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Capitol Comments by Peggy Bennett

The Minnesota legislative session began constitutionally on Jan. 14. It is truly an honor to serve the people of 23A. I am very appreciative of the continued opportunity to represent you and look forward to getting to work for Minnesota and for all of you!

I’m sure by now you are aware that my Democrat colleagues refused to show up for the opening day of session. They had their own secret swearing-in ceremony offsite the night before and stated that they will continue to be absent from their legislative duties at the Capitol (though still collecting their paychecks!) until a Jan. 28 special election for a vacant House seat.

That seat was vacated due to the DFL candidate perjuring himself by claiming he lived in the district when he didn’t, giving Republicans a current 67-66 majority. This absence is a political maneuver to attempt to stop Republicans from exercising their legal majority and organizing the Minnesota House.

Frankly, I am saddened and quite shocked by this behavior. For the past two years, I passionately disagreed with the Democratic trifecta as they rammed through reams of harmful partisan laws and ignored Republican input. However, I still showed up and did my job. My Democratic colleagues should do the same. Whatever the outcome, I will continue to do my job as your state representative.

As we begin the 2025-26 legislative biennium, I’d like to share with you some of my legislative goals.

My first goal is to continue working on fixing government. The dysfunction and waste of tax dollars is sometimes overwhelming. I will again have a bill to help scale back the huge multi-subject omnibus bills that lack transparency for citizens and make it difficult to pass legislation we can all agree upon. I also have a bill to make sure the tax dollars spent on school related non-profit grant programs go to programs that are effective and eliminate those that are not. It will empower schools to pick the non-profit services they feel will help their students most — not legislators choosing pet projects to fund.

We also have a plan to fix the rampant fraud problem in this state which has sadly enabled the theft of almost one billion dollars over the last five years. Crooks are scamming our agencies, from Feeding Our Future to Medicaid and frontline worker financial programs. This theft of precious tax dollars is unacceptable. Even worse is the travesty of the many children, seniors and more who never saw the benefit of the funding that was intended to help them.

My Republican colleagues and I have already established and empowered a new committee which has one task: to find and eliminate waste, fraud and abuse within state government. The governor’s recently released (and long time in coming) anti-fraud plan essentially allows the executive branch to police the executive branch. I appreciate the work our agencies do, but there has been no accountability there for years. I don’t expect just saying things will change will fix the problem within. We can and will do better.

A second important issue to address is making Minnesota affordable again. Minnesotans are struggling under massive inflation, a hugely ballooning Minnesota government budget, and a slew of new taxes and fees. I will join like-minded colleagues to seek to repeal laws that have hurt family budgets, such as the automatic gas tax increase, new delivery taxes and other policies that have driven up the costs of goods and services in our state. It’s also high time to fully repeal Minnesota’s tax on Social Security income for all of Minnesota’s senior citizens.

A third goal relates to a subject near and dear to my heart as a former teacher: our children’s education and future. It absolutely breaks my heart that less than half of students in Minnesota can read at grade level — especially knowing that literacy is not only key to all other learning, but to success in life. Math and science proficiencies are even lower. I will be authoring legislation to ensure schools have the tools and time to focus on core academic subjects. This will include reducing the burden of mandates that were placed on school districts over the last two years, and empowering local schools with the flexible funding and local control needed to address their unique student needs.

There is much to do over the next two years. I will share more goals with you as the session progresses. It is important to note that Minnesota had a more than $18 billion surplus previously, and in two years we’re now projected to see a $5 billion budget deficit. As we move forward this session, we must lead responsibly and allocate government spending responsibly. I commit to doing that.

I am looking forward to working for you as your legislator on these goals and more!

Peggy Bennett, R-Albert Lea, is the District 23 representative.