Hello from St. Paul,
I heard from many residents about gun legislation that was brought before the Minnesota House Public Safety Committee this week. None of it was positive.
House Democrats brought forward a bill that is a total ban on the sale, transfer, and possession of almost all semi-automatic rifles in Minnesota. The second limits magazine capacity for firearms to 10 rounds.
Put simply if these bills became law, they would force law-abiding citizens to surrender their firearms to law enforcement, destroy them, move them out of state, or become felons overnight, because you could face a five-year prison sentence if you don’t comply.
By comparison, a person convicted of domestic assault may face as little as 90 days in jail, and false imprisonment carries a maximum sentence of one year.
Rather than focusing on prosecuting violent offenders or advancing meaningful solutions to identify and address serious mental health concerns, members of the Democratic party continue to push policies that target firearms and impose criminal penalties on law-abiding gun owners.
Let me be clear: I remain firmly committed to protecting your Second Amendment rights. I will not support this legislation.
But also know I firmly believe we need to enact more laws that ensure safety, for students, teachers and other staff in our schools. Along those lines, the House Education Finance Committee heard several proposals this week that would allow all schools, both public and private, to access funds that would better ensure school safety. It’s my hope that we will get these provisions across the finish line before we adjourn in May.
NEEDED FRAUD OVERSIGHT BILL STALLS
For the third time in a week, House Democrats blocked movement on a bipartisan bill that would establish an independent Office of Inspector General (OIG). If enacted into law, the OIG would be given real investigative powers and enforcement authority of fraud taking place in this state and would not be subject to any direction given or intervention made by the Governor’s Office.
The proposal House Democrats tried to move this week would have weakened the OIG by making it less independent, and stripped out the tools needed to hold fraudsters accountable.
With at least $9 billion lost already, the taxpayers deserve much better. The political shenanigans need to end, because money that should be going to people who are truly in need is ending up in the hands of fraudsters.
UPDATED STATE BUDGET FORECAST
Earlier today, Minnesota’s economic experts unveiled an updated budget forecast for the remainder of this biennium. It showed a $3.7 billion surplus. But the most important thing to remember from this update is that expenses and inflation are outpacing expected revenue collections by roughly $3.4 billion in the next budget cycle. This means it would be prudent for us to find ways to eliminate some state spending now so lawmakers can better manage this problem during the next session.