Dear Friends,
We are now in the final hours of session. Democrats have been on a spending spree all session long with your $17.5 billion surplus. Instead of passing bills this week that would return the surplus to you in the form of permanent, meaningful tax relief, Democrats are on track to increase the state budget by 40% by the time session ends. Family budgets haven’t increased by 40% in the past two years, so neither should government.
It looks like we will be in St. Paul working throughout the weekend in order to complete our work before Monday’s constitutionally mandated deadline. Below is a highlight of some of the bills passed earlier in the week.
The Anti-2A, “Get Out of Jail Free” Public Safety Bill
After shutting Republicans out of the conference committee, Democrats made an already bad public safety bill even worse. This bill is a “get out of jail free” card for criminals that puts the rights of offenders over victims. Here are some of the ways this bill fails to make our communities safer and threatens your Second Amendment rights:
- Reducing Sentences for Violent Felons. This bill puts felons back on the streets by allowing criminals to serve only half of their prison sentence or probation if they complete Department of Corrections programming. This includes those convicted of violent crimes such as murder, manslaughter, rape, kidnapping, assault, or domestic assault. Limiting prison time for violent criminals puts all Minnesotans at risk.
- Anti-Law Enforcement. Instead of providing law enforcement with the resources they need to keep Minnesotans safe, this bill ties their hands and ignores their needs by further restricting no-knock warrants and fails to make any significant investments to recruit, train, and retain law enforcement professionals. This bill invest over $70 million in unproven nonprofits with little accountability on how the money is spent.
- Universal Background Checks. This proposal will create strict and impractical hurdles for law-abiding Minnesotans seeking to exercise their 2nd Amendment right instead of addressing the root cause of violent crime. Criminals looking to acquire firearms will not follow this new complex process. Efforts should be focused on enforcing the numerous laws we already have governing firearm transfers.
- Extreme Risk Protection Order. This proposal violates due process and does not address the alleged safety risk – the individual. If someone is a legitimate threat, simply seizing firearms will not prevent an individual from doing harm to themselves or others through other means. The seizure of property without a warrant and due process, especially property that is explicitly protected by the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution violates civil rights. Our efforts should be focused on providing support and care to those in crisis.
I voted no on this bill. Everyone Minnesotan deserves to feel safe in their community, no matter their zip code. This bill infringes on your Second Amendment rights and fails to support law enforcement.
Democrat Tax Games
Democrats talked a good game about tax relief during the campaign. But their legislative actions have spoken louder than their campaign pledges. While we are still waiting for final language on the Tax bill, some of their broken tax relief promises appear to include:
- Rebate checks. Governor Walz began session by stating that he wanted $2,000 rebates sent to married couples making $150,000 or less and $1,000 checks sent to single filers making $75,000 or less each year. As it stands today, legislative Democrats are only offering $520 for the same joint filers and $260 for singles. Could this amount decline even more or be eliminated altogether as the surplus well runs dry?
- Gas tax increase? The Democrats found plenty of taxes and fees to raise in the transportation arena – including a ¾ cent Metro Area sales tax and increases on license tab renewals and the motor vehicle sales tax, to name a few – but raising the gasoline tax in the face of a mammoth budget surplus was supposed to be off the table. Now, in the waning hours of session, Democrats won’t rule out having the gas tax tied to inflation, which would further financially devastate drivers who are currently paying nearly $4 per gallon.
- Social Security tax relief. Despite nearly universal agreement among Democrat candidates to eliminate the unnecessary taxation on Social Security benefits for all of Minnesota’s senior citizens, talks of following through on that promise disappeared almost immediately after the Legislature gaveled into session in January. Recently, talks resumed on increasing the number of seniors who might qualify for taxation exemption, but a full elimination for all elderly residents is almost certainly dead.
- Baby products. Among the decisions the Democrat-controlled Taxes conference committee has made is to remove an overwhelmingly bipartisan provision that would eliminate sales taxes from baby products. This tax exemption provides meaningful support for all parents in Minnesota as they expand their families and is especially helpful for first-time parents who may be overwhelmed at the costs of bringing a baby home safely.
It is fiscally irresponsible to be increasing government spending and raising taxes when we have a surplus. Minnesotans deserve permanent, meaningful tax relief when our state has a $17.5 billion surplus.
Unaffordable, Unreliable, and Dangerous
The Energy and Environment omnibus bill will make energy in Minnesota unaffordable, unreliable, and dangerous. Some of the troubling provisions include:
- Mandates on taxpayers, homeowners, and housing providers: The bill imposes expensive mandates on utilities, with the costs borne by utility ratepayers, building owners, housing providers, and other businesses, resulting in increased costs in building construction and rent. These mandates will increase costs to taxpayers and ratepayers through an over-reliance on intermittent, unreliable, expensive sources of energy.
- Green-shaming businesses: The bill imposes energy benchmarking mandates on owners of commercial buildings with 50,000 or more square feet in the seven-county metro area and some cities of more than 50,000 residents. Property owners would be required to log the building’s energy use, with the Department of Commerce then required to publish online the address, total energy use, energy use intensity, greenhouse gas emissions, and an energy performance score.
- Electric vehicles for the rich: Democrats want to give millionaires in Minnesota $2,500 for purchasing an electric vehicle, and $500 for the lease or purchase of a used vehicle. We shouldn’t be subsidizing expensive vehicles for the rich.
I was also very disappointed that my provisions to ensure child and slave labor was not used to manufacture green energy products in Minnesota were not in the final Energy and Environment omnibus bill. We must address the child and slave labor issues that are in the supply chains when it comes to green energy. This bill failed to address these concerns while also making energy more unreliable, unaffordable, and dangerous, so I voted no.