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Dear Friends,
Last night House Democrats passed their unaffordable, unreliable, and dangerous Blackout bill – their plan to make Minnesota carbon-free by 2040. This legislation will raise household electricity bills by $1,600 a year and put our state at risk for blackouts.
Republicans offered several reasonable amendments to try to make this bill better. We can all agree we want a clean environment, but we cannot do it to the detriment of Minnesotans’ family budgets and when we do not have the renewable energy technology necessary to sustain our needs. I offered an amendment that would ensure we could recycle solar panels and wind turbines in an environmentally safe way. There are currently no provisions in Minnesota law that dictates where this waste goes. I do not want another toxic landfill in our state that has to be cleaned up by taxpayers later. Unfortunately, my amendment was not adopted and I voted no on this bill.
The Judiciary Committee heard a truly awful bill on Tuesday – HF91 – which would remove all of Minnesota’s current pro-life laws from state statutes. Democrats are continuing to push their extreme abortion agenda that is making our state an outlier not only in our country, but the world. I asked the author of HF91 a simple question, “When is a baby a human?” Her answer will shock and disturb you. Watch the full exchange here.
This week the Governor released his $65.2 billion budget proposal. As a reminder, Minnesota has a $17.6 billion surplus. A surplus of this magnitude shows that our state has a taxing problem. However, the Governor is pushing more tax increases than cuts. Additionally, House Democrats passed another bill last night that will tie the budget forecast to the rate of inflation. This will put our state budget on steroids and there won’t be any choice but to raise taxes to pay for all the new programs Democrats want.
Growing government when family budgets are already being stretched is irresponsible. We must return this surplus to every Minnesotan proportionally to what they have already paid. Permanent, meaningful tax cuts – like a complete exemption of social security taxes, which the Governor did not offer in this budget – will help Minnesotans who are already struggling to pay their gas, grocery, and energy bills.
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