Dear Neighbor,
The Legislature is constitutionally required to adjourn from this session on May 17 and hopes of having a new two-year state budget in place by that deadline are fading fast.
Before we get to that, I want to say it was good to see the CDC has updated its COVID-19 guidance by indicating fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear a mask. The governor responded by lifting his statewide mandate on masks, with communities and businesses still able to require them if they so choose. I am pleased to see this development as we turn another page toward coming out of this pandemic.
The next step should be to eliminate the state of emergency in Minnesota and retire the governor’s unilateral powers he has kept in place for more than a year. More on that in a minute. As for the latest from the Legislature:
With the session set to adjourn Monday, negotiations are at a standstill largely because the House majority is still looking to raise taxes despite the fact the state is sitting on a historic surplus with billions of excess dollars. While not getting a budget done on time would be bad enough on its own, it causes even more headaches this year since the House majority has made Payment Protection Program and Unemployment insurance tax relief subject to negotiations.
In other words, tax relief for struggling businesses and out-of-work Minnesotans is being used as leverage for tax increases that are unnecessary for balancing the state budget. This issue should have been addressed months ago and these delays are hurting workers and businesses as tax deadlines arrive.
Reports show more than 500,000 filers would be forced to pay state taxes on boosted federal unemployment benefits without action by the legislature. Additionally, Minnesota businesses continue to wait on the legislature to act to eliminate taxes on forgiven PPP loans. The business tax filing deadline passed on March 15. Minnesota remains the only state in the upper Midwest imposing taxes on forgiven PPP loans.
The Senate passed bipartisan PPP/UI relief on a veto-proof 55-12 vote and this bill likely would receive similar support in the House if it were given the chance. It is unfortunate to see it instead be linked to billions in tax increases despite Minnesota’s $4 billion-plus surplus.
On another subject, we are still waiting to see if there’s any end in sight to the governor’s emergency powers. He is loosening restrictions in phases, with a July 1 date for eliminating the mask requirement.
This begs the question as to why the governor is not fully lifting the state of emergency he called for our state 14 months ago. There is no emergency in our state and it is long past time for the governor to let the emergency powers go. There’s always going to be a “what if” that may compel the governor to take some sort of action. That’s life and he can just declare another emergency if necessary. Otherwise, governor’s could just as well declare a state of emergency every spring just in case there’s flooding, a tornado or some other natural disaster.
There is another side to this issue past simple principles and good governance that may at least partially explain the governor’s reluctance to repeal our state of emergency: The federal government is sending Minnesota more than $2.5 billion and the governor is able to take sole ownership of spending these funds so long as his powers are in place.
One person should not wield the kind of power to spend billions of taxpayer dollars without legislative oversight but that very well could be where we are headed unless the House majority finally agrees to end his powers.
This already has been a problem to a lesser monetary degree. Recent reports on spending by the Walz administration from federal COVID relief funds show hundreds of thousands of dollars in wasteful spending, including money to pay off Democrat consultants, “talking circles” abortion doulas, and more. Just a handful of examples include:
- Nearly $100,000 to a non-profit which specializes in providing abortion doulas
- $12,500 payment to a radio station to broadcast the Governor’s press conferences
- $275/hour contract with a New York public relations company
- $20,000 per month to Stone Arch Strategies to “provide strategic communications support and services” to the Governor’s Communications Team.
- $50,000 to a non-profit to establish talking circles, complete with $20 gift cards to incentivize participation
- Nearly $20,000 to a non-profit to recruit volunteers to put together “wellness bundles” including tea and non-traditional health supplements
- Contracts to several different entities, each promising to produce videos that will reach tens of thousands of viewers, with YouTube pages that show they reached tens of viewers
The questionable spending of these dollars represents just one more reason to restore the Legislature as the third co-equal branch of government that it is and provide oversight of our tax dollars. Maybe this is one productive, bipartisan achievement the House majority could gain as we await compromise on a new state budget.
Better not hold our breath on this but we’ll see what happens. It could be a long, productive working weekend or the deadline to adjourn could just arrive with things still up in the air.
Sincerely,
Matt