Lawmakers expectations for State of the State address

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(ABC 6 News) – If you ask Democrats, they will say the state of Minnesota is good and that as a state we are moving in the right direction under Governor Walz.

But Republicans say he has some broken promises to answer for.

“You know this a good thing. It’s good for on constituents and for Minnesotans to hear from their leader about what they believe has been important to them and what has been important to our state,” said Republican Representative Patricia Mueller.

Governor Walz’s State of the State address comes in the middle of a legislative session that Democrats say has addressed many issues concerning Minnesotans.

“You know I think we have made bold investments in food pantries and we’ve made bold investments in environment, and we’ve made bold investments across the board, and we have a lot more bold investments to make,” said DFL Representative Kim Hicks.

This is Rep. Hicks’s first State of the State address, and she says that she is happy with where Minnesota is as a state and where it’s heading.

“I’m very excited to hear him speak about the great things in Minnesota and everything that is going so well for us and our communities,” said Rep. Hicks.

Governor Walz was re-elected in November and Republicans say he hasn’t followed through on his promises from the campaign trail.

“The concerning thing is despite all the promises to lower taxes it’s not what we are seeing,” said Republican Representative Carla Nelson.

Senator Nelson says with still six weeks left in the legislative session she expects more tax increases to come.

“I serve on the tax committee and what we have seen is nearly 10 billion dollars of tax increases,” said Sen. Nelson.

Though Republican and Democrats don’t seem to agree on a lot these days they are hoping to hear some unity in the words spoken by the governor Wednesday evening.

“So, I hope the governor is very mindful of average Minnesotans wanting to raise their families, make a living,” said Sen Nelson.

“Frankly as we are crawling out of COVID the government should be removing barriers rather than creating them and I hope to hear that from him,” said Rep. Mueller.