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Dear Neighbor,
During the trifecta years, Democrats pushed extreme bills that nobody was asking for and nobody wanted. Then, Republicans broke up their full control of the Capitol and Democrats have morphed into obstructionists by doing all they can to block things that people are asking for and absolutely want.
Last week, House Democrats spoke against a new stream of education revenue for our children that would come at zero cost to the state.
This week, they came right back and stood in the way of Minnesota businesses benefitting from a new federal tax provision that doesn’t cost the state a dime. House Republicans moved to declare urgency on a bill (H.F. 3127) that would let businesses in our state take advantage of this federal policy. The House Republican lead on taxes said it would deliver a combined $2.05 billion in relief for 66,000 businesses in Minnesota.
It’s something people are asking for and want our state to do, but House Democrats said “no” and prevented action.
These popular measures did not have to become partisan, but Minnesota House Democrats made it so by holding proposals hostage for late-session negotiating power. That’s dangerous because they’re the ones who will have to go back home and explain why they didn’t want to pass “free” tax relief and “free” funding for our children’s education.
While they’re at it, House Democrats could share why they also sided with the slim minority by blocking a bill on the House floor related to public safety this week. Polls show 85 percent of Minnesotans believe local law enforcement should cooperate with federal immigration authorities to deport illegal immigrants in some or all cases. House Republicans have authored a bill (H.F. 16) requiring county attorneys to report illegal immigrants arrested for violent crimes to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It is limited to suspects of murder, assault, domestic assault, crimes committed for the benefit of a gang, robbery, carjacking, kidnapping and criminal sexual conduct. The bill also prevents state and local government entities from actively prohibiting, restricting, or interfering with federal immigration authorities in carrying out federal immigration enforcement.
Unfortunately, House Democrats blocked a move by House Republicans to declare urgency on this bill so we can act quickly to support common-sense law enforcement and address serious public safety risks in Minnesota.
Along the way, House Democrats have been pushing $40 million in rental assistance over the calamity they created. The additional rental assistance they claim is necessary wouldn’t even be a thing if Democrats would just side with 85 percent of the population that upholds the basic principle that state and local law enforcement should cooperate with the feds when it comes to immigration.
Besides, this rental assistance funding is an incredibly short-term solution. What’s the long-term plan here? As part of their $1 billion 2023 housing omnibus bill, Democrats allocated $200 million in one-time funding for the Housing Infrastructure Program on rental housing. How many more millions of taxpayer dollars are we going to dump into rental assistance because they’ve created an environment where people feel like they can’t go to work? How many bailouts do we need to provide because leftist activists encouraged people to not show up for work while also organizing efforts to boycott local businesses on certain days?
This is just another unserious approach by Democrats that doesn’t actually help do anything but fill the coffers of the Democrat-friendly non-government organizations.
But, hey, there was at least a flicker of hope this week: In a unanimous vote, the House passed a bill removing the Housing Stabilization Services program from statute in response to its rampant fraud and oversight failures. THAT, folks, is a serious approach to a serious problem and we need more of it.
Sincerely,
Walter
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