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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Steve Green (R)

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Legislative Update

Thursday, March 3, 2022

Dear Neighbor,

Much of the talk this week in St. Paul has revolved around the latest economic forecast showing the state has collected nearly $10 billion more from taxpayers at a time people are suffering soaring prices in the Biden-Walz economy.

Minnesota Management & Budget issued its February economic forecast this week, and it projects a $9.3 billion biennial surplus. That figure is up $1.5 billion from the already historic $7.7 billion surplus projected in November.

This surplus is an over-collection from taxpayers, so let’s put these dollars back in taxpayer hands. It’s as simple as that. Our government is fully funded for the biennium and all areas of tax relief should be up for discussion this session, starting with ending our state tax on Social Security. I look forward to working on the best ways to provide permanent, real tax relief for Minnesotans as this session unfolds.

On a somewhat related note, House Democrats have less than two weeks to get off their hands and pass a bill to replenish our state’s depleted unemployment insurance account and prevent businesses from a significant tax increase March 15.

The Senate already took care of this weeks ago by overwhelmingly passing a UI bill on a bipartisan vote. Gov. Walz, House Republicans, Senate Republicans, and Senate Democrats all support full UI relief. But House Democrats continue to drag this out, causing unnecessary uncertainty for our businesses that have been through enough the last couple of years.

If you are wondering what this means in terms of dollars and cents, a recent newspaper article put some numbers to it. This could mean tens of thousands of dollars in tax increases for businesses, which would only end up causing prices to rise even more for the goods and services we buy.

Finally, House Republicans unveiled a package of bills this week designed to improve public safety in our state. This includes measures to hold our judicial system accountable. We are seeing example after example of our system failing to issue sentences to fit crimes only to see repeat offenses.

That’s part of what made the Walz administration’s push to eliminate the “in-custody point” from the sentencing grid – which would result in reduced prison sentences for repeat offenders – so mind-boggling. We need to be going the opposite direction by stiffening sentencing to get a handle on violent crime that’s running rampant across our state.

I may come back to this issue in greater detail in an upcoming letter.

-Steve