Minnesota State Senator Bill Lieske (R-Lonsdale) and Senate Republicans on Tuesday unveiled a Repair Minnesota agenda aimed at fixing mistakes and reversing unintended consequences from bills that Democrats approved during the 2023 legislative session.
The rollout comes days after legislators had to quickly fix several mistakes, including an unintended $350 million tax increase, in the 2023 tax bill. Work is also progressing on repairs to a 2023 law that caused school resource officers to be pulled from schools. Both of these were issues caused directly by one-party control and the speed at which Democrats rammed through their agenda.
Senator Lieske said Senate Republicans also plan to address other mistakes from the last session, including repairing the damage done to family budgets after Democrats spent the entire $19 billion surplus and raised taxes by $10 billion to support a 40% increase in state spending.
“When you refuse to consider the long-term impacts of a proposal and ignore sincere ideas for improvement, you do not get a very good product,” Senator Lieske said. “We are seeing a few examples play out in realtime, like the SRO issue, recent stories about school budgets being crushed by mandates, and the recent tax corrections bill that prevented more than $350 million of accidental tax increases. Virtually every issue area has examples, so this year our agenda is going to be focused on repairing the damage those mistakes have caused.”
One critical repair was missing from the tax corrections bill that legislators approved last week: a change to net operating loss subtractions that will hit small businesses with a big tax increase. The change was set to take effect in 2025, but an error in the bill caused it to begin this tax year. It means small businesses and entrepreneurs will be paying about $15 million more in taxes this year. The chairs of the House and Senate Tax Committees made a promise to fix this mistake at the earliest opportunity but broke that promise by leaving it out of the corrections bill.
The Repair Minnesota agenda aims to give school districts more flexibility on how they can use last year’s funding and roll back mandates tied to that money. Despite historic increases in funding last year, more than 60 new mandates have chewed through half the increase. Senate Republicans propose allowing any of the 2023 funding to be used for a local need, effectively cutting the red tape of bureaucracy, and giving schools the freedom they need to educate students, hire staff, and keep schools safe.
Last year’s $2.6 billion bonding bill was the largest in Minnesota history. However, the bill included errors that now need to be repaired. A bonding corrections bill is expected in the coming weeks.
Senate Republicans are proposing a more modest bill focusing on infrastructure basics like safe roads and clean water, not politically aligned special interest groups. The size and scope of the bill are pending the results of the February economic forecast, which is set to be released on February 29.
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL
