Walz, in first State of the State address, urges compromise

With just over six weeks left in the 2019 legislative session, Gov. Tim Walz used his first State of the State address to double down on his ‘One Minnesota’ proposal, share the struggles and successes of fellow Minnesotans, and urge lawmakers to find common ground.

Delivered to a joint meeting of the House and Senate Wednesday, Walz said Minnesota has the opportunity to rise above partisan gridlock and be an example of how government can run more efficiently.

“The story that not just Minnesota needs, but the country needs, is a bipartisan and a split government that came together [for] the good of the people and moved things forward for Minnesota,” the first-year governor said.

Walz encouraged lawmakers to compromise to enact a new two-year budget deal before the end of session and to make progress on policies encompassing health care, education, transportation and community development.

House DFL leaders said they liked what they heard from the governor. In their post-speech press briefing, they touched on Walz’s theme of cooperation and indicated that they, too, were optimistic about how the session could conclude.

“Not every day is going to be ‘Kumbaya,’” said House Speaker Melissa Hortman (DFL-Brooklyn Park). “We should have vigorous disagreement about those areas where we have differences of opinion, and that doesn’t mean that it bodes ill for the ending.”

House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler (DFL-Golden Valley) said there is every reason to expect that the two caucuses can come together “and not leave anything on the table that Minnesotans would expect us to get done.”

“We have a very low bar to clear after the last legislative session,” Winkler said. “We already have much stronger relationships with Senate Republicans and the governor.”

Policies and people

Rather than unveiling new ideas or policy plans, Walz spent the majority of his 31-minute, off-the-cuff speech sharing stories of fellow Minnesotans and highlighting how policy impacts people.

“Keep in mind,” he said, “behind every one of the debates we have here are real people being impacted by them.”

Education

A former teacher, Walz shared the story of two of his students, Will Handke and Ross Pomeroy, who went on to create a successful snack bar company. When asked about their success, they credited teachers who instilled confidence in them, he said.

Walz’s budget proposal would invest an additional $733 million in the E-12 education system to stabilize funding and help address racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps. The bulk of that funding, $523 million, would be used to increase the general education basic formula by 3 percent in Fiscal Year 2020, and 2 percent in Fiscal Year 2021.

Health care

Walz’s recommendation to address the skyrocketing cost of health care is threefold. It includes creating a subsidy program to reduce monthly premiums for MNsure recipients. It also would establish a tax credit to ensure no one pays more than 10 percent of their income on health care.

The final element would be to create a statewide public insurance option called OneCare, which Walz said would improve access.

To support his point, he introduced Deborah Mills, a farmer from Lake City. Due to historically low milk prices, catastrophic weather events and the high cost of insurance, Mills and her family no longer can afford coverage and it's taking a toll on her mental health.

“I think we can stand in agreement that all of our citizens should have the basic safety net, the basic security that comes with having access to health care so you don’t get into a mental health crisis,” Walz said. 

Transportation

To fix and maintain the state’s roads and bridges, Walz’s 2020-21 budget plan includes a 20-cent increase in the state’s fuel tax over two years, and would increase sales taxes and vehicle license tab fees.

To emphasize the need for a dedicated funding source for roads and bridges, Walz introduced a family friend, Mary Ingman, whose husband died in a head-on car collision on Highway 14. Since the 1980s, Walz noted that more than 145 people have been killed on the highway.

“Here’s what I’m telling you: in the 23 years since Charlie has died, that is still a two-lane dangerous road and the time has passed to fix it,” he said. “We can do that.”

Republican response

House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt (R-Crown) gave Walz’s call for cooperation a nod, while reserving enthusiasm for the solutions proposed in his budget.

“We all support giving more money to school, providing more money to K-12 education,” Daudt said. “The difficult part becomes, how do you pay for that?”

He suggested dividing the current surplus over the next four fiscal years, a proposal he said he has shared with the governor’s office.

“There are ways to solve these problems without necessarily always going back to the taxpayers,” Daudt said.

Minnesota suffered a loss of revenue between November and February, despite the economy and wages growing, according to Daudt. Creating additional taxes without addressing what he said appears to be Minnesotans moving revenue out of state will only exacerbate complaints that the state is overtaxed, he said.

But Daudt did see merit in the governor’s calls for bipartisanship.

“We spend too much time forming our own ideas and very little time melding our ideas into compromise with the other ideas," he said. “We need to revamp our system so we spend more time talking to each other and working with each other.”

Session Daily writers Erin Martin and Tim Walker contributed to this story.