By Rep. Shane Mekeland, R-Clear Lake
The 2023 legislative session is underway with a state surplus of around $18 billion and an escalated rate of violent crime in Minnesota as the backdrop.
With that in mind, our top priorities for the new session should be providing tax relief to help families struggling with inflation, improving public safety, fighting waste and fraud in our public programs, and helping students catch up from learning loss they suffered the last couple of years.
Democrats in the House majority said they supported these items last fall. They touted eliminating the state tax on social security and advocated for investments in public safety.
Now, it’s time to walk the walk. It will be a productive session if we can come together on those issues, and I stand ready to work with my friends across the aisle to make it happen.
The House already showed some bipartisan spirit in the first days of this session by uniting to approve – without a single “no” vote – a common-sense tax conformity bill that will make things easier during filing season. That was a good start, but we need to move on to real, meaningful tax relief so Minnesotans can keep more of their money month after month and year after year instead of the one-time checks governor has proposed.
We could start by once and for all getting rid of the tax on social security benefits, a place where there has been bipartisan agreement. This should be done as soon as possible this session. A standalone bill could pass right now with strong bipartisan support instead of waiting until the end of session when all bets are off and things can fall to the cutting-room floor.
Also, last session an agreement was reached to reduce income taxes for lower- and middle-income Minnesotans. Reducing income taxes will put money back in the pockets of families and stop government from taking so much more than they need from Minnesotans. This proposal should be revisited.
While I support returning the state’s over-collected tax dollars to Minnesota taxpayers, there are areas where increased spending will be discussed this session. For example, this historic surplus is an opportunity to make investments in public safety to help communities hire more law enforcement officers and keep their community safe. Sure, violent crime in Minneapolis fell last year compared with the soaring rates of 2021, but most crime remains significantly above pre-pandemic totals.
Lord knows there’s enough waste and abuse in our state to eliminate to source more public safety funding. But we also need to be realistic since Democrats control the House, the Senate and the governor’s office and they do not appear compelled to reduce government spending.
Unfortunately, the first bills House Democrats introduced this session reflect entirely different priorities, from extreme abortion legislation to legalizing marijuana and adopting energy policies that would make power less reliable and more costly.
Time will tell what transpires between now and when the session is set to adjourn in late May. For now, I urge Democrats to remember that, while the DFL has a trifecta in St. Paul, Minnesotans still expect us to work together. House Republicans represent nearly 3 million Minnesotans and are echoing their collective voices at the Capitol. Democrats have said they want to work collaboratively and I’m taking them up on that offer.
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