Dear Neighbors,
It’s been a busy week in St. Paul and we are starting to see some of Democrats’ bad bills move through the committee process. More often than not, these bills spend more of your hard-earned money, grow the size of government, and infringe on the God-given freedoms that we enjoy as Americans.
An example of a bill that serves little purpose beyond growing government was heard in the State Government Finance and Elections Committee. As a member of this committee, I was shocked to learn the details of this bill.
It would establish a new state agency called the “Companion Animal Board”. This board would govern the welfare of pet animals. We don’t need more government telling Minnesotans how to care for their pets and to start a new million-dollar spending program.
Furthermore, additional duties laid out in the bill for this new agency are already being covered by the state board of animal health. This bill is expensive, expansive, redundant, and totally unnecessary.
Click here to watch my comments on the bill from Friday's committee hear.
The House and Senate majorities should spend their time and energy on returning the state’s historic budget surplus back to Minnesotans instead of wasting their time on issues that grow government at your expense.
Election Integrity
While Democrats continue to look for ways to weaken our elections including letting non-citizens vote in caucuses, I have been working hard to implement commonsense measures that will strengthen the election integrity.
That’s why I am co-author of the Minnesota Election Integrity Act. This package of proposals would implement Voter ID statewide, and bring Minnesota in line with dozens of other states — blue and red states alike — that have provisional ballots. Verifying new registrations before ballots are counted is not a controversial idea in 40+ other states, but Democrats continue to oppose it here.
The bill also gets rid of ballot harvesting, increases penalties for voter fraud, and prohibits cities from hosting 'pop-up' voting sites outside of the regular early voting locations in city or county offices.
These are all commonsense measures that have been enacted in dozens of states around the nation. Minnesota should join these states and take meaningful steps to ensure elections in our state are conducted in a free and fair manner.
Fighting for Common Sense South Metro Values
In addition to fighting for election integrity and slowing the growth of government, I have been working on legislation to address the following issues:
- Empowering parents to be involved in their child’s education and rejecting politically motivated curriculum similar to Critical Race Theory
- Reforming the state’s peacetime emergency power laws
- Strengthening laws that respect the personal health decisions of individuals and families, this includes stopping COVID-19 vaccine mandates
- Continue supporting common-sense solutions to the problems facing Minnesota while promoting personal freedom and liberty and limiting the growth of government
Government should be limited and exist to protect the freedoms and liberties that we have as Americans. I commit to you that I will always have that eternal truth in mind as I vote on legislation and work on issues here in St. Paul.
I appreciate your trust and support to represent our conservative, common sense values. I remain committed to advocating for you to make our state stronger and better by protecting our families, our freedoms and our futures. Together we will realize our full potential and the best days ahead.
Jon Koznick
State Representative