Legislative Update
 Dear Neighbor,
The 2026 legislative session finished Monday after a flurry of weekend activity where House Republicans delivered major victories on affordability, fighting fraud, and increasing accountability in state programs.
House Republicans have focused heavily on combating fraud, providing property tax relief, improving school safety, cutting car tab fees, delivering relief for counties, and modernizing government systems. We passed bills addressing each of those priorities this session, including approximately $400 million in tax relief, with $125 million in property tax cuts and $250 million in car tab fee reductions approved over the weekend.
Overall, House Republicans restored balance at the Capitol this two-year cycle after two years of a Democrat Trifecta that passed $10 billion in tax increases and 40% increase in spending. Last year, we demanded and won a historic $5 Billion budget cut and ended free health insurance for illegals. This year, we established an independent government watchdog – the Office of the Inspector General – to finally start holding fraudsters accountable.
Here is more to recap the session:
Tax relief
Two years ago, the Democrat trifecta passed massive tax and spending increases. Now, many of those increases have fully kicked in, leaving Minnesota families and businesses wondering how they’re going to make ends meet.
Instead of acknowledging the pain they are causing, the former majority came back and proposed even more tax hikes this year, including a wealth tax, a tax on unrealized gains and imposing an annual tax on Minnesotans’ net worth, not just their income. They even talked of quintupling car tab fees and more.
Because of House Republicans’ hard work this session, $400 million in tax relief will be delivered to hardworking Minnesotans. We tried to get you even more relief. Just a few weeks ago, Democrats called a $1,500 property tax rebate “not serious” and “a gimmick,” then voted down our plan to give Minnesotans real property tax relief.
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Republicans kept fighting and secured $125 million in property tax cuts for families across our state. Property taxes are skyrocketing across Minnesota after Democrats forced costly, unfunded mandates onto local governments, driving increases of as much as $1 billion statewide. Families are feeling it every time they open their tax bill, and for some homeowners, it’s forcing them out of their homes. Republicans focused on real relief, including a one-time property tax rebate to help put money back into family budgets.
We will continue to fight for affordability for Minnesotans. The $400 million in tax relief for Minnesotans includes:
- $125 million in property tax cuts
- $250 million in car tab fee reductions
- Ending the ballpark sales tax
- One Big Beautiful Bill tax conformity to help Minnesota businesses and job creators
- Extending the Pass-Through Entity tax provision, providing hundreds of millions in relief for Minnesota businesses at zero cost to the state
- Sustainable Aviation Fuel credit.
- Delaying PFAS reporting requirements for 9 months through the end of the 2027 session, giving Minnesota businesses relief from costly compliance requirements.
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Anti-fraud measures
On fraud, the House adopted Medicaid work requirements for able-bodied individuals included in the federal One Big Beautiful Bill to create long-term savings, strengthen accountability, and help combat fraud.
That measure builds on the House’s recent passage of legislation creating a new Office of the Inspector General and implementing additional anti-fraud reforms aimed at protecting taxpayer dollars and restoring trust in government. Billions of dollars were lost to fraud on Democrats’ watch, and Minnesota families are the ones paying the price. This wasn’t a one-time failure, it was years of ignored warnings and broken oversight. Creating a strong, independent Office of Inspector General is an important step in restoring accountability and making sure this never happens again. Here is more.
On a side note, the Minnesota House Fraud Prevention Committee recently released its final report on the state's fraud crisis. What we found was straightforward. The Walz administration creating an environment that encourage fraud, warning signs were suppressed, whistle-blowers retaliated against and accountability was nonexistent.
Relief for hospitals
Relief for hospitals across Minnesota also came late in the session, with the House creating an uncompensated care fund and a new hospital stabilization fund to help facilities facing dire financial situations. The new program is funded by the cancellation and reallocation of the Blue Line and Northern Lights Express rail projects.
Medical Assistance reimbursement rates also will increase for rural and critical access hospitals under legislation passed by the House in recent days. The change will help place those hospitals on more equal footing with Twin Cities facilities.
School safety
House Republicans made school safety a top priority this session and secured meaningful investments in evidence-based solutions like anonymous threat reporting and mental health support to help stop violence before it happens. Key provisions in the bill include an optional anonymous threat reporting system, school-linked behavioral health grants, mobile crisis units, anti-grooming legislation and compensatory revenue support for schools.
While the legislation is not everything we proposed in our broader school safety package, it is a significant bipartisan step forward that will help keep students and schools safer across Minnesota. We had to fight for every dollar included in this agreement after every single House Democrat voted against our comprehensive $100 million school safety package earlier this session and still refused to provide school safety improvements without preconditions on gun bans and confiscation bills.
Technology updates for counties
The House also passed major investments in technology updates for counties that are critical to protecting taxpayers, strengthening accountability and making sure benefits go to the Minnesotans who truly qualify instead of fraudsters. As unbelievable as it is, counties have been forced to use computer programs developed in the '80s and '90s that still use green screens, F-keys, and are not integrated with any other programs, making finding fraud virtually impossible. I've served through two Democrat Trifectas and neither time was fixing this broken system a priority. It wasn't until the Fraud Prevention Committee exposed the depths of the fraud that democrats finally agreed to fix it.
Higher Education
 Over the weekend, the House passed a Higher Education bill that has some good components but also failed to address some crucial issues, which led me for the first time in 14 years to be a "no" vote on a bill that I worked very hard on. Most notably, the bill fails to address the structural deficit within our State Grant Program. We closed a $235 million shortfall just last year, only to have a $131 million shortfall reappear this year. The Office of Higher Education has testified publicly that the structural deficit was created by the Democrat Trifecta's policies. For example, when you massively expand the eligibility for free tuition to any household with an income of $80k or less and include people who are not in our state legally, it has dramatic fiscal consequences. I offered four pages of fixes and Democrats rejected them all. They had one solution – add more money.
One thing I'm proud of is demanding that ALL negotiations of the Higher Education Conference Committee be done in public. You, the people, got to see every decision, every bit of negotiations in public. In my floor speech, I urged the body to adopt this practice moving forward. You the public deserve transparency and I demanded it for you. Check out the video for more on this issue.
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