Hello from the State Capitol,
On Monday, lawmakers finalized a budget for the upcoming biennium after being called into special session.
A number of finance proposals had been approved before session was required to adjourn on May 19. But several others remained, such as K-12 education, health, and transportation, and all of those were approved this week.
First, the positive news. Government remains operational. The new budget provides the largest cut to government spending in state history. It eliminates nearly half of the projected budget deficit Democrats created when they grew government by 40% and raised taxes by $10 billion two years ago. No Minnesota family will see a sales or income tax increase.
We also approved a bill that ends free health insurance for adult illegal aliens. Projected costs skyrocketed for this Democrat brainchild after enrollment nearly tripled above estimates. With taxpayers paying out – at a minimum - $550 million for this program, changes had to be made. Thankfully, they were.
But all of that said, in my opinion we did not have the gains we needed to truly improve Minnesota. The Democrat trifecta caused plenty of damage two years ago, and with an equal number of Republicans and Democrats in the Minnesota House, a Democrat-led Senate and a Democrat governor, we simply do not have enough power to claw back all of the nonsensical provisions that were approved last session.
What we were able to do is stop the bleeding, doing what we can with what we had to work with. I can promise you, if the Democrats had one more vote in the House, you would have seen tax increases ranging between $8 and $9 billion and another expansion of state government programs. There would have been no cuts to spending at all and these budget bills would truly look hideous.
The reality is we need more Republicans in the House and Senate, and one more in the governor’s office, if we really want to get things done in the State of Minnesota.
As always, if you ever have any legislative questions, please contact me. I can be reached at rep.steven.jacob@house.mn.gov or by phone at 651.296.2273.
Talk to you soon,
Steve