Dear Neighbors,
Earlier this morning, the House and Senate finished all of our remaining budget bills and sent them to the governor.
With a large budget surplus, we heard loud and clear that Minnesotans wanted tax relief, funding for roads and bridges, and providing for students in K-12. We were able to work with the Senate and the governor to deliver these priorities in a big way.
Our tax bill is $650 million of relief that will help senior citizens, small business owners, recent college grads, and farmers. On top of that, our transportation plan makes a significant investment in roads and bridges without raising the gas tax and we provide the necessary funding for all K-12 students. I’m proud of all we accomplished this session.
Many of these larger omnibus bills contained a number of provisions I authored including:
- No maintenance costs of SWLRT estimated cost savings of $35 million dollars every biennium forever!
- Changing eminent domain law to save taxpayers $25-30 million along the proposed SWLRT line!
- Creating "Start Seeing Motorcycles" license plates!
- Banning plastic bag repeal
- Interim ordinance reform so housing projects are more transparent when working with cities
- MN.IT (MN IT department) reform
- State auditor reform!
- Legacy funding for Andrew Petersen Farm renovation
- Small distillery language that further allows craft distillers to see their business thrive
- Magnifying scopes on muzzleloaders
- Premium cigar tax repeal a bipartisan effort to repeal a very regressive tax and reduce the tax per cigar from $3.50 to $.50
As always, please continue to call or email if you have any questions on what we passed. I’m here to help and serve you.
Lastly, please be sure to take a second on Memorial Day to honor those who lost their lives in the service of our great nation.
Jim