State Representative John Petersburg, Republican Lead on the Minnesota House Transportation Finance and Policy Committee, issued the following statement after learning the Met Council and Hennepin County had reached an agreement on how to pay for the Southwest...

Hello from St. Paul, With roughly two weeks remaining in session, joint House/Senate conference committees continue to meet in hopes of finding common ground in budget bills for the State of Minnesota. I currently serve on the transportation finance conference...

Hello from the State Capitol, Now that the House majority has approved all of its budget bills, conference committees are now in full swing. Members who serve in these joint House/Senate meetings – and on a personal note, I am serving on the transportation...

Hello from the State Capitol, This week, House Democrats approved their omnibus taxes bill. With a $17 billion budget surplus, many of us at the start of the year envisioned this bill to contain numerous tax relief measures that would provide significant and...

Hello from the State Capitol, This week, Governor Walz gave his State of the State address in the Minnesota House chamber. It’s always interesting to hear a governor’s opinion on how the state is doing. In this case, the Democrats are in complete control of...

Hello from St. Paul, I hope you all had a very Happy Easter holiday, and were able to enjoy time with family and friends. As it does every year, with roughly four to five weeks to go in our legislative session, the heavy lifting in the Minnesota House and...

Hello from St. Paul, We have just completed our last full week of work before we begin our Easter/Passover break, and our House committees have been extremely busy working on budget bills.  In order to set a state budget, an overall spending target for the next...

Hello from the State Capitol, With the second legislative committee deadline fast approaching during this budget year, finance committees are scrambling to have bills heard as the chairs attempt to put together spending proposals in their particular issue area...

Hello from the State Capitol,  Minnesota's economic experts continued to express optimism in the latest budget forecast that was unveiled on February 27.  They projected that Minnesota now has a $17.5 billion budget surplus. This is the amount left behind after...

Hello from the State Capitol, Is it fair that senior citizens pay taxes on their Social Security income after paying into that system for their entire lives? I don’t believe it is, which is why I’m authoring legislation that would eliminate state taxes on...