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If the Walz administration had a theme song, it would likely be the tune that World War I soldiers sang after returning victorious from Europe: “How do you keep ’em down on the farm once they’ve seen Paree?” This became a hit as many questioned how returning soldiers would adjust to life “on the farm” after witnessing the excitement of European cities and their exotic cultures. It appears that Gov. Tim Walz suffers a bit from a similar malady after his four months of traveling this country on behalf of the Harris/Walz presidential ticket. Let’s just say he doesn’t appear anxious to stay in St. Paul and do the one job he was elected to do: Govern the state of Minnesota.
Minnesotans can tell you that our 2025 biannual budget legislative session began as no other in state history. Now that the unprecedented after unprecedented actions have ended and power sharing agreements are in place in both the narrowly divided Senate and evenly divided House, Walz has left the state and is back in campaign mode. We found out this week that he has jetted off to other states, where he is reprising his one-man prepared-and-paid-for-by-Democrats show, kind of a continuation of his campaign shtick.
Walz left Minnesota with fewer than two months remaining in the legislative session for policymakers to adopt and the governor to sign a detailed, multibillion-dollar two-year budget. To draft and pass that bipartisan agreement requires endless hours of sensitive negotiations. The importance of the new budget receiving bipartisan support can’t be overstated this year: Two years ago, the DFL trifecta rammed through a one-sided budget proposal for state government that increased the size and scope of state spending by nearly 38% — an unprecedented increase in spending. Along with this spending increase, DFL leaders spent $17 billion in one-time budget surplus money, much of it going to their pet causes and special-interest supporters. Finally, lest the DFL trifecta leave any stone unturned, they raised taxes totaling an additional $10 billion, including tax increases on gasoline and other regressive taxes that financially stretched Minnesotans’ personal budgets.
As a result of the reckless and irresponsible spending binge of the past two years, Minnesotans are now soberly facing a budget crunch this biennium and an enormous $6 billion budget deficit two years down the road. These are urgent problems that should be fixed before May 19, when the legislative session is constitutionally required to complete business.
In fairness, Walz did share with us his “drive-by” budget ideas earlier this year, but he can’t be bothered to stick around and defend those ideas. No, during this important time in our state, Walz left the state to tell our Midwestern neighbors how awful things are in America after 57 days of the new presidential administration. His first comments on the road came from Iowa, where Walz said: “And I would argue that Democratic officials should hear the primal scream that’s coming from America, [which] is, ‘Do something, dammit!’”
While Walz prefers to condemn the actions of the Trump administration and deepen the already intense divide that exists in America, I prefer to look at those governors who are doing the hard work of governing in a bipartisan way — and moving their respective states forward. Here are just two of those ideas that are closing the partisan divide and making their states notable in solving some of the toughest issues facing our states:
