Legislative Update
It was another week of long hours trying to improve bills that have nice-sounding talking points, but horrible policies. We need real solutions that address the root causes and actual needs of our people and communities. Striving to be more extreme than California, while spending all the surplus and adding $9.5 Billion in new taxes. A 40% increase in spending is crazy stupid. In fact, our increase in the budget is more than the budgets in 19 other states. Minnesota is already losing businesses and hardworking people.
This week the House passed bills relating to taxes, public safety, judiciary, health, and more. Each with misplaced priorities and many with new taxes. The omnibus bills are complex, usually long, and hard to keep track of. Below, I have provided comments and overview for various omnibus bills.
In the transportation budget bill, the DFL proposed several regressive tax and fee increases that total $3.5 billion. These fees include increasing license tab fees and implementing a new delivery fee on common deliveries like DoorDash and Amazon. These policies aren’t “taxing the rich,” they’re regressive taxes that will disproportionately impact hardworking Minnesotans.
The State Government omnibus bill increases the bureaucracy by 41% and spends $1.5 billion on massive pay raises for politicians (including state legislators) while adding 341 new employees to state agencies. Specifically, there is a 155% increase for Governor’s office, a 137% increase for Department of Administration, and a 396% increase for the Humanities Center, among many more increases. Those are huge increases in big government.
The Education omnibus bill forces our schools to spend more for mandates than it gives in new funds, thus taking away from the classrooms. We have a literacy crisis in Minnesota and sadly my colleague’s amendment to support the Science of Reading and to fund students instead of mandates was rejected.
And finally, the tax bill creates a new income tax bracket and greatly limits our local charities. Many charities and community organizations who do good work in our communities rely on charitable gambling with a 36% tax. When we have the biggest budget surplus in state history, we should not be increasing taxes and going after organizations who do great work in our communities.
All of these omnibus spending bills focus on misplaced priorities and raise taxes and fees on everyday Minnesotans while we have a record $18 billion surplus. These regressive taxes and unfunded mandates are not our Minnesota values.
Thanks,
Rep. Duane Quam
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