Legislative

Scorecard 2017
The legislators pictured below RECEIVED THE HIGHEST SCORES ON OUR LEGISLATIVE
SCORECARD. They deserve special recognition for their efforts to limit the spending growth and reach
of Minnesota State Government. Those receiving 100% are “Best Friends of the Taxpayer”. Those
receiving a score of 87% and above are denoted “Friends of the Taxpayer.” Those receiving a score
of 80 and above get an “Honorable Mention” for 2017. Those with a gold frame have also signed the
Taxpayer Protection Pledge.

Best Friend of the Taxpayer

100% Rep. Cal Bahr

31B-East Bethel

Friends of the Taxpayer

Rep. Eric Lucero Rep. Drew Rep. Mary Franson
30B -Dayton Christensen 8B -Alexandria
56A-Savage

Honorable Mention
Rep. Steve Rep. Glenn Rep. Jeff Howe Rep. Ron Kresha Rep. Jim
Drazkowski Gruenhagen 13A- Rockville 9B- Little Falls Newberger
21B-Mazeppa 18B-Glencoe 15B-Becker

Sen. Mary
Kiffmeyer
30 - Big Lake

Rep. Marion O’Neill Rep. Joyce Peppin Rep. Cindy Pugh Rep. Duane Quam Rep. Peggy Scott Rep. Abigail
34A- Rogers 33B-Chanhassen 25A-Byron 35B-Andover Whelan
60B-Maple Lake 
35A-Ramsey

Senate House
 What did the Minnesota Legislature do in The 2017 Session?
T his year’s session will probably be remembered more by
how it ended than what it contained but a lot did happen. As
usual, some of it was good, some bad, and some just kicking
the can down the road.
Tax cuts and Tax Reform. Property tax cuts for farmers and
the phase-out of taxes on social security taxes on Seniors.
–Most of it passed and was signed into law. Property Tax
empowerment provisions and tuition tax credits were stripped
from the final bill. The Social Security phase-out turned into
a tax credit, with some stipulations. (although the Governor
wanted a do-over, see below)
Education reform, including an end to seniority as the
critical factor in teacher retention (LIFO) and school choice
in the form of tax credits for private school tuition. –Most of it
passed, although some of it was on the Governor’s do over
list. (See below).
Attempts to downsize and cut the budget did not survive
budget negotiations – we got a 9% increase for the
biennium in spending. Spending continues to grow in the out
years (see chart)
Pumped up road and bridge spending. The trick here was
to do it without raising the gas tax or any other vehicle-related
tax or fee hike like license tab fees, both of which Governor
Dayton’s DO-OVER DEMANDS
G overnor Dayton wants a do-
over. After months of negotiations
with the legislature and grudgingly
signing the budget bills into law, the Governor
decided to withhold funding the operations of
the legislature to pressure it to come back into
special session and undo some of what was
just passed. The Minnesota Supreme court has
ordered the Legislature and the Governor into
mediation. This is his re-do list:
Dayton had wanted.
Pre-emption. Progressive Activists have been trolling
around the state trying to make cities into progressive
fiefdoms by enacting labor laws by ordinance. Business
was very keen on a law stopping cities from creating their
own minimum wage and labor laws, resulting in a nightmare
of different laws in Minnesota. The legislature tried to pre-
empt that with a state standard. On two attempts, It did
not survive the Governor’s veto pen. Minneapolis’ ban on
plastic bags which had not gone into effect yet was slapped
down.
Borrowing. We were hoping for no bonding bill in a non-
bonding year, but since there was pent up demand due
to no bonding bill last cycle and some arguably worthy
projects, we did expect one. It came in just under a Billion
dollars. ($995 Million) That top number will continue to be a
flashpoint because Dayton’s Revenue commissioner Myron
Franz argues that Minnesota could be borrowing SO MUCH
MORE, about FOUR TIMES as much as it has been .
Legislative arguments that we shouldn’t be burdening future
generations with a growing slice of the budget for debt
service have fallen on deaf ears at the Governor’s office.
Sunday Sales. As of July 1, 2017 Minnesotans can buy
liquor on Sundays, and retailers can decide to be open or
not.
1. Put back the automatic tax increase on tobacco that
encourages a black market in cigarettes.
2. Keep the estate tax inclusion increase high and
uncompetitive with other states.
3. Remove the Commercial-Industrial Property tax freeze.
Small and Medium businesses are getting clobbered by this
extra property tax that has no analog in other states.
4. Remove the ban on issuing driver’s licenses to
undocumented persons.
5. Get rid of Education reforms that are meant to help the
teacher shortage and provide new pathways to entering the
teaching field.
 Hanging fire: What didn’t get resolved?
HEALTH INSURANCE You will notice that we did not score any healthcare related bills. Why not? These bills
have substantial fiscal impact. They are trying to provide a temporary fix to a government created problem,
namely the destruction of the private insurance market thanks to Obamacare. We decided to wait and
see if the temporary fix works because it could save Minnesotans from two awful fates, 100% government
controlled healthcare or a destroyed private insurance market (which by the way is a substantial employer
in this state). Some critics of this fix want single payer and opposed the fix for this reason. We can’t side
with them. So we’ll postpone our judgement until next session’s bills.

Another crack at solving the pension problem fails . There is so much wrong with the Minnesota government’s
pension system its hard to know where to start. But one place is that the taxpayers and children should not
be punished for the unsustainably large retirement benefits agreed upon by unions and local governments
for years without any thought about how they would be paid for in the future. Pension “reform” bills in years
past are just a series of Band-Aids on the system which don’t recognize years of increases that pension
holders have been able to capture and force state and local taxpayers to shore up the funds when there
are losses. This bill cuts the rate of increase in pension benefits in future years rather than putting that
burden on taxpayers and schools. (HF 003 Special Session)

Growth in State Spending

Thousands Minnesota State Spending per person adjusted for inflation and Population
16

14

12

10

0
2000-2001

2002-2003

2004-2005

2006-2007

2008-2009

2010-2011

2012-2013

2014-2015

2016-2017

2018-2019

2020-2021
1960-1961

1962-1963

1964-1965

1966-1967

1968-1969

1970-1971

1972-1973

1974-1975

1976-1977

1978-1979

1980-1981

1982-1983

1984-1985

1986-1987

1988-1989

1990-1991

1992-1993

1994-1995

1996-1997

1998-1999

All Funds spending per capita General Fund spending per capita 2016 dollars, Source: MMB 2017
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