provision, however, will only be in effect for one year and will end in December of this year.
Another positive item in the tax committee was the extension of what’s known as the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Tax Credit. This extension should send a signal to biofuel producers that Minnesota supports the production and distribution of SAF to major airlines such as Delta, which has a major hub in the Twin Cities. The Flint Hills Refinery is in the process of expanding the availability of SAF at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
With agriculture experiencing a difficult financial time with low commodity prices and high input costs, Minnesota has other tools available to help farmers. The Rural Finance Authority can help reduce the cost of borrowing money by working with local lenders. And the Farmer-Lender Mediation Program exists to help farmers work with their lenders as they deal with financial situations.
Overall, we had some big accomplishments this year even with a House that’s tied 67-67, especially on priority issues such as tax relief, reducing car tab fees and addressing our state’s fraud problem. It’s disappointing ag got hung up in partisan politics because those are important subjects that need to be addressed and we’ll have to take them up another day.
For now, hope you are having a good spring and I look forward to spending more time back home now that the session has adjourned, getting out in our local communities and visiting with area residents in the coming months. Please stay in touch.
Sincerely,
Paul