Dear Friends,
The 2023 legislative session finished a little after 10pm last night. Although this session saw its fair share of bad legislation, there were also some really good policies passed. Below is a recap of the final hours of session, with all the highs and lows.
The Very Good
After fighting tooth and nail all session long, Republicans delivered $300 million to save our nursing homes. Despite a $17.5 billion surplus, Democrats were originally more willing to spend $500 million for an office building for 134 politicians than to spend $300 million to support 27,000 seniors living in nursing homes.
Fifteen nursing homes have closed since 2021 in Minnesota. The long-term care industry in Minnesota is currently operating with a worker shortage, and almost a quarter of nursing home caregiver jobs are vacant. In the past six months, 10% of nursing home facilities have exhausted their reserves, and another 40% are burning through them now.
No senior should be forced to leave their community to receive the care they need. I am proud that Republicans were able to deliver this critical funding for our nursing homes.
We also ended the last day of session by passing a bonding bill to provide funding for important infrastructure projects for our community and across Minnesota. Projects in our community that are set to receive funding include:
- Pope Douglas Solid Waste Management
- Box Culvert under U.S. Highway 29 in Douglas County
- Alexandria Technical and Community College
I advocated for these projects all session long, and I am pleased that we were able to secure this funding to support our community.
And the Very, Very, Bad
It’s important to remember that Democrats only represent around 52% of Minnesotans. Despite their narrow majority, Democrats misinterpreted their electoral victories as a progressive mandate to push their extreme, far-left agenda.
We began session with a $17.5 billion surplus. Instead of returning that surplus to taxpayers in the form of permanent, meaningful tax relief, Democrats increased the state budget by 40% and raised taxes by $9.5 billion to pay for it.
Minnesotans expect their tax dollars to be respected. But Democrats went on a spending spree this session, spending your surplus to grow bureaucracy and enact new mandates that will make it more expensive to live and work in our state.
We won’t know the full impact of the Democrat agenda and the 2023 legislative session for some time, but I will continue fighting for our way of life and standing up for our values.