WHAT’S NEW?
We survived the Blizzard of 2026!
Hopefully you made it through the weekend snowfall safe and sound. Because of the poor weather conditions, all House committee hearings were canceled on Monday, but we did hold a House floor session later in the day.
LEGISLATIVE NEWS
SMALL BUSINESS TAX RELIEF DISAPPEARING?
As income tax season is here, many small and medium sized business owners are aware of a popular federal tax deduction that has disappeared in Minnesota. And if House Democrats continue playing games with the provision, these folks stand to lose thousands of dollars.
The pass-through entity tax has been utilized by local business owners for years, but Democrats want to hang onto it as a bargaining chip, which is happening with several proposals this year. See my column at the end of this update for more information.
HARVEY’S BILL BLOCKED
This week, I was devastated to watch as every Democrat in committee blocked a proposal that could prevent future daycare abuse, even as the parents of a little boy who died at the hands of an abusive daycare worker sat in the room and watched in disbelief.
Harvey Muklebust lost his life at Rocking Horse Ranch Childcare in Savage last September, just days before his first birthday. In January, Savage police charged an 18-year-old childcare worker in connection with Harvey’s death.
His parents testified in favor of “Harvey’s Law," which states that any childcare center in Minnesota that receives state funding – through CCAP, Great Start Compensation, or Early Learning Scholarships – must install cameras in all infant and toddler rooms and retain the footage for 28 days.
Had cameras been present at Harvey’s daycare he may have survived, as another infant at the same center reportedly had experienced a similar medical emergency just three days earlier.
I sat in shock as Democrats continued to trot out reason after reason why they couldn’t support this commonsense legislation after our chair, and bill author, Nolan West bent over backwards accepting their amendments.
If you'd like to watch the full committee hearing, click here. Be warned, it's one of the saddest committee hearings I've participated in.
99.9% of the daycare providers in this state are angels. But cameras could help protect defenseless children from the .1% who should not be working in this occupation, and it is shocking to me that House Democrats are tripping over themselves to find reasons not to support the plan.
ADVOCATING FOR PRODUCTIVITY OVER POLITICS
Heading into the session and knowing that this was a huge election year in Minnesota with every statewide office being on the 2026 ballot, I predicted this year’s session was going to be high on theater, and low on productivity.
Minnesota’s elected Democrats are not disappointing on that prediction.
I believe Minnesotans expect us to run government more like a business: not wasting time, not wasting taxpayer money, and working efficiently. This is how I was raised. My background of growing up on a farm was no nonsense. Work needed to be done. Optimizing time in my sales business also proved to be the key to success as the opposite equates to lost revenue and low productivity.
That’s what makes this session so frustrating to date: the political theater and House Democrats’ reluctance to focus on logical fixes. There are many issues we all agree on and that should be approved of by a nearly unanimous vote. But, for political reasons, these good governance bills sit in limbo.
To prove this point, I offer the following three examples:
First, there is federal tax conformity, which happens normally with little to no opposition. The federal government approved a pass-through entity tax allowing small and medium sized business owners to receive a deduction on their federal taxes. They save thousands of dollars, and it doesn’t cost Minnesota a dime. Yet Democrats, to date, refuse to sign off on it because President Trump’s name is on it. This alone is currently preventing our business owners from receiving a tax credit.
Then we have another tax credit – up to $1700 – that would allow Minnesota taxpayers to donate money to a public or private school. This $1,700 would be returned to you as a dollar-for-dollar tax credit when you file your income taxes. It’s no loss to you, no cost to the state of Minnesota and a significant gain for your favorite school. I call that a win-win-win!
However, while the Democrats were OK with passing more than 65 mostly unfunded mandates on our local schools – resulting in many school districts asking property taxpayers for increased levies to cover these mandates – they don’t want public schools to take advantage of an unexpected funding source. This does not make any financial sense.
Finally, and what I think is one of the most atrocious derelictions of duty that spans across both Democrat and Republican administrations, there is the failure to upgrade the technology which operates our welfare programs in Minnesota.
Currently, Minnesota’s systems are using software developed in the 1980’s. Would any business run like this? Absolutely not!
This is so unsettling to me. The systems we are asking our employees to use can’t even utilize basic Excel capabilities. This means county staff literally must use a separate calculator for tabulation and then manually enter the data into the program.
Outdated technology leads to high error rates and wastes time while rolling out the welcome mat to fraudsters as they are undetected within the system.
As your state representative, I am working towards prioritizing better business practices and ensuring your dollars are going where they can be most efficiently spent. It is an honor to serve you in St. Paul, and you have my word that I will never stand for this level of incompetence in our state government.
I value the people of our state. I value how hard they work. I value their time and money which is entrusted to state legislators to spend in the most effective way. This is why I will continue to be your voice advocating for common sense legislation that emphasizes productivity over these tiresome political shenanigans.