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Dear Neighbors, 

This week, Governor Walz, House Leadership, and Senate Leadership released an agreement on global budget targets for the 2025 legislative session. And because we have a tie in the Minnesota House, Republicans have a foothold of power in the negotiations. How are they wielding it?

Republicans are not insisting on reducing class sizes in our schools. They're not insisting on making housing or child care more affordable. They're not even insisting on cutting your taxes. Instead, Republicans are threatening to shut down state government unless they can eliminate healthcare coverage for undocumented families.

Governor Walz and legislative leaders have agreed to a budget framework that includes this harmful provision. And while the agreement protects many important freedoms and rights for working families – like paid family medical leave, free school lunches, and unemployment insurance for hourly school workers, it is abhorrent that the price for Republicans to agree to a budget was harming immigrant families. They are ripping a page out of Trump’s xenophobic playbook and we should not comply.

You may hear Republicans claim this is a fiscal issue and that cutting health care for our undocumented community is necessary to balance the budget. This is simply not true. First, we are not talking about “free healthcare,” as some have said. Undocumented immigrants in Minnesota pay more than $220 million in taxes per year, and they pay premiums and copays for this health care coverage just like everyone else. Also, it turns out that people still get sick when they don’t have health insurance. And when people without insurance end up in an emergency room, this expensive care is all passed on to taxpayers. Simply put, this proposal isn’t fiscally conservative, it’s just cruel.  

Let me be clear – I will never vote for a bill that balances our budget on the backs of our undocumented community. We must fight this with everything we’ve got, and fight for a Minnesota where no one is left behind.

I want to lift up the words of Senator Alice Mann, a physician, and member of the legislature’s People of Color and Indigenous Caucus, who spoke against this Republican proposal:

We can and must do better. 

Graduation Rates Reach A Historic High

As we work to finalize a new state budget, the DFL-led investments we passed two years ago are still producing results. I want to highlight some recent news showing that Minnesota’s high school graduation rate has reached a historic high!

This doesn’t happen by accident - this is thanks to the tireless efforts of Minnesota’s teachers and school staff who support our kids, as well as the transformative policies and investments the DFL put in place. These are the same workers, policies, and investments we’re fighting to protect in our ongoing budget negotiations.

With progress like this, with our students succeeding, we can’t turn our backs on Minnesota’s schools. Now is the time to build on this success and deliver the bright future our kids deserve. 

Whether it’s education, healthcare, or all the other facets of our state budget, I’ll be fighting to pass the best budget possible for EVERYONE that calls Minnesota home. This is sure to be a busy weekend at the Capitol - please feel free to reach out with any questions, comments, or ideas you have on how to make our community and state a better place to live, work, and raise a family. 

In partnership,

Michael Howard