Dear Neighbor,
Greetings from the Capitol, where if everything is a priority, nothing is a priority.
That is the only way to explain how we can be hearing House Democrats propose making our gas prices look more like sky-high California’s, eliminating standardized college entrance exams because they are barriers – the list goes on – all while idly allowing an unnecessary tax increase to hit employers, virtually ignoring the wave of violent crime in our state and failing to act on any number of other key issues.
Again, the list goes on.
I fully understand people can have more than one priority. And, yes, legislators can multi-task – walk and chew gum, so to speak. But you can’t get around the fact the majority is spending way too much time this session discussing rather trivial, faux crisis at a time other important – real important – issues continue to receive little attention.
We’ve talked ad nauseum about how House Democrat inaction has caused Minnesota employers to suffer a significant increase on their unemployment insurance rates. Now, we’re seeing violent crime continue to run rampant in our state while the House majority sits on its hands. House Democrats have done little more than provide lip service to this issue.
House Republicans earlier this session assembled a package of bills that would aim to reverse the dramatic increase in crime our state on three different levels: by holding criminals responsible for their actions, helping recruit and retain peace officers, and providing transparency to decisions from prosecutors and the courts.
These measures could make a real difference in tamping down the unacceptable rise of violent crime in our state. The problem is, House Democrats have refused to conduct hearings for our bills. Instead, the DFL’s solution seems to focus on giving more money to violence interrupters and growing the state government bureaucracy by tens of millions of dollars while adding dozens of new full-time employees in St. Paul.
It really makes you wonder about the level of dysfunction in the House Democrat caucus because, in addition to the public safety package House Republicans are offering, a handful of Democrat-authored bills also have been introduced to address this subject. But, once again, House Democrats would not even hear their own bills.
In the meantime, Senate Republicans have been moving a public safety bill which includes a number of measures House Republicans support. This includes criminalizing the offense of carjacking – which has skyrocketed out of control the past two years – along with increased penalties for violent crimes by repeat offenders and increasing transparency when prosecutors dismiss charges on a case.
All the while, employers keep paying higher taxes because House Democrats refuse to pass legislation the Senate approved a month and a half ago with a veto-proof majority to put the unemployment insurance issue to rest.
Time is running short before the Legislature is scheduled to adjourn in late May. The House majority needs to forget about wasteful spending that will not result in safer communities and instead focus on passing a public safety omnibus bill that focuses on reducing violent crime in Minnesota for the sake of law-abiding people in our state who deserve to be safe.
Both of these issues are classic cases of government having a hand in creating a crisis and then, eventually, coming back with the solution. The lack of support for law enforcement – or even outright demonization – from certain public officials seems to be contributing to the lawlessness we are experiencing in our Minnesota. And a total dereliction of duty from the House majority caused an unnecessary tax increase to take place when the state has a $10 billion surplus.
Now any fixes for these and other issues come at a higher cost to taxpayers with, in some cases, questionable results, because government needs to fix what it broke. Before you know it, we are talking about putting litter boxes in schools to accommodate the “furries.” Wash, rinse, repeat.
Sincerely,
Shane