On Thursday, March 16, Senate Democrats failed to find bipartisan support to pass a bonding bill off the Senate floor. The bill requires a 3/5 majority vote, which is 41 votes, and required 7 Republican senators to vote for the bill. It failed to garner even one Republican vote.

The $17.5 billion surplus means that state government took far too much from Minnesota taxpayers. That is why it is undeniably the wrong priority to mortgage $1.5 billion in taxpayer dollars before tax relief is passed. I am supportive of a bonding bill and know that there are many important infrastructure projects in our community. However, at the same time, we must deliver relief for families who continue to face skyrocketing inflation.

After failing to pass the bonding bill, the Senate immediately voted to reconsider the bill and lay it on the table. This procedural move allows the bill to be brought up again without having to go through the committee process.

Two weeks ago, Senate Republican Leaders made clear they needed to see movement on tax relief before they voted for a bonding bill. Last week, Republicans attempted to bring a bill to eliminate the tax on Social Security to the floor, which was defeated on a party-line vote. On the same day the bonding bill was heard, Senate Democrats brought their own bill to eliminate the tax on Social Security in a procedural vote to move it one step forward. However, Democrats failed to take the bill up for an actual vote that would pass it off the Senate floor and send it to the House for consideration.

The Democrats have a myriad of new bills moving through the committee process, which will not only affect your day-to-day lives as well as the very fabric of our Republic. We will focus on these topics in detail in the coming weeks, but for now here is a brief update. 

Governor Walz has just released plans to increase the Minnesota Budget by 27%. Friends, if this measure is accepted by the legislature, our 17.5 Billion dollar surplus is already GONE. Your taxes are about to rise significantly over the next few years. Governor Walz and the democrat's must increase taxation to keep pace with their unyielding aptitude for spending your hard earned money. 

Democrats also take aim at insuring elections are less diverse by changing the definition of major party status. Currently, any party receiving 5% of the vote on the ballot in a general elections for two election cycles may qualify for major party status. These parties will automatically have their candidates on the ballot in the next election. The major party bosses in Minnesota want to change this threshold to 10%. Non major party status would then require attaining signatures from registered voters in order to have their candidate show up on a ballot. This is a gross attempt to try to silence minority voices in our state. 

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact has come to Minnesota and it threatens the very fabric of our Republic. In short, if enough States agree to join this compact, the President of the United States will be decided by consolidating vote totals from the member states and awarding all electoral college votes based not on individual state basis, but as a consolidated unit. If this were to occur, people in states with low populations or with needs that don't align with the cosmopolitan needs of big cities would be ignored. This idea is diametrically opposed to our founding - A union of nation states, banded together for the purposes listed in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution of the united states. 

Please don’t hesitate to contact me for help with any state issue or legislative initiative: [email protected] or at (651) 296-3219.

Senator Calvin Bahr

Minnesota Senate, District 31

Choose Freedom,