By Rep. Shane Mekeland
Count me among the House Republicans who said we needed more balance to check the reckless spending, unnecessary tax increases, and radical policies Minnesotans suffered under full Democrat control of the Capitol over the last two years.
Then, last fall, Republicans broke up the trifecta by gaining a tie in the House. What a difference it made this year. It took a one-day special session on Monday to complete work that was unfinished when the May 19 deadline for the regular session to adjourn arrived. Maybe we wouldn’t have needed a special session at all if House Democrats had shown up to work during the first 23 days of session instead of staying home and collecting a paycheck.
Back in 2023, unchecked Democrats spent the $18 billion surplus, increased the state budget by 40 percent, raised taxes by $10 billion, and caused a $6 billion shortfall for the future. This year, House Republicans delivered the largest reduction in government spending in state history with $2 billion in budget cuts and, overall, $5 billion less spending than the previous budget. We also spared Minnesota families from tax increases and took care of another major issue by making illegal aliens ineligible to receive free (taxpayer-funded) health insurance.
Enrollment and projected costs have soared since the expansion of MinnesotaCare to include illegal aliens took effect just five months ago. It is simply unsustainable and, on Monday, the House approved a bill making adult illegal immigrants ineligible for the program.
House Republicans also prevented numerous tax increases proposed by Democrats. This includes blocking the creation of a fifth-tier income tax bracket ($8 billion), stopping the governor’s sales tax increase ($400 million), and halting the expansion of sales taxes to professional services ($334 million).
These are some major victories for Minnesotans. Sure, I would have loved to pass massive tax cuts, even more spending reductions, and significant mandate relief. The problem is Democrats still control the Senate, hold the governor’s office, and share equal power in the House. And to many Twin Cities liberals, tax relief, spending cuts, and mandate relief are considered “extreme” positions.
The upshot is that, yes, balance was restored, and the radical 20 percent – on either side of the aisle – did not get what they wanted. There was also more bipartisanship than in most sessions, with a strong majority of bills that passed on Monday receiving more than 90 votes in the 134-member House.
Personally, I spoke with more Democrats this session than ever before. Maybe that’s because they realized they weren’t going to be able to ram through whatever bills they wanted this year and had to work with Republicans. Most of the time, I still don’t understand why they want to go in the direction they do, but at least now I have a better sense of where they’re coming from.
While Minnesotans can generally be pleased with this session’s results, there is one major local issue I’ll continue working on throughout the interim months: data centers.
I’ve been fighting hard to help our state capitalize on the explosive growth happening in the data industry. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to welcome a transformative economic boom. Regulatory reform and tax policy updates are necessary to position our state to benefit from tens of billions of dollars in private investments, including a multi-billion-dollar project in Becker. This would help backfill lost Sherco revenue – and then some.
The Legislature did approve a data center bill on Monday. It requires large-scale data centers to pay an annual fee (up to $5 million) based on their peak electricity demand. These funds will go to support low-income energy programs across the state.
This bill is a decent start to help facilitate data centers in other parts of the state, but it may be a day late and a dollar short for our area’s immediate concerns. I’ll keep working on this and see what more we can do.
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