ST. PAUL – The Minnesota Legislature adjourned Monday, putting a bow on a two-year cycle Rep. Harry Niska, R-Ramsey said was marked by reckless spending, needless tax increases, extreme policies, and broken promises with Democrats in full control of the Capitol.
On the other hand, a variation of legislation Rep. Niska authored to restore protections for religious entities against discrimination claims was signed into law May 15. The language now in statute retains for religious organizations a broad statutory exemption for both sexual orientation and gender. This is in response to legislation Democrats enacted in 2023, stripping religious protections that had been in place since 1993.
“I’m grateful my legislation got to the finish line to re-assert religious freedoms in Minnesota and defeat the notion the state’s views trump your beliefs,” Niska said. “I’m also pleased we were able to prevent a different bill that infringed on numerous rights from becoming law this year. We need more balance at the Capitol next year.”
With the record $18 billion surplus last year, Niska said Minnesotans deserved meaningful tax cuts at a time when in?ation and rising costs of living have family budgets stretched thin. Instead, he said House Democrats went on a spending spree, increasing the budget by 40% – the largest budget increase in Minnesota history – and raising taxes by $10 billion in the process.
While Niska said the Democrats' wasteful spending cost Minnesotans dearly on a statewide level, he successfully authored legislation this biennium to fund essential local infrastructure projects. Appropriations include $6.1 million to address water contamination in the Red Oaks neighborhood of Andover and $3.2 million for a Ramsey water treatment facility.
Along the way, Niska said Democrats officially put Minnesota taxpayers on the hook for a $730 million State Office Building remodel despite Republicans proposing more reasonably priced alternatives.
Niska said Republicans spent part of the 2024 session successfully resolving significant problems he said Democrats created in 2023. Most notably, he said this includes a fix to the tax bill, getting school resource officers back in all the buildings they had been serving, and correcting a net-operating loss issue.
Meanwhile Niska indicated Democrats enacted several highly controversial, partisan policy measures with one party in control the last two years. He said this includes adopting some of the world’s most extreme abortion policy, enacting a state-funded speech registry that could undermine First Amendment rights, and declaring Minnesota a sanctuary state for transgender healthcare – for children. In addition, he said a Democrat provision ended electronic pull tabs as we knew them, dealing a major blow to local charitable organizations.
In the waning minutes of the final night to pass legislation in the 2024 session, the House majority passed a 1,430-page bill without the language even being available to House members before a vote took place.
“They couldn’t get their work done because they wouldn’t work with Republicans, even when it became clear that the legitimacy of the institution was at stake given the criminal actions of one of their members,” Niska said. “Last year’s rushed legislation contained several mistakes that we had to fix – and some we still need to fix. We will find out more in the coming months about the mistakes that are almost certainly contained in this monstrosity that no one even had a chance to read.”
Some things that did not happen this biennium were the result of Democrats failing to deliver on promises they made to Minnesotans, Niska said. In particular, he said this includes voting against bills that would ensure our of?cers have the resources they need, not delivering full Social Security tax relief, and failing to provide $2,000 rebate checks.
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