Dear Neighbor,
We have a little more than two weeks before the Legislature is set to adjourn and gaps a mile wide to resolve before agreements can be reached on the session’s most important issues.
The good news is negotiations can begin getting serious with the majorities – House Democrats and Senate Republicans – now finished providing preliminary approval of their proposals. The most significant issue to reconcile on fiscal matters is Senate Republicans propose an $8 billion tax cut, while House Democrats spend $21 more on government for each $1 in tax cuts. I truly hope the Senate approach prevails.
Misguided energy provisions
A package of bills with energy provisions was the last omnibus bill to come to the House floor for an initial vote this week. As a member of the House Climate and Energy Finance and Policy Committee, I am rather interested in this subject and my top-level view of the House Democrat package is that it limits our energy options and would only serve to raise billions of dollars in taxes while imposing expensive new mandates on employers.
My position remains the same that we need an all-of-the-above approach to energy to help deliver reliable, affordable energy to Minnesotans. Xcel Energy currently is facing a big “black hole” in its energy supply that is in no small part due to extreme liberal policies that diminish the availability of energy sources such as coal and gas. That “black hole” is sure to become “blackouts” if House Democrats get their way with this bill so I will continue working with Senate colleagues to ensure the House’s damaging provisions are not included in this bill when it reaches final form.
Unemployment tax increase ended
Legislation to repay Minnesota’s unemployment insurance trust fund deficit and reverse tax hikes employers in the state faced despite a $10 billion surplus has been enacted into law.
This bill (S.F. 2677) provides $2.7 billion to fully repay the trust fund which was depleted with more people out of work during the pandemic. It is a relief for our employers who have had the deck stacked against them the last couple of years for this situation to finally be resolved.
Senate Republicans approved a clean bill to rectify this issue in February, with broad, bipartisan support. House Democrats delayed action until late April, when they added more than $1 billion in other funding to the bill. This change complicated matters and delayed final approval, costing state taxpayers $50,000 in interest for every day the legislation languished.
We needed to get it done to support our employers and further inaction was not an option. The injustice of allowing job providers to suffer a significant tax increase because of the House majority’s failure to act at a time the state has a massive surplus could not be allowed to continue.
Final language in the package includes $500 million in payments to frontline workers – approximately $750 per person – and $190 million is provided to Minnesota Management & Budget for continued COVID-19 expenses. Another measure allows just one legislative body to reject an expenditure instead of the current requirement for both bodies to object.
The additional spending House Democrats added to the bill has nothing to do with unemployment insurance and the fact the majority treated employers as pawns in negotiations is an insult. These other subjects should have been considered on their own merits and voted up or down accordingly, in the spirit of our Constitution.
Click here for details on the changes in unemployment insurance law, and you also can visit www.frontlinepay.mn.gov for information on frontline worker pay eligibility and more.
Sincerely,
Shane