Why Minnesota Needs Base Power To Keep Lights On

Transcript

Meet Representative Bjorn Olson

SPEAKER_01 0:00

So again, good morning. This is Elizabeth. Donners Smith with the Martin County Star. If possible, we're going to be trying to transfer this uh interview with uh Bjorn Olson and um to our podcast. Now, uh Mr. Olson, Senator Olson, what is the best thing for me to call you?

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Uh you can just call me Bjorn, but officially it's Representative Olson.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Representative Olson, yes. I get uh I am not as as politically astute as I should be. So now it is okay, so you represent our part of Minnesota in in the counties, in the states.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

That's correct. Yes, I represent most of Martin County, so I represent every uh city in Martin County except for Trimont, which I lost during the uh redistricting of 2022. So when I was first elected, I represented all of Martin County. Now I I uh Marge Gogelman has Trimont, and then the four townships around Trimont. I represent everything else in Martin County. I represent the eastern half of Waganwan County, the southern half of Blue Earth County, and then the western half of Fairville County.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

Okay. And um may I ask your age?

SPEAKER_00 1:23

I'm 35.

SPEAKER_01 1:25

35.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Yeah, I was born in uh 1991.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

1991. So you've been in politics for quite a while.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

Um just since 2020. Well, I ran I ran for the first time in 2020 when Bob Gunther announced his retirement.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

Right, but before that you were saying that you were a mayor?

SPEAKER_00 1:43

I was a yeah, that's correct. I was a city mayor. I guess that's technically real small town politics. But yeah, I was a small town mayor in Elmore, Minnesota from 2016 until 2020.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

So, let me do the math. So you took that on when you were 25? I was 25, yep. Wow. Excellent, excellent. Um w how um what what school did you graduate high school from?

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Uh I went to Blue Earth and graduated in 2009. And then after I graduated, I went to Bethel University, up in the Twin Cities, and then I did Army training with the University of Minnesota. Then after that, in 2013, graduated from college, went back home, um, taught seventh grade social studies at Blue Earth. So about four right four years after graduating from high school, I went back to the same school and taught history.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

Four years. Um we love we love the locals. We

How Minnesota’s Part-Time Legislature Works

SPEAKER_01 2:46

love the locals. So then as a representative, is that is that a full-time position?

SPEAKER_00 2:51

No, thank thank heaven. So um in the state of Minnesota, we're a part-time legislature, which means that um we're on a two-year cycle. We call it a biennium. The first year is the odd year, so this year was 2025, and then the even year 26 is the second year of the biennium. On the first year, we uh basically fund the government. So the government is funded for a two-year time period, and that first year we are in from about the first week in January until the middle of May. And during that amount of time, we have to figure out a way to fund the state government. Well, you know, education, department of human services, health, all the stuff that goes into our state government. This last year uh we passed a budget, a biannual budget, so a two-year budget, it was sixty-seven billion dollars. So ridiculous amount of money being spent. Uh, I told you I was 35. When I was born, the state of Minnesota ran on 15 billion dollars every two years. Now we run on 67, so that's uh a pretty huge increase in just my lifetime. But that's how it goes from January till May. It's Monday through Friday. So anyone who lives uh more than fifty miles away from the state capital, which we do, there's a housing allowance that is uh allocated for us. So during session Monday through Friday, I stay up. I can uh I stay up in the Twin Cities area. We've got a um house that we rent.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

That's sweet, that's sweet. Um, but that's just for those five months.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

Yep, just for those five months, and then we're back down here full-time. And that's when now we we do some farming, and I'm still in the army, and so that's kind of my my full-time job is the farming, the politician stuff that's not a full-time job, and nor should it ever be a full-time job, because I think it was Alexander Hamilton who said the only time I fear for my freedom is when my government is in session. They can't take rights away if they're not there voting to take them away.

