Accomplishments
In the toughest of times, Governor Tim Walz and Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan provided the steady leadership Minnesota needed to keep our neighbors and families safe and grow our economy in every corner of the state. Tim and Peggy supported small businesses and cut taxes for the middle-class, while balancing the budget, making insulin and prescription drugs more affordable, and championing the largest investment in funding for schools in decades. To keep Minnesota moving forward, we need Tim and Peggy working for us.
Economy
Cutting taxes and moving Minnesota’s economy forward for everyone.
Tim and Peggy built a strong economy in Minnesota by investing in workers and small businesses to create good-paying jobs in every part of the state. Under their leadership, Minnesota ranks as the fifth best state in the nation for job growth, and currently has the lowest unemployment rate of any state, ever.
Tim and Peggy balanced every budget while cutting taxes, adding money to the state’s rainy-day fund, and making critical investments to expand access to training opportunities and community college programs. They worked hard to extend high-speed internet across Greater Minnesota and repair our state’s roads and bridges. Tim and Peggy’s Local Jobs and Projects Plan was the largest jobs bill in state history, with $1.9 billion going to local construction and renovation projects across the state creating thousands of jobs for Minnesotans. Tim and Peggy signed a bill to give 1.36 million middle-class Minnesotans a tax rate cut for the first time in 20 years and his most recent tax bill includes over a billion dollars in tax relief and tax forgiveness for businesses and individuals who needed help during the pandemic.
The Walz Administration established the Governor’s Council on Economic Expansion, which brings together 15 labor, business, philanthropic, and non-profit leaders from across the state to provide recommendations on expanding Minnesota’s economy.
To support Minnesota’s transition to the clean energy economy and our agricultural economy, Tim and Peggy established the Governor’s Biofuels Council. He also implemented a dairy assistance program to help dairy farmers get the resources they need to keep their farms running.
Tim and Peggy are fighting to give some of our historic budget surplus back by sending $2,000 checks to help Minnesota’s working families with rising costs.
Education and Equal Opportunity
Providing historic investments in students and families.
As a former public school teacher and high school coach, Tim has made supporting public schools a top priority. Every child in Minnesota should be able to attend a world-class school and have the opportunity to succeed – no matter their zip code.
From their first days in office, Tim and Peggy made a major push to expand access to pre-kindergarten, and their most recent budget included major investments in summer learning programs to ensure that students statewide stay up to speed on their education despite the pandemic. The budget also included the largest increase in per-pupil funding in 15 years.
Under their leadership, Minnesota is ranked as the best state in the country for women and for kids during the pandemic.
Police Reform and Public Safety
Fighting to ensure all Minnesotans feel safe in their communities.
Minnesotans should feel safe in their communities, regardless of race, gender, or geography, and trust the criminal justice system to deliver on its promise of justice.
Tim and Peggy helped pass important public safety reforms to tackle crime and reduce gun violence while reforming policing to ensure the safety of all Minnesotans. Their last two budgets provided investments in new violence prevention programs, funding to ensure law enforcement wear body cameras, limits on no-knock warrants, and bans on chokeholds and “warrior-style” training.
Tim and Peggy also proposed $300 million to help local governments fund law enforcement, first responders, and improve public safety. Since the public safety needs look different across the state, their plan will empower communities to take the lead with state support to help ensure every Minnesotan is safe in their community.
They are also utilizing the State Patrol and the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to assist local law enforcement and crack down on carjackings, street racing, gun violence, and crime.
Tim and Peggy are committed to creating safer communities for all Minnesotans and advancing police reform without defunding or abolishing the police.
Abortion Rights
Health Care
Decreasing costs and increasing access to affordable health care.
Minnesotans need affordable and accessible health care. That’s why Tim and Peggy fought hard to preserve the Health Care Access Fund, despite Republican efforts to end the program that 1.2 million Minnesotans rely upon for health care access. Tim and Peggy also signed a bill increasing protections for seniors in assisted living facilities, successfully championed legislation to increase transparency in prescription drug costs, and signed the historic Alec Smith Insulin Affordability Act to provide relief to Minnesotans struggling to afford their insulin.
COVID-19
Saving lives and ensuring Minnesota’s economy could recover quickly.
Through some of the most challenging years in memory and co-occurring crises, Tim’s decisive leadership saved lives and helped our economy recover quickly. Minnesotans worked together to lead the Upper Midwest in vaccination, and because of Minnesotans hard work, the state’s economy is recovering stronger than most other states in the nation. Tim and Peggy provided loans and grants to thousands of small businesses so that restaurants, cafes, barbershops, and other small businesses could weather the pandemic.
They also signed into law over a billion dollars in tax relief and tax forgiveness for businesses and individuals who needed help during the pandemic. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Tim and Peggy invested nearly $600 million to expand access to child care throughout the state to help support our workforce and essential workers and increased cash assistance for low-income working families for the first time in over 30 years.
The Walz Administration’s COVID-19 Recovery Budget provided relief for workers and businesses including $70 million in COVID-19 relief for small businesses across the state that have borne the brunt of this pandemic to protect their communities and save lives; $80 million in statewide grants to address the greatest economic development and redevelopment needs; $597 million to support child care providers and increase access to affordable, quality child care; and $500 million in direct hero payments to Minnesota’s essential workers on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Environment
Taking urgent action to tackle climate change.
Climate change is an urgent and existential threat to the things we love about living in Minnesota. That’s why Tim and Peggy have taken urgent action to tackle climate change and move Minnesota into the clean energy economy. They are pushing for 100% of Minnesota’s electricity to come from renewable energy by the year 2040. Their new environmental initiative will bring more fuel-efficient cars to Minnesota and require Minnesota car dealers to offer consumers more choices of electric vehicles. These measures will help Minnesota combat climate change while increasing options and retaining consumers’ ability to choose what they drive.
