Minnesota Report
Listening to Governor Tim Walz (DFL-MN), Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller (R-28 Winona), House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt (R-31A, Crown), House Speaker Melissa Hortman (DFL036B, Brooklyn Park and Senate Minority Leader Melisa Lopez Franzen (DFL-49, Edina) could have been staged like a cage match as all discussed the burgeoning projected revenue forecast now at its highest point ever $9.253 billion. They all had their sides and discussed who ox was to be gorged.
Walz wanted to ensure only the low and middleclass were served and offered a “Balanced Approach”, Republicans wanted everyone to get a tax cut, and Speaker Hortman, who now has a nickname “Peacemaker” which if you have watched the show on Netflix, or know it is the name of a revolver, might understand to double entenre, sought fairness. Hortman also pointed out based on her negotiations, Republicans actually don’t want anything just for the election to occur so they can dispense the surplus how they want in 2023, after they “win the election.”
In the course of the serial press conferences, we were the only one to ask about a Minnesota state response to the Ukraine War. Afterward Senate Republican Press Secretary Rachel Aplinkowski called out to keep questions focused on the Revenue Forecast, like she can control anything asked.
As is our tradition, we ask what the state’s debt capacity is from OMB Commissioner Jim Schowalter and he directed us to the OMB website and we found the last Debt Capacity Forecast list is December 7, 2021.
Attached is the YouTube of the press conferences https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYZVp1T_ZNk and our questions were asked at minute 43.26 and 1.17.38.