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The main goal of Governor Walz calling for a special session last week was to extend his unilateral control over the citizens of Minnesota. Despite our House GOP resolutions to remove his special authority, the House DFL once again fell in lockstep behind the governor thus allowing him to continue his dictatorial reign and abuse of powers. Governor Walz and the House DFL then turned their focus on attacking our law enforcement community and withholding federal CARES Act funding from Greater Minnesota communities and counties.
The police reform legislation put forward by the House DFL was at best a rushed and poorly assembled debacle. They did not allow the law enforcement community and the public to weigh in and help. If Governor Walz and the House DFL were really wanting to make meaningful changes and improve safety for the citizens of Minnesota, they certainly failed at it. Just like they failed to protect the citizens of Minneapolis and St. Paul, their businesses, and neighborhoods from the lawlessness of rioters, looters, and arsonists - even allowing a police precinct to be overtaken and destroyed.
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I was very disappointed about the failure to pass federal CARES Act funding. In the week leading up to special session, all four legislative caucuses came to an agreement on how to allocate the $841 million in federal funds. This simple funding bill ultimately fell apart because Governor Walz decided he would continue to withhold these much-needed resources from Greater Minnesota by having the House Democrats add unrelated provisions from his supplemental budget to what was originally a clean bill. These unrelated provisions, if allowed to be added, would have increased the already $2.6 billion deficit.
Counties and communities in our area would have been set to receive millions of CARES Act dollars, but Governor Walz has been withholding these much needed resources from Greater Minnesota for a couple of months now, while Hennepin and Ramsey County received their funding immediately. These federal dollars were to go out to Greater Minnesota to help pay for COVID-19 testing, COVID-19 response for hospitals, PPE for front-line workers, financial support to local businesses, and funding to help keep local governments solvent as they deal with extra expenses as a result of the pandemic.
During negotiations, Governor Walz personally intervened to block a deal that was coming together at the 11th hour overnight on Friday night/early Saturday morning, and as a result the CARES Act bill and police reform legislation were left unfinished when the legislature adjourned early Saturday morning.
I am incredibly disgusted with Governor Walz and the House DFL's inability to lead and protect the citizens of Minnesota and their willful withholding of federal CARES Act dollars that should have been allocated to Greater Minnesota months ago. In short I say this: Stop withholding these much needed resources from Greater Minnesota. Our local communities cannot afford to wait much longer. Stop attacking our law enforcement community, thus causing an unsafe environment for our citizens, as you can clearly see in the destruction and continued lawlessness in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Citizens of Minnesota, I ask you to put yourself in the shoes of Governor Walz for a moment. As Governor you've heard the cries of the citizens during the COVID shutdown; how your decisions and unfair executive orders have left our economy in shambles destroying the life's work of many; how your decisions along with MDH have caused our most vulnerable in long-term care to be exposed to the COVID-19 virus causing them to be 80% of the state's total deaths; how despite knowing your flawed science and models are wrong you continue to base your decisions that affect the whole state on bad information; how your lack of leadership and delayed response during a crisis played a major role in allowing the rioting, looting, and burning of Minneapolis and St. Paul; how your lack of leadership has allowed continued acts of violence and lawlessness to occur across the state leaving your citizens in an unsafe and potentially life-threatening environment.
If you were Governor with these facts laid out in front of you, would you continue down this path? I know I would not and cannot fathom why anyone who says they are acting in the best interest of all Minnesotans would.
The only reason Governor Walz has relented to this point is because you as citizens have put the pressure on him to concede, returning bits and pieces of your God-given Constitutional freedoms. So I encourage you to continue to apply increased pressure on the governor until he concedes and returns all of the freedoms due you and your families. Make it clear we are finished with his tyrannical reign, unfair executive orders, unequal protections under the law, and overall abuse of powers. Governor Walz and the DFL decisions across Minnesota have left our state’s economy in shambles, contributed to the deaths of our most vulnerable, and have left all our citizens in an unsafe environment. It is time we stop this and take back our state.
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