Friends and neighbors,
Before I dive into this week’s newsletter, I wanted to share something with you that was dropped off at my office this week:
On Friday, April 28, the Senate passed a bill to legalize recreational cannabis. As many of you know, I am not opposed to this in principle. I am very much a personal freedom guy, and to me this is a personal freedom issue. But the bill moving through the legislature is a 300+ page mess of new regulations, fees, and bureaucracy. It even includes priority licensing and state funding for convicted criminals to own dispensaries. As you can see in the mailer I included above, cannabis companies from other states are already seeking out those with convictions to front their business to gain these advantages. It’s the wrong way to handle this issue.
Schools facing net funding loss due to heavy mandates in Democrat budget
Both Republicans and Democrats agree that education is an essential priority. As a father of two young daughters, it is certainly one of the things I am concerned about most.
When Republicans were in control of the Senate, they provided historic funding for K-12 schools, including $18.6 billion in total education funding in 2017, 2% annual student formula increases in 2019, and $1.1 billion in funding increases in 2021 – including the largest formula growth in 15 years. With a $17.5 billion surplus this year, education should see serious funding increases.
But funding is not enough. In August 2022, the Department of Education released assessment results that showed a steady decrease in students meeting standards in reading, math, and science. Between 2018 and 2022, Minnesota went from 60% of students being proficient in reading to only 51%. A similar trend follows for science, decreasing from 52% to 41%, and math, also decreasing from 57% to 44%. Additionally, in 19 schools across the state, not a single student was proficient in math.
Republicans have prioritized improvements to get our fundamentals back on track. Unfortunately, these issues are not enough of a focus in the Democrat education proposal.
But the biggest problem, by far, is the expensive mandates in Democrat budget proposals. I have heard from most, if not all, of the schools in my district, and they all tell me pretty much the same story: the mandates are so expensive that they will eat up all of the additional funding that is being proposed, resulting in a net loss of funding. One superintendent recently commented, “This session could be one of the most harmful I’ve seen in my career.”
Fortunately, Republicans have proposed the “Students First” plan, which offers more funding for classrooms, special education, literacy programs, and safer schools. Most importantly, this plan does not include any mandates that could result in a loss of funding for schools.
You can read more about our plan here: https://www.mnsenaterepublicans.com/senate-republicans-present-students-first-education-plan-offering-better-alternative-to-democrats-mandate-heavy-education-bills/
Transportation bill – $2.7 billion in tax increases despite a $17.5 billion budget
This week, the Senate approved a transportation budget proposal that has a stunning $2.7 billion in tax increases, including tab fee and vehicle registration taxes, an increase to the metro area sales tax, and motor vehicle tax hikes. It’s just a portion of the nearly $10 billion in tax increases contained in their budget proposals this year. Here is a breakdown of what is in the transportation bill:
- $901.81 million: 8% increase to the vehicle registration tax. The bill also slows the vehicle depreciation schedule, so people could pay up to 33% more every year
- $223 million: Increasing license tab fees. This is a $7.50 fee per transaction, so everybody will pay more
- $214.8 million: Increasing the motor vehicle sales tax
- $1.397 billion: Increasing the metro area sales tax. 83% of this revenue would be used for metro transit, while only 17% would be used for metro county roads. Collar suburbs will be shortchanged by this provision — they would pay the additional tax but receive very little funding back because most metro transit is in the core cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
- $59.90 million: Additional taxes and fees that go to the state of Minnesota
Read more about the bill, and what Republicans did to try to improve it, here:
Contact me
Your feedback, ideas, and concerns are what allow me to serve you to the best of my ability. Please share your thoughts with me any time at sen.bill.lieske@senate.mn or 651-296-5019.
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It is a privilege to serve you!