Dear Neighbor,
Here’s the latest from St. Paul as we wrap up another week in the 2026 session with fantastic weekend weather on tap:
Affordability for MN
The subject of affordability continues to be a major concern I’m hearing from people at the Capitol and beyond. Families, businesses and local governments alike are feeling squeezed by higher costs of groceries, childcare, housing, insurance, energy, and other everyday essentials. Delivery fees, a new payroll tax, and unfunded mandates on local governments that ultimately drive up costs for taxpayers are only adding to the people’s burden.
Other contributing factors are impacting us, such as rampant fraud that is costing taxpayers billions of dollars. An increase in organized supply-chain crimes also is a growing problem with a big price tag. Recent reports indicate supply-chain theft is potentially a $35 billion national industry, and “the trucking industry itself is losing $18 million every day by exposing vulnerabilities in its online systems. Criminals will use identity theft and fraud to pose as legitimate companies – with real trucks – to win bids and then vanish.” House Republicans have authored a bill (H.F. 2879) to address this issue and I hope to have more to report another time.
All along, we continue to suffer the consequences of the former trifecta spending the $18 billion surplus, increasing state spending by 40 percent and raising taxes by $10 billion. Minnesota has become an increasingly expensive place to live, raise a family, and operate a business, leaving too many people feeling as though they are falling further behind.
Despite these challenges, House Republicans are working this session to make Minnesota more affordable by lowering taxes for Minnesota families, reducing mandates to support business growth and ease property tax burdens, strengthening the economy, and restoring affordability so that families can keep more of what they earn.
To address record increases in property taxes, proposals include allowing schools and local governments to opt out of costly unfunded mandates and establishing a Property Tax Commission dedicated to reducing property tax burdens. Additional measures aimed at increasing take-home pay include eliminating taxes on tips and overtime, repealing the retail delivery fee, ending the Social Security tax, lowering vehicle tab and boat fees, and returning a portion of future budget surpluses to taxpayers.
The overarching objective is to make Minnesota more affordable and ensure that hard work is rewarded.
Meeting with groups
It was my pleasure to have recent conversations with the Minnesota Retail Association (above) and the Minnesota Rural Electric Association (below). Both organizations face assorted affordability issues in their own industries that need to be addressed.
Housing program ended
The House this week voted 134-0 to end the Housing Stability Services program, following major concerns about fraud and lack of oversight. The program was associated with the misuse of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, drawing comparisons to the Feeding Our Future case. We needed to protect taxpayers by ending this failing program and it was good to see unanimous support for the bill (H.F. 3379) to do so.
OLA report on DHS
The non-partisan Office of the Legislative Auditor released a report this week that refutes the DHS’s response to alleged kickbacks within the Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention program. Over the past five years, the number of providers has surged, and state spending has increased dramatically for this program. DHS repeatedly took the position it lacked authority to investigate kickbacks or stop payments, but the OLA report finds that claim to be incorrect. This pattern of deflection and inaction reveals a deeper problem within the current administration as oversight failures continue to put tax dollars at risk.
Look for more from the Capitol soon. Until next time, have a good weekend, please stay in touch and enjoy the warmer temperatures.
Sincerely,
Lisa