Another week in the books up in Saint Paul for the 92nd Legislative session, and what a week it has been. I submitted three more pieces of Legislation this week: 

1. Repeal of CCAP - The fraud riddled program that Governor Walz refuses to reign in.  Internal government whistle-blowers have testified that up to $100 million PER YEAR is stolen from taxpayers through fraudulent means.
2. Establishing a Recall process for School Board members - I’m simply taking the recall requirements that exist at the county level, and applying them at the local level.  This will help ensure all Minnesota communities have recourse should they make a bad election decision.
3. Repealing the Fiscal Disparities Tax - This property tax line item punishes small business owners and takes tax dollars from Shakopee and sends them to other cities like St. Paul.  This is quite literally a wealth redistributive tax and Minnesota is the only state in the country that uses it. 

Last week, as you may know, I again introduced a resolution to End Walz’ Emergency Powers. The effort failed on a party-line vote which was disappointing given 6 Democrats had previously voted to end the peacetime emergency.  Unfortunately, those 6 Democrats put the party leadership above their constituents.  Ending Walz’ Emergency Powers is by far the most common message I receive from constituents and we will not stop fighting for it until we’ve won. A lot of us trusted Governor Walz when he said “2 weeks to flatten the curve”, but that was 10 months ago and there is no longer a legitimate Peacetime Emergency.

This Week in Review

Restrictions Lifted

Minnesota bars, restaurants, and gyms had been operating at a limited capacity with no indoor dining since November when Walz announced “Wave 2”. On Monday Governor Walz offered small businesses some crumbs and declared that bars and restaurants can resume indoor service at 50% capacity but with a 10 p.m. curfew and caps of six-person tables and two-person bar groups spread 6 feet apart. He also permitted movie theaters, bowling alleys and museums would also reopen at 25% capacity. 

Most venues must limit the number of people inside to no more than 150, including fitness clubs, which can offer classes up to 25 people and operate at 25% capacity as long as gym goers keep 9 feet apart. Youth sports games can resume Jan. 14 with spectators, subject to indoor and outdoor capacity limits. Places of worship still must operate at 50% capacity but no longer have to observe a hard numerical cap. Masks mandates still remain in place for all public areas, and in youth sports.  But of course, your local Menard’s is allowed to have over 7,000 people inside at any time.  #Science

While I am sure these business owners are happy to have their business’ back this is not enough. Walz is giving you back a portion of YOUR business, who said he could have it in the first place! 

This week the Governor also announced a new dashboard to track the vaccine distribution, as the process of getting the vaccines to clinics and hospitals in Minnesota proves difficult.  Of course, this difficulty is further evidence that central planning will always fail. Check out the dashboard below.

 Click HERE for Minnesota Vaccine Data

Repeal CCAP

The Minnesota Department of Human services has been plagued with corruption scandals, fraud, and other abuses of the program. But there is no transparency, no accountability and no reduction in costs. Meanwhile, the taxpayer's hard-earned money is being used to fund the bloated agency. 

This isn’t a closely guarded secret either. Minnesota’s Legislative Auditor did an investigation into the program and confirmed it was rampant with fraud and couldn’t even attempt to quantify it.  But government whistle-blowers have testified that it’s up to $100 million EACH YEAR.  That equates to 50% of the program's total spending.  Any private business would have shut this program down years ago but it seems everything in state government is a sacred cow. By repealing CCAP we are sending a clear message to St. Paul that we want more accountability.  

Recall the School Board

 Any elected official is accountable to the people, that is the foundation of our Government. That if the people we choose for the job are not up to bar we can remove them from office. Our local officials have operated without such accountability for far too long.

In Shakopee, we have had more than our fair share of school board related issues and many feel we are still reeling from those bad hires.  Empowering the people of Shakopee to correct these bad hires without waiting years for the next election is simply good governance and increases accountability. 

Next week in St. Paul

Next week I will again be introducing the Resolution to End Walz Emergency Powers. I will also be tracking my progress on HF126 which is my bill to suspend pay for the Governor and Legislature during a peacetime Emergency.

Contact

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me or my office. We are still attempting to provide regular contact remotely so if you have other needs, please email my Legislative Assistant, Grayson, at Grayson.mcnew@house.mn.

Watch the Minnesota House on Public TV

Video: Streaming Website. Also you can watch committees and Floor Sessions on YouTube.