Hello from the State Capitol,
On Monday, state lawmakers returned to St. Paul to take part in a special session that was called in order to finalize the state’s budget.
In all, 14 bills were approved. Most of them were proposals that fund areas within state government, such as health, K-12 Education, and environment. But one of them dealt with ending the free health insurance program for adult illegal immigrants.
You’ll recall that in 2023, a Democrat-led legislature and Governor Walz expanded MinnesotaCare eligibility to illegal immigrants. Nearly 20,000 have already enrolled (the original expectation was 7,700 over four years), meaning taxpayers are shelling out an estimated $550 million to fund this program.
Under a special session compromise, free health Insurance for adult illegal immigrants will be ending on January 1.
BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS
Overall, the budget agreement provides the largest cut to government spending in state history. It eliminates nearly half of the projected budget deficit Democrats created when they grew government by 40% and raised taxes by $10 billion two years ago, and no Minnesota family will be subjected to increased sales or income taxes.
In health, we delivered assistance for struggling emergency medical services statewide, rolled back $1 million in abortion-related grants for 2026–2027 and blocked costly proposals that threatened hospitals and patients.
The human services plan puts tougher standards in place to crack down on waste and fraud in autism centers and housing services, while still ensuring families get the help they need. It also stops a proposed $400 million cost shift to counties.
In workforce, this legislation includes technical changes to the Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST) law to improve clarity and implementation, particularly for smaller employers. In addition, the tax rate for the new Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) program was slightly reduced, and oversight efforts were implemented to help prevent waste, fraud and abuse.
The taxes proposal stopped more than $8 billion in proposed Democrat tax increases from moving forward, and also prevented property tax increases by stopping proposed cuts to the Local Government Aid (LGA), County Program Aid (CPA), and Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) programs.
MORE WORK TO DO
Clearly, if Republicans had full control of the Minnesota House, some of the legislative outcomes would have been different this session.
One area would be my legislation that would preserve female sports only for females.
Most people believe boys should not be taking part in girls’ athletics. Earlier this year, my bill was brought before the full House. All 67 Republicans voted for the proposal, and all 66 Democrats voted against it. Because 68 votes were needed, the legislation did not move forward.
Last week, the Champlin Park girls softball team won the state championship. It’s starting pitcher is a biological male who basically dominated the girls competition throughout the postseason. As noted by Alpha News, one player on an opposing team reportedly turned to her father in the stands and asked, "Why can't you do something?"
As I’ve said previously, not one girl in our state should have their medal or place on an athletic team taken by a biological male who is stronger, faster and has more lung capacity. Separate sports teams for men and women was the outcome of the Title IX victory. They did not just tell the women that their equal opportunity was to try out for the men’s team, yet that appears to be the approach Democrats want girls across our state to take.