Legislative Update
Greetings,
We are back on track this week to publish our newsletter on Friday!
Earlier I mentioned that Governor Walz's staff would brief us on their initial assessment of the new Federal Government legislation known as HR 1 or the Big, Beautiful, Bill. The Congressional Budget office estimates the bill will reduce the Federal budget by $3.4 trillion from Federal Fiscal Year (FFY: October 1st to September 30th) 2026-2034 with $4.5 trillion in net tax cuts and $1.1 trillion in net spending reductions.
The Scoop from the Office of Governor Walz
Governor Walz's staff provided us with their presentation yesterday via a zoom call. Before I mention some of the details of their assessment, I will emphasize that the commissioners and deputy commissioners heavily caveated their assessment. As typical with any new legislation, the various federal departments will be evaluating implementation of HR 1 and sending guidance out to each state via rulemaking. So, several of the numbers provided by the State of Minnesota staff could change. Second, during follow-up questions, the Governor’s staff failed to take into account all the permutations and combinations of the economy, people returning to work, etc. Thus, these numbers sounded like a worse-case scenario rather than the most likely scenario. Third, and most importantly, we will have time to address the impacts within the State of Minnesota budget as most of the impacts are delayed to Fiscal Years 2028 and beyond.
Now, let’s jump into the details. Overall, during the Minnesota Fiscal Year (July – June) 2026-27 Budget, we anticipate a $259 million dollar reduction (equates to 0.39% of the approved State of MN general fund budget for FY 2026-27) and in FY 2028-29 a $1.096 billion dollar reduction. The four areas presented included Medicaid Impacts, Private Health Insurance, Nutrition Impacts, and Clean Energy. Due to ongoing rulemaking at the federal-level it is difficult to forecast the exact impacts on Medicaid and Private Health Insurance. Since healthcare is implemented at the county-level and supervised by the State of Minnesota, we will be working to fully understand the overall impacts on our citizens. Transitioning to Nutrition Impacts, Minnesota may see up to a $135 million reduction in federal funding through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) from October 1st, 2025 to October 1st, 2027. In addition, there will be new work requirements for adults without dependents age 18 to 54; however, the implementation dates have not yet been determined at the federal-level. Next, HR 1 eliminates or modifies Federal Clean Energy tax credits. As a member of the Energy committee, I will be watching these impacts closely as we already made significant clean energy investments in Minnesota. In fact, at times, we produce more wind energy in parts of Minnesota than we can move onto the electrical grid. Thus, until we must build more transmission lines, we will continue to experience “stranded wind.” This is power that is available to move onto the grid, but we don’t have the capacity to bring it onto the grid due to transmission line limits. In conclusion, we are very closely monitoring all the implications of both federal and state funding on our public services as well as working to address the fraud issues and reducing your taxes.
Meeting with Constituents
On a lighter note, I enjoyed the opportunity to meet with our residents and business owners earlier this week at the Business After Hours event held this month at the Grapeful Wine Bar in downtown Owatonna. Since our regular session meetings occur during the week, this was my first opportunity to attend this event since January. It is always a great evening when I can get out and meet so many members of our community.
A Blast from the Past
On an even larger scale, last night I attended with great interest the Model T roll-in during a special downtown Thursday in Owatonna. It was truly incredible to see all the fantastic Model Ts that are restored and maintained in pristine condition. Since they are all over 100 years old, these automobiles are truly a testament to our American ingenuity and manufacturing capabilities.
|
