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What do you foresee as a key issue that will impact the Rochester area business community in the 2023 legislative session? In addition to the decision about whether the budget surplus will be resolved with tax cuts for over-taxed Minnesotans or redistribution of their money to people who didn’t earn it, there will be another major issue that business owners will want to tune into. Minnesota’s socialist Democrat party is about to deal another major blow to the free market. A government-run and mandated paid family and medical leave program will be pushed hard and likely signed into law by the coming legislative majority. With a socialist Democrat governor also elected to another term, the chances for it to be signed into law are good. The proposal that we have seen in the past includes a multi-billion dollar new payroll tax that will be levied against you. While I have always fought vehemently against these affronts to our freedoms, the new political landscape allows the newly-elected redistributionists to handle even more of business owners’ money. If you voted Democrat this past election, you can thank yourself for this new Marxist entitlement. What are your expectations for the 2023 legislative session? Are there trends the business community should be aware of? An unprecedented attack on your freedoms is about to commence at the Minnesota Capitol. Expect the growth in government programs to be massive. The 17.6 billion projected over-taxation by state government will provide the necessary substrate for the socialist Democrats to build and expand dozens of government programs in all areas. This will include piling even more of those resources upon the failing Minnesota education system, with virtually no contemplation of reforms to slow the development of the destructive ideologically-focused leftist movement that has overtaken the direction of many of Minnesota’s schools. While the trend in our schools has been to spend more and more money with less and less results for a diminishing population of students, expect the Democrats’ payback to the teachers unions this time to be huge. They want to increase the size of their retirement and they want taxpayers to pay the bill. Spending in government-paid healthcare programs will follow suit as well. Expect environmental regulations and permitting to become more and more complex, less responsive, and even more expensive for Minnesota businesses. I am sorry to report them, but the facts remain: Minnesotans are about to get the government for which they voted.
Sen. Steve Drazkowski DISTRICT 20
| Advantage Magazine 8
January 2023
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