By: SENATOR STEVE DRAZKOWSKI

The governor’s 2025 tax proposal came before the Senate Taxes Committee on March 25, and I want to be clear about one thing: despite what the governor is saying, this is not a tax cut. It’s a massive tax increase, plain and simple.

Minnesotans are being told this is a tax cut because that’s how the administration wants it to be seen. When you dig into the numbers, it’s obvious that the math doesn’t match the Walz message. While the Walz tax plan includes a small sales tax rate cut, is also significantly expands the sales tax to include a range of services. The net result? A $200 million net tax increase every budget cycle. 

On top of that, in the governor’s proposal, your county’s property taxes will go up by 4.1% according to Revenue Commissioner Paul Marquart’s own admission.

Democrats used their one-party control to blow through a record-breaking $18 billion surplus in 2023, increasing state spending by a reckless 40%. Now we are staring at a $6 billion budget deficit just around the corner.

And what did taxpayers get for this Democrat spending spree? A massive expansion of state welfare programs and spending for illegal aliens. For example, housing welfare from $100 million to $1 billion – that is a 900% increase. Minnesotans who are struggling to pay their own mortgages are having even more money taken out of their pockets in order to pay for somebody else’s house.

We saw huge increases in refundable tax credits being provided to people who have never paid any taxes in to the system, including illegal immigrants. 

This is not smart policy. This is redistribution, and it is unfair to the hardworking taxpayers of this state who are footing the bill for all of it.

There’s been no effort from the Walz administration to reconsider or rein in any of these extreme ideas. Instead, they’re doubling down. I have encouraged the governor and the Democrats to take a long, honest look at how far they’ve pushed things. It would be very easy for Democrats to say, “You know what? We went too far on some of these areas and we need to back off.” But so far, there’s been no sign of that.

The fraud issue in our state is also not being taken seriously by Gov. Walz. We’ve sent millions of taxpayer dollars to nonprofit organizations that have been at the center of this state’s pervasive fraud problem. And instead of focusing on fixing that, the administration wants to hire 13 new state auditors. Their job? Squeeze more revenue from small businesses. That’s the answer, apparently — more audits, more pressure, more paperwork.

Let’s be honest: small businesses in Minnesota are already barely hanging on. The cost of doing business is high, the regulations are endless, and now the state wants to send more “revenue police” their way. How does that help? Democrats seem to think government is always the answer. More often than not, it is the problem.

To be fair, I did find one small component of the governor’s tax proposal I liked: it eliminates the Political Contribution Refund program, which is welfare for political campaigns. This is something I’ve pushed to end for years. 

But let’s not pretend this tax plan is a win for Minnesotans. It’s more of the same from Gov. Walz: more tax increases, more pressure, and more big government.