Dear Friends,
Recently, businesses received their notices from the state that their taxes will be going up because Minnesota has failed to repay our $1 billion deficit for the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund. With a $7.7 billion surplus and over $1 billion in COVID relief funds still available, it is shameful that government is forcing businesses to pay more while they are still struggling to recover from pandemic shutdowns amidst inflation and a supply chain crisis.
My Republican colleagues and I are ready to get to work to help our businesses. We cannot allow them to pay more when they have already gone through so much.
Reducing Sentences for Repeat Criminals?
This week the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission held a public hearing about a controversial proposal to reduce sentences for repeat criminals. The move, supported by Gov. Walz's administration and appointees to the commission, would get rid of the "in custody" point on the sentencing grid, and according to the Pioneer Press would mean "judges would no longer be able to take into consideration whether the offender committed the crime while in custody, on probation or on supervised release."
Last week, I sent a letter along with 50+ of my House GOP colleagues urging the commission to reject this proposal. If you agree that this is the wrong direction, I hope you'll take a moment to submit your comments to the Sentencing Commission. The Commission just extended the comment period until December 21. Tell them that Minnesotans do not want reduced sentences for repeat criminals at sentencing.guidelines@state.mn.us.