2025 LEGISLATIVE REVIEW
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Looking back on the 2025 legislative session, what legislation will have a significant impact on the Rochester area business community? The people of Rochester, and all of Minnesota, continue to face higher costs, fewer Sen. Steve Drazkowski DISTRICT 20
Rep. Steve Jacob DISTRICT 20B
Looking back on the 2025 legislative session, what legislation will have a significant impact on the Rochester area business community? It wasn’t so much the legislation that was approved but the legislation that was
services, and too much government interference in their daily lives. The biennial budget passed by the legislature this year made it harder to start or grow a business, harder to hire workers, and harder for families to keep up. Having a tied House helped stop the most extreme proposals this year, but it’s not enough. We need budgets that are responsible with taxpayer dollars and that keep the heavy hand of government off small businesses as much as possible. We need to stop putting government first and start putting Minnesotans first. We need to encourage work, rather than incentivizing against it. What is a major takeaway from the 2025 session? The biggest takeaway is that Democrats keep growing government at the expense of the people it’s supposed to serve. The state of Minnesota does not have a revenue problem. It has a spending problem, and this session proved that again. Democrats gave every Walz administration agency a funding increase and raised taxes and fees on Minnesota workers and businesses by another $4.2 billion, yet they still cut funding for nursing homes, disability services, and special education. They showed they weren't serious about eliminating fraud in public programs. Families are facing higher healthcare costs. School districts, cities and counties, and small businesses didn’t get any relief from the mandates that have stretched their budgets thin, and long-term care providers were left behind. It is a clear case of bad priorities: The Governor and the DFL continue to grow our state's very large and controlling government, while leaving key priorities in the dust.
prevented thanks to Republicans having shared control of the Minnesota House. Following a budget cycle where an all-Democrat led legislature raised taxes by more than $10 billion at a time when Minnesota had a nearly $20 billion SURPLUS, Democrats again wanted to raise taxes this budget cycle after their decisions pushed our state into a record $6 billion deficit. Democrats proposed more than $8 billion in tax increases this year, and admitted numerous times on the House floor that they would have continued raising them if Republicans hadn’t fought hard to stop them. This would have had severe negative impacts on business owners in Rochester and beyond, and by stopping these tax increases they will be able to invest more into their products and their employees. What is a major takeaway from the 2025 session? Sadly, no significant changes to the Paid Family Leave program, which guarantees workers can take 12 weeks of paid family leave and 12 weeks of paid medical leave per year. Every employer with one employee is mandated to participate, and it is paid for through a nearly 1% payroll tax, split between workers and employers. I heard consistently throughout session from business owners and workers about the costly impacts of this program. Other than bringing down the cap on the payroll tax by 0.1%, lawmakers could not reach agreement on significant changes. Another major takeaway is the repeal of free health insurance for adult illegal immigrants. To date, free illegal immigrant health insurance was costing Minnesota’s taxpayers at least $550 million, while many of our legal citizens have been struggling to provide coverage for their own family. Eliminating this freebie for adult illegal immigrants was just common sense.
AUGUST 2025 — ROCHESTER AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ADVANTAGE MAGAZINE | 15
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