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Demuth




Demuth

"Thank you to the Crow River Trail Guards from Paynesville for coming to St. Paul this week to talk with me about natural resources in our state. Your input is very much appreciated!"

Dear Neighbor,

Greetings from the Capitol as we prepare to head into the home stretch of the 2024 legislative session. This coming Monday brings us to the final six full weeks before we are scheduled to adjourn May 20.

What will get done? What won?t? Lots of questions will be answered between now and then. We will see how things shake out but, for now, here is a look at some of what has been up for discussion recently in St. Paul:

*More state spending*

Less than one year ago, Democrats in St. Paul spent the $18 billion surplus and raised taxes by $10 billion to increase state spending by 40 percent.

Now they propose spending even more of our tax dollars this year ? even with a shortfall looming in the next two-year cycle. Democrat legislators and the governor recently announced they have reached an agreement to spend at least $512.5 million more in 2024-25.

The proposed budget from Democrats in full control of the Capitol is irresponsible and unaffordable. They?re ignoring our looming deficit and warnings from state officials to be cautious when budgeting, and instead of getting spending under control they want to increase spending at an even more unsustainable pace.

Democrats already went on a reckless spending spree last year. Let?s not continue down this path and instead restore balance in St. Paul.

*Emergency services shortchanged*

Unfortunately, even with all this new spending, neither legislative Democrats nor the governor are fully funding the critical needs of our emergency medical services across the state. The new proposal provides $16 million for rural EMS ? far short of what they need to be fully funded.

Providers are struggling under the current ?fee-for-service? model, which has left rural areas of the state with decreasing access to ambulances and other EMS options. There is legislation that would provide more aid because we must do better to prioritize this basic function of government ? public safety ? than what the Democrats propose.

This speaks volumes about the mismanagement of taxpayer funds we?ve seen at the Capitol under the current one-party control. Minnesotans deserve better from legislators than to be taxed to the hilt while shortchanging essential services. If they are going to spend more money, then let?s at least spend it on priority issues such as public safety.

*Let?s fix rideshare issue*

House Republicans hosted a press conference this week to discuss a bill (H.F. 5006 [ [link removed] ]) that would resolve a government-created problem causing Uber and Lyft to say they will leave at least parts of our state on May 1. If this were to occur, it would be devastating for people in our state who use rideshares not as a mere convenience, but rely on them for essential trips to the doctor, to school, for work, etc.

This issue came to the forefront last spring, when the legislative majorities passed HF 2369 [ [link removed] ] to dramatically increase pay requirements for rideshare drivers. This bill would already have pushed rideshare companies out of at least parts of our state, except the governor vetoed it.

More recently, radicals on the Minneapolis City Council moved ahead with their own drastic fee increases for rideshares and even overrode a mayoral veto of the proposal. That override caused Uber to announce it would cease service in the entire metro area, while Lyft said it would stop serving Minneapolis.

We still have time to fix this issue before government recklessly chases businesses out of our state to the detriment of drivers trying to make a living and passengers who need transportation. For that to happen, we simply need some of the more reasonable House Democrats to work on a solution with House Republicans. Let?s hope that happens asap so common sense can prevail.

Sincerely,

Lisa






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State Rep. Lisa Demuth
223 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd
St. Paul, MN 55155
[email protected]
(651) 296-4373







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