Legislative Update- January 31, 2025

Dear Neighbors,

Earlier this week, President Trump announced a federal funding freeze, effectively shutting off funding for law enforcement, senior citizens, farmers, schools, veterans, and health care. While President Trump has said the funding freeze is temporary as his agencies look over individual programs, it is deeply concerning for the chaos that the breadth of the Executive Order caused during the first 24 hours.

As you can imagine, there has been an enormous amount of work evolving hour by hour this week. It will still take significant time and resources to identify the scope of this action on state programs and staff. Although the federal action has been temporarily paused, I continue to work collaboratively with federal, state, and local partners to understand this order and identify how this impacts our state, county, city, and school district services. 

In other national events, my heart goes out to the families and friends who lost their lives in the tragic air collision in Washington, D.C. The stories that are beginning to filter out are heartbreaking.   

February 1 Community Conversation Rescheduled

My community conversation that was originally set for this Saturday, February 1 at the Hopkins Library has been rescheduled due to a family funeral. I’ve rescheduled it for Saturday, February 8 at 12:00-1:30 p.m. and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. I look forward to seeing you next weekend!

Renter’s Property Tax Refund is Now an Income Tax Credit

Tax season is upon us. As we prepare to file, I’d like to remind renters that they no longer have to apply for a property tax refund on a separate form and wait until September or later to receive a refund. The legislature converted the renter’s refund to a direct income tax credit that now will be processed at the same time as income tax returns. In addition to accelerating the refund timeline, the change uses a new definition of income to calculate the credit amount, meaning more renters will now qualify for the credit and those who were already eligible will see larger refunds.  

• Landlords have until Jan. 31, 2025, to send renters a Certificate of Rent Paid (CRP) form, which indicates the percentage of rent paid toward property taxes that year. 
• Enter the information from your CRP on your income tax return when prompted.  
• The Renter’s Credit total will either be part of your income tax refund amount or be applied to the amount owed on your income tax return for most taxpayers. 

Find more information on the Renter’s Credit, including what to do if your landlord does not supply a CRP by Jan. 31, on the Department of Revenue’s website: https://www.revenue.state.mn.us/renters-credit  

If you need help with tax preparation, please visit the Department of Revenue website to find Vita site locations that offer free tax preparation help.

Update from the Minnesota House of Representatives 

Here's an update on what's going on in the Minnesota House of Representatives. On Friday, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that the House Republican attempted power grab of the last two weeks violated our state constitution. Every GOP action, including the election of a Speaker, appointment of committees, bill introductions, and hearings were unlawful and illegitimate. In November, voters elected an equal number of Democrats and Republicans to represent them in the House. Now, it’s time for the GOP to start working together with Democrats to develop a fair power-sharing agreement so we can return to the Capitol to govern as Minnesotans intended. 

In addition to honoring the will of the voters across the state, Republicans also must respect the results of the election in Shakopee where voters elected DFLer Brad Tabke to represent them. Instead, Republicans are refusing to seat him, which would disenfranchise 22,000 voters. The reason they want to do this is simple: to control the MN House for the next two years to advance their agenda, including taking away reproductive freedoms, eliminating paid family leave, rolling back progress to address climate change, and ending free school meals for kids. 

House DFLers will not allow Republicans to overturn an election simply because they can. Never before has a legislator been kicked out when they have done nothing wrong, and to do so would gravely subvert the free and fair elections Minnesotans expect. Rep. Tabke won on election night, won in a recount, and won in court. DFLers look forward to returning to the Capitol once we have an agreement with Republicans that respects the will of the voters.

As we await a compromise, I continue to work directly for our Hopkins, St. Louis Park, and Edina neighbors in the district, and working on legislation in preparation for setting the state budget for the next two years.

On Saturday, I have great conversations at three different events in Hopkins and St Louis Park. Started at the Depot Coffee House for a City of Hopkins Climate Action and Resiliency Plan kick-off, I hosted one of my many Community Conversations at the SLP Library, and finished with Rep. Larry Kraft talking to a great group of St Louis Park LWV members at their annual chili luncheon. Thanks all of the great questions and to everyone who showed up to participate!

