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*06.06.2025*






Legislative Update

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Dear Neighbors,

Negotiations have officially wrapped up, and I’m glad to share that a special legislative session has now been scheduled for this coming Monday. We’ll be returning to the Capitol to take up the final bills needed to complete the state budget. These include major areas like Health and Human Services, Education, Transportation, Taxes, Environment, and more.

The road to this point hasn’t been easy. But with the final votes now in sight, I’m committed to making sure the outcomes reflect the priorities of Greater Minnesota and the families we represent. I’ll continue to keep you informed every step of the way.

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*The Environment Bill: Diving Deeper*

Serving as a committee chair for the first time, in an evenly divided House, with Democrats controlling the Senate and Tim Walz occupying the governor’s mansion, I knew this session would bring major challenges. In many ways, this session has been unlike anything we’ve seen in Minnesota’s history.

That leads me to this year’s environment bill. Is it perfect? No. Is it the bill House Republicans would have passed if we held an outright majority? No. However, given the political realities, we delivered real wins.

We were able to hold the line on the most harmful proposals from radical environmentalists in the DFL caucuses. However, we did more than just “block” bad ideas from Democrats, we secured important wins like permitting reform, which has been decades in the making, repealing the shotgun zone, and making the bass fishing season continuous – which will allow for increased angling opportunities in the spring. We also secured $952,000 in funding (from the ATV account) for grants to clubs for ATV trails, over the objection of anti-ATV DFLers.

Despite having these positive items in the environment bill, there has been some online discourse surrounding the bill that contains false claims which need to be cleared up.

One claim says that I am responsible for the new mandatory boat driver’s license and its $37 fee. "This is false". That law, which takes effect in July of this year, was approved by the Democrat trifecta in 2023. I voted “"no"” on that bill.

Another claim says that the environment bill more than doubles the cost of all boat registration fees. "This is also false" – the bill does not increase boat registration fees. Those fees were, however, increased during the Democrat trifecta in 2023.

Yet another claim is that there is a new Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) surcharge. There is "no new surcharge". There is, however, an existing surcharge that has been around since the early 1990’s. Unfortunately, that surcharge is going up this year, which was agreed to as part of the global budget negotiations between Governor Walz and legislative leaders. It wasn’t a provision I authored or controlled.

While we were able to make progress on many fronts and stop a lot of bad legislation, I share many of your frustrations that we were not able to go further with cuts to agencies, repeal of green energy mandates, and ending many of the harmful programs and policies that were passed during the Democrat trifecta. The reality is that much of what we would have done if we were running the House was simply not possible because of the 67-67 tie, a Democrat majority in the Senate, and Governor Walz’s veto power.

I’ll always shoot straight with you and tell the truth, even when the answers aren’t what you, or I, wish they could be.

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*Thanks For Your Support*

Thank you for your continued support. If you have any thoughts, questions, concerns regarding these bills, or input on future legislation, please feel free to reach out. I can be reached by phone at 651-296-6206 or via email at [email protected].

Have a good weekend,

Josh











For more information and periodic updates, check out my Legislative Facebook page at StateRepJoshHeintzeman [ [link removed] ]






Centennial Office Building

658 Cedar Street
St. Paul, MN 55155
651-296-4333
[email protected]







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