2026 LEGISLATIVE PREVIEW
Feature
Sen. Liz Boldon
DISTRICT 25
What do you believe are the most pressing issues impacting the Rochester area business community that can be addressed during the 2026 legislative session? As we see more cuts to Medicaid, SNAP benefits, and our social safety nets at the federal level, residents of Rochester have less and less disposable income to drive our local economies and support local businesses. At the same time, businesses, farmers and everyday Minnesotans continue to get squeezed by tariff policies. These unnecessary, cruel policies only harm working families in Minnesota. We need to address affordability issues, not make them worse. Making sure childcare, housing, and healthcare are affordable for the residents of Rochester will help get us out of the economic tailspin our federal government has sent us into.
What are your expectations for the 2026 legislative session? What potential legislation should the business community be aware of? Starting in 2026, our state will roll out our Paid Family Medical Leave program. I’m proud that our state is providing this benefit for hardworking Minnesotans. No longer will they be forced to choose between caring for a loved one or raising a family, and a paycheck. Minnesota is giving mom-and-pop small businesses a better footing for competing with the giant corporations who can attract a talented workforce with larger benefits. We’re ensuring a greater quality of life for Minnesotans and building our local economies from the ground up. At the same time, we’ll need to continue to address affordability. A top-heavy economy in which working class families are having to spend all of their paycheck on groceries, healthcare, housing, utilities, and childcare is not healthy. Policies that support working families benefit small businesses too, fostering sustainable economic growth. With continued cuts to our social safety nets and nonsensical tariff policies by Trump and Republicans in Congress, it’s more important than ever that we support working families and small businesses that are struggling. What are your top priorities for the 2026 legislative session? I got involved in community organizing and eventually ran for office for a lot of reasons. One of the biggest motivations for me was the need to take action on gun violence. This summer has been a wake-up call for our state. We have witnessed mass shootings targeting our children, assassinations targeting my colleagues in the Legislature, and more senseless violence that claims innocent lives. I will be continuing to fight for common sense gun violence prevention reforms, because Minnesotans deserve safe communities, free from gun violence. At the same time, I will keep prioritizing food security and affordable childcare, healthcare, and housing in my work next session. While Congress is walking away from their responsibilities, working families are hurting. They are simply unable to handle the squeeze from corporate landlords, inflated grocery prices, and unaffordable childcare costs. I’ll continue to fight for Minnesotans and help them afford their lives; we all deserve better.
6 | ROCHESTER AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ADVANTAGE MAGAZINE — DECEMBER 2025
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