Thank you Rep. Julie Greene for taking a photo of our Monday morning meeting with bonding Chair Fue Lee and the City of Edina regarding their 2025 bonding bill proposal. That was followed by a meeting with school Superintendents from Blue Earth County, a meeting MNFire, and an Ed Finance overview with our team.

Thank you to the hard working county workers for the tour of the Hennepin County Ridgedale Service Center Tuesday morning! I followed that with a meeting with multiple stakeholders to make sure our schools can retain their highly qualified paras and on other education bills. Finished the evening with thoughtful constituents at the Edina Library and a robust discussion around issues from education funding to supporting our seniors experiencing fraud. A big thank you to those who attended the second of my multiple Community Conversations!

I spent half my day Wednesday meeting with legislative colleagues regarding what the loss of Federal funds thru Trump’s Executive Orders would do to everyday Minnesotans from farmers to local law enforcement and from public schools to our veterans. The other half of the day was spent talking with groups about their legislative priorities and the work they are doing. Great discussion with Agricultural Teachers, Adult Basic Ed programs, Minnesota Business Partners on tax policy, and President of the Hennepin County paramedics.

On another note, one of the favorite parts of my job is making connections between people who need support and those who can support them. I had the chance to meet with Vicky Bachmann at MATTER in St. Louis Park Wednesday. They have durable medical supplies that are expired, but are still usable for education purposes. MATTER https://www.matter.ngo/ has helped local schools, including Hopkins High School, get equipment for their CNA programs and they wanted to connect with more education programs. I was able to help with that. Being able to do little things like that make all the long hours worthwhile.

I started Thursday at Cream & Amber on Hopkins Mainstreet with Police Chief Johnson discussing the staffing needs of the department and a state grant that has helped them with those who want a mid-career change into law enforcement. That was followed by an intriguing visit with founder of Prisms VR on interactive ways to teach math and science. Then a zoom meeting with the Minnesota Business Partnership to talk education.

Rep. Larry Kraft and I attended an amazing event Thursday night put by the Youth for Change Coalition on Mental Health & Wellness! It was sponsored by Children’s First in SLP and included student artwork focused on what mental health and wellness meant to them. An impressive group of students who have formed the Youth for Change Coalition presented their well researched data around student mental health along with their action plan on improving their peers mental health. And Dr. Michael Rodriguez, from the University of Minnesota provided comments and moderated a student discussion followed by community participation in a table top exercise on lessons learned and next steps.

Thank you, State Representative Mike Freiberg for inviting me to hang out in a Robbinsdale ECFE class! It was a great way to start the day by watching great teachers in action. And, thank you to the parents for letting us join the parent education class. ECFE holds a special place in my heart, it gave me the tools to be a better mom.

Thursday night, I ran into these amazing Hopkins City and School leaders at the Hopkins State of the City Thursday evening. Thank you for your public service Hopkins City Council Members Heidi Garrido, Brian Hunke, and Hopkins Schoolboard Member Brooke Ann Roper!

Hopkins State of the City was informative & entertaining as always! Info about the city’s year interspersed with the Mayor and Council eating wings with eight levels of spice, ala Hot Ones. But, the largest draw was the amazing food donated and served by our local restaurants before the show. Thank you to city staff who pulled this all together and our local restaurants who participated!

Superintendent Marcia Dowd gave me a peek into their teacher apprenticeship program at Intermediate District 287 on Friday morning. This is a program that our four metro intermediate districts came together to create in conjunction with Mankato State. In the 2024 Education Finance budget, we were able to make an investment to start up this program that will get more qualified Special Education teachers into our classrooms.

Community Conversations

As a reminder, I have more community conversations scheduled for February. Feel free to pick a day and location that works for you; I hope to see you soon!

Keep in Touch

Please continue to contact me anytime at rep.cheryl.youakim@house.mn.gov or 651-296-9889. Thank you for the honor of serving our Hopkins, St. Louis Park, and Edina neighbors in the Minnesota Legislature.

Enjoy the weekend,

Cheryl Youakim
State Representative