ST. PAUL – The 2024 legislative session is over, and State Representative Bjorn Olson (R-Fairmont) said the year ended with a thud.
“For the past two years, the majority party refused to work with the minority party on any top tier topic,” Olson said. “Because of this, Minnesotans are paying the price through increased taxes and bad policy.”
Last session, House and Senate Democrats and Governor Walz agreed to spend a nearly $18 billion budget surplus, raise taxes by $10 billion, and grow state government by 40%.
Part of the majority’s spending spree last session was on the Paid Family Medical Leave (PFML) plan. This nearly $3 billion program is paid for by a brand-new tax on employers and employees and expands employers’ leave obligations to part-time and temporary workers. Olson said this session the majority recognized $3 billion isn’t going to be enough to fund the program, so it approved another $735 million tax increase on Minnesotans on the final day of session.
Olson said the PFML bill was included in a mega omnibus spending proposal that the majority approved with minutes left in session. The 1,430-page bill also included spending relating to taxes, transportation, housing, labor, higher education, agriculture, energy, and human services. Also included is language relating to scope of practice and a binary trigger ban for firearms. Olson said no one had a chance to review this massive proposal prior to a vote being taken.
Combined with new laws that allow abortion until birth, punish law-abiding gun owners, and give free college, health insurance and drivers’ licenses to illegal immigrants, Olson said the two-year cycle under this current majority has been extreme and unnecessarily chaotic.
“To have several budget spending bills combined into one during the last hour of session is a sign of complete mismanagement, and sadly that has been seen time and time again over the past two years,” Olson said. “This is the result of one-party rule in the State of Minnesota.”