I wanted to bring you up-to-date on the final weeks in the Minnesota Legislature. Simply put, there are ten major budget and policy bills that need to be passed in order to keep our state functioning.
Minnesota Republicans decided to get our work done early. We passed all of our major bills through the house and the senate and placed them on Governor Dayton's desk. He vetoed everyone of them - even after weeks of negotiations and meetings.
With about one week left in our regular schedule, we went back to work. We drafted a second set of bills and put them through the entire process for a second time.
The major bills we were able to pass, before the final deadline, include Public Safety, Environment & Natural Resources, Energy & Jobs, Higher Education and Agriculture.
Then the clock ran out at Midnight on Monday, May 22.
At 7:01, we went into Special Session. We are determined not to go home until we finish the Second Round of bills. We have been in continuous negotiations with the Governor's office and because of our efforts we were able to pass five major bills. Those include, Public Safety, Environment & Natural Resources, Energy & Jobs, Higher Education and Agriculture. The Governor has assured us that he would sign them into law.
We have been in continuous session for three days straight. We are determined to keep working with Governor Dayton to finish the the job on our second round of bills.
Last November, we had promised to focus on three main areas, that you, the voters, wanted to be fixed. We heard you and have great news!
Those areas were, Roads & Bridges, Tax Relief and to start fixing the health insurance disaster brought upon us by years of Obamacare.
This year, we took those issues head on. Here is what we have been able to accomplish.
The Republican Tax Plan focuses on middle class families. It gives us $650 million in relief.
This is the biggest tax Middle Class tax relief package in 20 years!
The Republican response to the Obamacare disaster is in full swing.
There are two major components to this.
Work is being done on the Federal side to fix the problem. Republicans in the Minnesota State Legislature took powerful steps this year to begin to unravel the mess caused by years of Obamacare.
We were able to bring premium relief. We shored up the foundations to keep the market from collapsing and we also took the first steps in going back to a free market model.
This is just the beginning.
I am looking forward to working continue to fix this issue. Our next major step is to address the over all cost of health care!
Finally, Minnesota Republicans have passed the largest Transportation bill since 2008! We will be investing almost 2 Billion dollars in 2018-19 on roads and bridges. We will also continue to invest an additional 5 Billion dollars over the next decade. All of this is without raising taxes!
There are so many good things happening in our district. Have a blessed Memorial Day weekend!
