Dear Neighbor, We are reaching the halfway point of the 2026 session with many important decisions hanging in the balance as we enter the home stretch following the break for Holy Week. Here is a look at some recent developments from the Higher Education Committee: Governor Walz’s Questionable Regent Picks A bill that would prevent a governor from circumventing the legislature and treating U of M Regent appointments as political favors was a hot topic of discussion during a Higher Education Committee meeting on Thursday, March 26th. We debated H.F. 4413, which simply says: “If the joint legislative committee recommends a candidate to the joint convention for a vacancy on the board of regents and the legislature does not elect a person to fill the vacancy, the governor, in making an appointment to fill the vacancy, may only appoint a candidate recommended by the joint legislative committee.”  This is a good bill to directly address the situation at the end of last session, when House Democrats blocked the Legislature from fulfilling our constitutional duty to elect four new University of Minnesota Regents as the terms had expired for those seats. That meant that the governor could appoint whomever he wanted to those high profile Regent seats. And, boy, did he pick two very interesting people that had not gone through the legislative process at all and we had no idea who they even were. So, let’s take a closer look at just who he appointed. First, let’s look at Samuel Heins. According to the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board, he and his wife donated more than $380,000 to nearly solely Democrat campaigns and organizations since 2009, including $30,426.02 to Walz’s campaign since its beginning. Another Regent Walz appointed was Joel Bergstrom. Public records show Bergstrom and Anne Victoria O'Connor bought a $700,000 house in Minneapolis together in 2023. The home is listed as owner-occupied.  This is the same Anne Victoria O'Connor listed as having the third-highest salaried position in the Governor’s office 2022 through 2024 as the Governor’s Staff Managerial Operations (Deputy Chief of Staff for Cabinet Affairs) making $174,620 in 2024. Prior to that, she was the Chief Deputy Commissioner of Commerce. According to a statement made by Walz in an August 20, 2024 MinnPost article, Walz relied on O’Connor to run his administration while he was out of the state embarking on a failed bid at Vice President. Then, out of nowhere, Walz hand-picked O’Connor’s cohabitant and partner for a prestigious Regent appointment. I voiced my concerns over these appointments during the March 26th committee hearing, only to have House Democrats interrupt me, and talk over me so the public could not hear what I had to say. The Democrats were invoking House floor rules that in my 14 years in the Legislature have never seen applied to committee meetings. They resorted to whatever means necessary to keep me from making public the information I have unearthed. They know I come with the receipts and had no rebuttal other than to derail the discussion by talking over me.  The Regent position is too important for this or any other governor to use as reward for political allies and insiders, instead of appointing candidates chosen through a fair, transparent process. This blatant example of Democrats using partisan politics to override what’s best for all Minnesotans is exactly why we need to pass H.F. 4413. Unfortunately, House Democrats voted it down in the committee meeting and yet again refused to provide more transparency and accountability for a state in desperate need of oversight. State Grant Deficit Grows We learned the State Grant Program shortfall is not $102 million as previously reported; it is actually $131 million for 2027. One of the reasons is because the Minnesota Office of Higher Education took $60 million from Fiscal Year 2 of this two-year cycle and spent all of it except for $15 million in Fiscal Year 1. The second reason is the offer of free college through North Star Promise which dramatically increased enrollment of the poorest students. The third is giving out $38 million more to those with a student aid index of less than $0 which had never been done until the Democrat Trifecta. House Republicans have offered solutions to close help close the gap, but House Democrats keep blocking them. By passing H.F. 4266, $38 million would be saved from the State Grant Program this biennium by not recognizing amounts below $0 in the student aid index (SAI) for determining a family’s expected contribution. Also, for at least a third time, House Democrats strongly rejected a bill (H.F. 1325) would help save state taxpayers an estimated $2.5 million per year by taking people who are here illegally off the State Grant Program. |