Friends and Neighbors, On Monday, state lawmakers returned to St. Paul to finalize the state’s budget, approve other items of interest, and bring the 2025 legislative session to a close. 14 bills were on the docket, and all were approved in the House before midnight. WINS AND LOSSES As for the budget itself, the short answer is state spending is going down and your income and sales taxes won’t be going up. Republicans secured $5 billion in spending reductions when compared to the previous budget cycle, which results in the largest spending cut in state history. We also stopped more than $8 billion in Democrat tax increase proposals from becoming law. We also began to chip away at some of the Democrat priorities that were pushed into law last session. The biggest is ending free health insurance for adult illegal aliens. The number of illegals taking advantage of the government freebie has nearly tripled expectations, costing Minnesota’s taxpayers at least $550 million. We should not be handing out “free” anything to people that are not in this country legally, and I’m positive we can do something smarter with the money we’ll be saving beginning January 1. We also ended a number of DEI provisions that were tearing us apart. Data center legislation was a bill that wasn’t perfect but something we wanted to have. While the bill protects Minnesota’s standing as a top location for high-tech investments and helps bring thousands of good paying jobs to our state, large-scale data centers will also pay an annual fee (up to $5 million) based on their peak electricity demand. But we also lost some ground in some areas, such as climate change. Many of us tried to present and highlight some of the Democrat tactics relating to climate in committee, yet making meaningful changes in this area this session wasn’t meant to be. The Democrat trifecta also approved significant unfunded mandates last session, and when state government could no longer afford them, it attempted to pass them on to local governments and schools. The result of this unbridled Democrat power is significant financial problems for counties and school districts. This session Republicans worked hard to reduce these mandates so we’re not imposing our will on local governments and schools, but more work remains. WHAT DO YOU THINK? Moving forward, it’s important to remember that with the 67 votes you gave us in the Minnesota House, Republicans do have veto power. I’d like to know your thoughts on the areas we should dig into that need improvement, and what laws need to be changed. With full control of the Minnesota House, there would likely be more Republicans victories in this budget. But it’s also important to remember that if Democrats had just one more vote, you would have likely seen a repeat performance of 2023: a massively growing government and billions of dollars in tax increases on hardworking Minnesotans. Thank you for taking an active interest in Minnesota government this year! Please feel free to share your legislative thoughts with me at rep.tom.murphy@house.mn.gov or by phone at 651.296.4946. |