Rep. Gruenhagen recaps legislative session

To The Editor,
In the small hours of this morning we passed our final state budget bill. After many hours negotiating with Governor Dayton and the Senate, we reached a budget agreement at the last hour of the regular legislative session, and the Governor agreed to call a special session to pass these bills, which he did at 12:01 am on Tuesday morning. The Governor has given his word that he will sign these bills into law.
Two major highlights from our budget are the significant tax relief we were able to pass for working families, and a huge 10-year transportation funding package.
Our tax bill gives $650 million in tax relief for Minnesotans in all stages of life, including families saving for college, farmers, and senior citizens. This is the largest tax relief package our state has seen become law in 20 years.
The transportation funding portion of our bill is a 10-year plan that will repair and build roads and bridges around the state, without a gas tax. This road and bridge funding package is the largest we have ever passed in our state without raising taxes. It also includes $16 million in dedicated funding for small cities of under 5,000 people to repair their local roads and bridges, a continuation of the small cities funding passed last session.
We will go more in-depth on specific budget bills in the coming weeks, but I am happy with the conservative reforms and budgeting we were able to pass this session.
State Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen
R-Glencoe