A Bad Budget and Misplaced Priorities
By Senator Nathan Wesenberg
It’s a new year, we’re back in session, and things are off to a strange start. For starters, the Minnesota House has been in total chaos. Republicans hold a majority of seats because of a vacated seat, so Democrats were refusing to show up to work. They started session by abandoning their constituents and were not interested in showing up to work for the first few weeks. Though a deal was reached that will get Democrats back in the Capitol, the way they acted was a disgrace and does a disservice to the people they were elected to represent.
So far in the first three weeks of session, Senate Democrats claim they wanted to extend an olive branch and work with Republicans. While there has been some working together, they ended the power sharing literally minutes after seating the new Democrat Senator for SD60. In the House, up until this week, Democrats continued to boycott and refused to work for hard working Minnesotans. Again, a strange start. Despite our issues in the Senate, at least everyone has been showing up to work.
Another bit of news that people should note: the Governor released his budget proposal, and it’s terrible. For those who have been paying attention, many know that the Democrats’ priorities have been questionable. Over the last two years, they’ve prioritized things like growing government, throwing money at agencies, and ignoring fraud. It’s frankly insulting to Minnesota families that feel left behind and forgotten. It’s a recurring theme of “more, more, more.” It has to stop, but the Governor clearly wants to keep going, if his budget proposal is any indicator.
In 2011, Minnesota’s State budget was $35.7 Billion. In the 2023-24 biennium, it had bloated to $71 Billion. Also, don’t forget, we had almost a $20 Billion dollar surplus in 2023. That’s YOUR money. Walz promised to give it back if elected. He lied. In Walz’s current budget, he proposes a .075% cut to sales tax. That’s $7.50 per $10,000 spent. He had the audacity to claim it was a “tax cut” because he’s cutting the sales tax. That’s nothing. But it’s also irrelevant, because he also wants to increase taxes and fees on multiple services. It’s all just a bunch of smoke and mirrors. Minnesotans will save pennies on sales tax, but your taxes will be going up in other areas.
Again, as a reminder, we just had an $18 billion record surplus a few short years ago. The Governor is proposing increased taxes and fees because our state is now looking at an over-$5 billion deficit in the near future. Governor Walz doesn’t want to cut anything, he just wants people to pay more. That’s wrong. He is putting the burden back on taxpayers and failing to take accountability for what damage the Democrat trifecta has done.
So what is Walz cutting in his budget? He is cutting spending for the elderly and people with disabilities. We had to FIGHT to get just a little relief in the last budget, and it was a bipartisan effort. I have received numerous emails and phone calls from individuals that have parents in nursing homes and assisted living. I have been hearing from those with children with disabilities who are living in assisted living. I have heard from workers in these facilities. Everyone is very frustrated that Walz does not care about them. These Minnesotans that have paid taxes their entire lives and now need help from the state, yet Walz wants to leave them in the dark.
When he was unveiling his budget, he even had the audacity to claim things like long-term care and special education services were the reason for the deficit. He claimed the Democrat Trifecta’s spending of the entire surplus is not what’s leading to the deficit. I beg to differ. $18 billion was spent through in two years. A lot of that went to one-time spending, unvetted nonprofits, and extreme initiatives. Yet there’s no accountability. They got us into this mess, and now they’re blaming our state’s most vulnerable for their own missteps. It’s disgusting behavior.
We need to help people, and that means cutting taxes, and getting things back on track. We want families to be able to afford to live here, because right now they can’t. People are hurting – they are struggling to pay their bills and get food on their tables. Democrat priorities are driving them out of the state. We need to fix this before it’s too late.