Legislative Update
Good morning,
I am pleased to share that we returned to St. Paul on Monday this week for our special session. We worked most of the day to pass over a dozen outstanding bills, which I will outline below. This session was riddled with challenges, but our committee chairs and leaders worked very hard to secure this legislation for the people of Minnesota. I encourage you to reach out and ask questions if you have any!
Bills Passed
Illegal Immigrant Healthcare Rollback
- Sunsets the free healthcare program for adult undocumented immigrants beginning on January 1, 2026, and closes enrollment for adults now.
Health & Children and Families Finance
- Funds rural EMS and hospitals, stops massive fee/surcharge hikes on healthcare, and increases protections for child safety.
Commerce Finance
- Blocks healthcare mandates and continues to fund reinsurance. For context, reinsurance ensures the viability of healthcare insurance to keep health insurance companies in Minnesota.
Human Services Finance
- Addresses potential fraud by billing practices for substance-use disorder providers based on length of service time and rejects costly shifts to counties in waiver rate exceptions.
Education Finance and Policy
- Reaffirms our commitment to educational choice by protecting non-public pupil aid and enshrines the Science of Reading language into standards, a proven strategy for literacy. It also blocks the proposed cuts to non-public schools.
- Provides meaningful relief for schools that have been struggling with the many mandates that were passed last year, which have pulled funds and attention away from students in the classroom.
Transportation Finance
- There were no cuts to state road construction and maintenance; instead, the bill makes cuts to expensive and inefficient train lines such as the Blue Line.
Tax Bill
- No tax increases for Minnesotan families, specifically in income tax rates or the general sales tax rate. We were able to protect Local Government Aid (LGA), County Program Aid (CPA), and other greater Minnesota programs.
Bonding GO and Cash Bills
- Provides $206 million for clean water and drinking water projects as well as $86.5 million for roads and bridges, including funding for projects in Greater Minnesota.
- It blocks political handouts, which are typically included in bonding bills and take away from critical funding for roads, bridges, clean water, etc.
Environment Finance
- Reduces fishing license fees for disabled veterans, makes the bass fishing season continuous, and includes meaningful permitting reform. The permitting reform will modify the current MPCA permitting process to make it easier for businesses to navigate with certainty, from firm timelines to clarifying the process for expedited permitting.
Data Center Bill
- Creates a "Very Large Customer" class with the PUC, requires high-water-use data centers (100M+ gallons/year) to submit preapplication info to the DNR, imposes a new fee on large-scale centers to support the Energy and Conservation Account, and extends the IT sales tax exemption to 35 years.
Higher Education Finance
- Makes appropriate cuts to address the $239M shortfall in the State Grant Program and does so while minimizing the impact on individual students.
Labor Bill
- The greatest provision in this bill is the Unemployment Insurance (UI) extension for our miners in Northern Minnesota. Additionally, it includes language pertaining to telecom installers.
Highlights
House Republicans secured key fiscal wins in this year’s budget. There are no new taxes, no tax increases, and no creation of a fifth-tier income tax bracket. In a session where Democrats pushed for billions in new revenue, we held the line and kept more money in the pockets of hardworking Minnesotans. These savings are a direct result of Republican leadership focused on protecting taxpayers and restoring balance to the state’s finances.
Upcoming Community Events
I would like to encourage you to attend the following two community parades, which I will be attending as well. Our summer events are some of the best of the year, and I hope to see you there!
- Medford Straight River Days Parade, Friday night, June 13th starting at 7:00pm.
- Janesville Hay Daze Parade, Sunday afternoon, June 15th
Coffee with Tom
Thank you to all who joined for Coffee with Tom last week. We had great discussion ahead of the special session that took place earlier this week. I appreciate your willingness to share your thoughts and opinions on this very important legislation.
 Front Row (Left to Right): Don McCann, me, Brad Meier, Colin Whalen
Back Row (Left to Right): Philip Heim, Jane Parr, Andy Michaletz, Deb Knutson
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