ST PAUL, Minn. — Wednesday, Governor Tim Walz will deliver his first State of the State address.
Tuesday, he sat down with KARE 11’s Adrienne Broaddus to discuss what he hopes Minnesotans take away from the speech.
“I hope what they hear in this is that I am recommitting myself and that we can do this together. There’s got to be compromises. There are things that we can do to improve the lives of Minnesotans and we can do it together,” he said.
Walz said he will make the case for extending the Medical Provider Fee, which has been on the books for decades but is scheduled to sunset at the end of this year. It’s a 2 percent tax on doctors and hospitals which goes to something called the Health Care Access Fund – originally designed to pay for health care coverage for the poor. Republicans say it’s not just used for health care anymore and fear it is not doing what it was intended to do.
“I've got 145 organizations ranging from AARP to Catholic charities to physicians’ groups. It has survived Democratic, Republican, reform governors. It has proven it insures 43 percent of Minnesota's children, over 1.1 million of our neighbors,” he said.
Walz will also urge the Republican-controlled Senate to to hear bills that they’ve thus far sat on, including restoring voting rights for released felony offenders.
“I certainly supported this, this is why we have to get beyond this gridlock. It has been passed by Republicans and Democrats across the country, and my hope is that we break through this pattern of set ideas,” he said.
We also asked the governor to answer questions some voters had for him. Here’s how he responded.
Voter: When are the potholes going to get fixed this season?
Walz: "Our average age of a road is 51 years. Having a dedicated funding source to fix the roads, this nation has always depended on the gas tax.
I propose, because the federal government has been frozen on this, I propose that we look at about a nickel every six months for the next couple of years and that gets us to a point where we have a plan in place that fully funds and fixes our roads, starts to move us toward a modern transportation system and at the same time let's just look into transit."
Meanwhile, Governor Walz has pushed the Legislature for bold new investment in transportation that would be paid for by raising the gas tax and motor vehicle sales taxes and license tab fees. Something voters wanted to know more about.
Voter: Is he doing anything for public transportation? Maybe lowering it. It's a little bit too high for me.
Walz: "Transit is a big piece of it. Yes, we are. Trying to make it both more affordable, more accessible and easier for people to get around. As we look at about one million people over the next 30 years we have to have a general transportation plan. We have the fifth-largest amounts of roads and bridges, that makes our economy stronger than many of the states around us. It also costs more for the maintenance of it … That package raises about $18.1 billion and that's over 20 years. The state doesn't do anything on this, all that does is shift the cost back to the city and the only way for the cities to do it is to raise property taxes."
Voter: What is he doing about the group of Liberians who are DED or temporary status in Minnesota?
Walz: "This is where the federal government needs to do comprehensive immigration reform. I have sent a letter and advocated both to our federal delegation and to President Trump that we get a permanent fix on the DED."
Coupled with his speech, Walz is preparing to host guests for the Final Four.
Saturday, he will cheer for Michigan State University.