Gov. Tim Walz has been governor for nearly four years but Sunday was just his second state of the state delivered in the traditional way: in person, in the Minnesota House chambers, before a joint session of the Legislature, with commissioners, statewide elected officials, supreme court justices and former governors in attendance.
It was a return to the ritual and the ceremony of an annual event that Walz didn’t let go unnoticed.
“I hope all of you felt as you walked in here tonight the sense of history that goes with this and the sense that we’re in this together,” the DFL governor said. “I think it’s what Minnesotans are feeling, the sense of once again gathering with friends and relatives and coworkers and doing the important things in life.”
The governor then tried to take advantage of whatever good feelings might be engendered by a return to normalcy in a state Capitol that remains politically divided.
“I don’t need to say it. Every euphemism has been used. The last two years have been incredibly challenging,” he said. “But in those challenges, both the people of Minnesota and these two bodies, figured out a way under challenging circumstances … figured out how to get good things done together.”
The state of the state is strong, Walz said.
That’s what incumbents nearly always say, especially incumbents in a reelection year, especially those facing challengers painting the state and nation as troubled, even failing. And Walz used his nearly one-hour address to argue that the state is succeeding but needs his legislative agenda to keep it that way.
“We may not agree on everything. And if we’re being totally honest some of us won’t agree on anything,” Walz said. “But we owe it to the people of Minnesota to try to find common ground,” citing times over the last three years where a politically divided government has reached agreement.
Coming deep into the 2022 legislative session, this year’s speech held few surprises. For months, Walz has been touting the proposals he promoted Sunday night: using the state’s budget surpluses for rebate checks; being open to tax cuts aimed at lower and middle-income residents; fixing the unemployment insurance system; awarding thank-you checks to frontline pandemic workers.
He also endorsed paid family leave and paid sick leave, new spending on child care and education, $300 million in public safety grants to local governments, and proposed more money for recruitment and pay for home health care workers.
And he reiterated a common Democratic theme — in Minnesota and nationally — that the pandemic economy helped some people and hurt others. Now, he said, with surpluses that were aided by unprecedented federal pandemic relief, the state should put money into child care and health care that serve those who suffered the impact of the recession.
Shortly after the pandemic began more than two years ago, Walz gave his State of the State address alone, in the governor’s mansion in St. Paul, warning of the long winter COVID-19 had unleashed and that “staying at home” is the state’s only vaccine. Last spring, he addressed the state from his former Mankato West High School classroom, expressing optimism that actual vaccines would allow Minnesota to win the fight.
Those speeches are now time capsules of how the state’s and nation’s response to COVID-19 went from a show of unity to a source of division. Walz both acknowledged those divisions and avoided them. He praised his Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm but kept his comments about her focused on her leading an effort to find and deploy health care workers. He praised Minnesota National Guard Adjutant General Shawn Manke for his troops’ deployment in vaccine centers and nursing homes rather than their actions during the unrest following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
“The pandemic has caused rifts between all of us. It has caused rifts that seem insurmountable,” Walz said. “My pledge is to listen and try to heal those rifts because the goal of everyone in this body and the goal of everyone who is a public servant is the health and safety of all Minnesotans.”
One of those rifts is over public safety. The riots following the murder of George Floyd and a rise in violent crime in the Twin Cities has provided Republicans with a potent campaign issue, and current GOP criminal justice proposals tilt toward policing and punishment. The DFL is leaning more heavily on responses that get at what they see as root causes of crime, including poverty, poor housing, and easy access to guns.
Walz touted working with community nonprofits that try to intervene with young people and gangs. “This is not one of those issues where it is enough to point out the problem. We need concrete solutions with measurable results that keep Minnesotans safe,” he said.
Following a technique first used by former President Ronald Reagan and now an expected cliche, Walz used faces in the gallery to personify his talking points. There was the head of the state nurses union when he spoke of hero checks, a resident and her son who changed her mind on the value of vaccines, a pair of small business owners when calling for the unemployment insurance fix, a home health care worker, and the mayor of the southern Minnesota town of Taopi that was hit by a tornado this month.
“We’re gritty. We’re resilient. We’re strong and diverse,” Walz said at the end. “We may argue, but I think we understand the blessings that have been given to us. No matter how divided it may feel at times, we’re still connected.”
As also is expected in these democratic rituals, the chief executive’s words were praised by his party and questioned by the other side. House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt said Walz called his agenda ambitious — but that it needed to be more ambitious.
“We could cut taxes 10 percent across the board and still meet the demands of state government,” said Daudt, a Republican from Crown, referencing the GOP plan for a permanent income tax rate cut and an end to all taxes on social security benefits. He called the Walz rebates minuscule.
“I would challenge the governor to be more ambitious,” Daudt said. “With the resources we have we could invest back in Minnesotans who will grow our economy and we can grow our state.”
Daudt also criticized the governor’s public safety proposals that won’t address rising crime rates. “It doesn’t do anything to hold criminals accountable or recruit more people into law enforcement or support our current law enforcement,” he said.
Sen. Gary Dahms, R-Redwood Falls, filled in for Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller, who did not attend the speech. He said the education gaps in the state between whites and students of color are not solved by more money but by reforms in how education is delivered.
The current education budget passed last year is at historic highs, something Walz bragged about as well. “We’re not changing the achievement gap. We’re not changing much of anything. Yet we keep putting in new money,” Dahms said.
Though legislative DFLers are not fans of Walz’s rebate check proposal, preferring tax credits on child care and housing and other methods to target savings at lower-income Minnesotans, House Speaker Melissa Hortman said the governor’s speech was pro-worker, pro-family and pro-child. “Democrats are united behind the items in his agenda,” she said.
Again, more money, more money, more money. Money will not solve the public school issues. If you release crooks without bail or small bail, money will not help you stop crime. The Federal Government will come to their senses at some point and quit flooding the states with tax dollars. When that inevitably happens, who will fund all these new programs? It will fall on the Minnesota tax payer.
Interestingly, crime now is a thing the Democrats have to address, as much as they don’t want to. The same with failing public education. Normally the Democratic Party just tells you things are fine and will get better with more money.
Minnesota is NOT being flooded with tax dollars, that honor goes to places like W. Virginia ($3.74 to 1), Mississippi ($3.40 to 1) , Alabama($2.46 to 1) Kentucky($2.04 to 1)…those states get more in Federal Money that they send in. Here in Minnesota its more like we’re flooding those states with cash, we get 85 cents back for every dollar we send in. Interestingly the bulk of the “welfare” states are Republican states who don’t have a State Income tax. There is a similar dynamic happening here in Minnesota where the metro area sends far more tax money to the state than it receives back in services. I guess the rest goes to the folks in rural areas where they can’t pay for what they use.
Henk, the state of Minnesota got around 80 BILLION in Federal funds the past 2 years. That is 80 BILLION, don’t care what over states got. That money will dry up and then Minnesotans will pay for the new programs, bet on that one!!!
Yes indeed, I’m sure the Commissioner of Revenue and professional staff, as well as the two Budget Commitees, are completely oblivious to the fact that federal Covid relief funding has terminated.
Thank goodness there is are a couple conservative commenters on the internet who are truly aware of the state’s upcoming fiscal landscape!
Sorry for the confusion I was speaking of overall tax money returning to states, not just this short term windfall. I am a bit shocked though that you don’t care that Minnesota is funding the irresponsible lifestyles in other states. I thought that was something that concerned those of the Conservative mindset.
Until they get to the bottom of the Feeding Our Future scandal, I can’t see spending any of that surplus money.
They don’t have to spend it this year. Call it quits and go home. They have done enough damage already.
As always, the main ‘idea’ of our Repubs is that we should destabilize public finances by constantly cutting tax rates. Responsible fiscal practice when one can’t run deficits (unlike the Feds) is to set rates at levels that produce surpluses in economic expansions to then be used during recessions when one can’t raise taxes.
The goal of conservatives, however, is to cut taxes in expansions and then cut government services in recessions. That is their clear modus operandi, decade after decade. And most Minnesotans apparently still can’t learn the trick.
And even when Dems do agree to some rate cuts (like now), it’s never enough in Repub eyes, and always something to engage in more public demagoguery.
Finally, the idea that most Repubs actually care about the ‘achievement gap’ is comical. These comments are just criticizing to criticize.
Good writing B K! I think the pendulum swings both ways for both parties. The problem is appeals to individual tribes doesn’t always work for broad based rational approaches. In the railroad switch problem people who sacrifice 3 for the sake of 1 loved one are seen as more likable. The eternal Star Trek Spock vs Kirk.
Thanks Dan.
I agree regarding attempts at broad-based approaches. It seems like that is what Walz is attempting, but I just don’t see many reps receptive to that in today’s Repub party. They apparently have almost no moderates, even in MN!
Read Ben Sasse we need a transparent unicameral body and non partisanship. Didn’t we have a pro moderate non partisan league once. Let the German voters decide everything. We need a bloomberg or a Buffett.
Just as the DFL is always there to say, ‘invest’ more in the state when times are good or the state needs more when times are tough so it can help those that need the state the most.
One thing many people seem to forget that Gov Dayton and the DFL singlehandedly had our state’s largest ever tax increase in history because ‘the state needs it.’ The GOP were the only ones saying the state did not need it. Guess what, the state didn’t need it because we have been running records in revenue surpluses.
And it’s perfectly acceptable to run the state for deficits. Our state government has never been even close to revenue increases only at the rate of inflation. It runs many times over that. Deficits cause leaders to make responsible choices in spending. What we have had for the last 15 years has been beyond dumb. The GOP has been trying to limit these increases but the DFL never has enough.
Thanks for proving my point about conservatives, Bob, by praising deficits as a desired goal. Unfortunately that is not a goal of responsible public finance in a state which must balance budgets!
Which is why after years of terrible recurring deficits brought on by irresponsible Pawlentian tax cuts, Dayton had to right the fiscal ship; which has sailed much more calmly ever since, Repub attempts to destabilize it once again notwithstanding…
The problem with your thinking is when the state runs a surplus, your crowd Jack’s spending up. Then with the inevitable downturn the deficit is compounded.
“He praised Minnesota National Guard Adjutant General Shawn Manke for his troops’ deployment in vaccine centers and nursing homes rather than their actions during the unrest following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.”
The Gov’s proficiency in fiddle playing improved because of three days of practice when MPLS burned.
He is paying for it not in his base and the media (same thing). He is an astute politician and will win barely unless there is some unforseen things. WE need a statewide policy to institutionalize part of our homeless population. Mpls is already terrible and it is only April.