SPEAKER_01 4:59

That's deep. So with that in mind, and being your farmer, and uh man, there's so many things I want to ask you. Um

The 250th Anniversary And Service Abroad

SPEAKER_01 5:12

uh I talked to you about uh um Mike and Candy want me to do an article about 20 the the the country being 250 years old. Yeah. Um and it's it's quite quite exchange. I was visiting with uh Presidios from Walcome. Okay, and you they were saying that they're they just sell celebrated their 50 years of graduating high school. And we also, you know, remembered uh when the country was uh 200 years old in the celebrations that we all I mean it was it was predicted, it was planned, it was not a last minute thing. Um she also remembers at that time uh we were completing Vietnam. How were you feeling as as a military man, as a farmer, uh knowing where we're at in the country at this time?

SPEAKER_00 6:09

So I'm a history teacher too. Okay. And so the whole the whole 250 years of the greatest nation in the entire world, that's pretty exciting to me. I uh so I was over in Kuwait last year. I was on a deployment as soon as, remember, we're a part-time legislature, so as soon as we finished in May of last year, I jumped on an airplane and I went over to uh Kuwait, and I spent some time in Kuwait, in Jordan, in Syria, and in Iraq during a deployment with the army. And uh I was actually in Kuwait when Iran was firing their missiles the first time in June of last year at Israel. And you know, I looked up in the sky and I I saw Iranian missiles being intercepted by American patriot missile defense systems. And that's that's absolutely no question. You have this this feeling of awe at the power of the United States of America. There is no country that is a greater force for good in this world than the United States. And the concept that this great experiment of democracy has lasted for 250 years is pretty special. It's pretty spectacular. You know, the French, they'll talk about their French Revolution and how they dominated democracy and all that kind of stuff. They're on like their seventh government, on their seventh constitution. The United States is still on their very first constitution. This is a wonderful thing. This is the most impressive thing in all the history of the world, is how a group of people can come together and and create what we have created in the amount of time that we've created it. Remember, in 1776, when we declared our independence, we were not the big dog. We were not huge, we were not powerful, we were up against the most powerful nation in the entire history of the world up till that time. We were up against the British and we defeated them. And then for the next hundred years, we were not the biggest and the baddest nation in the world when it comes to power. We were just a small little fledgling of a nation trying to put its put its place and its mark on the world. And then after the American Civil War, when we freed the slaves, we go ahead and we we create this industrial powerhouse that we are today, and and after World War II ending fascism in the in the world, fighting against communism, man, the concept or or what we have done, you know, and this is coming from a guy who's got a master's in military history. I am I'm pretty well educated on the history of the world and on what's been going on and how empires have risen and fallen. And I can tell you that getting to 250 years and being the country that we are the way we are, the greatest force for good in this world, that's impressive. And I am so excited to be a part of it. So excited to be alive for the 250th. You see, I wasn't alive during the 200th, so very excited that we've made it to this mark and super, super proud that I could even just be a small part of it with what I do in the Army and with the state of Minnesota.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

Wow, that's deep, and that's encouraging. That is very encouraging.

765 kV Lines And Eminent Domain Fears

SPEAKER_01 9:08

So um let me take it uh to the next step with with being part of Minnesota, and um uh we've got this this big towers coming through, uh bringing I don't even understand what. But one of the options has to be going right through some property down by Elmore.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

Sure. Yeah, so I I live in Fairmont now. Um I'm no longer I no longer live in Elmore. We we moved uh in 2021. Uh we found that we were we were driving to Fairmont more often than than not, so we thought my wife was wondering why we didn't just live there. So we did move uh in 2021. But uh when you talk about these power lines, that they're they're talking about bringing in 765 KV lines, they're twice as big as any line you that you can see in this area. And the biggest and the worst part for me is the word imminent domain. You know, you got this big government putting their thumb on the scales, and and it makes you feel really, really powerless. And so I've had a lot of conversations with with members uh around around the area, a lot of our constituents, a lot of our our residents, and I haven't found a single person who's excited about this concept of these power lines, and everyone is of the opinion from what I've read and what I've been able to hear from that that we gotta do something. If we can't win, we gotta at least put up a fight, sort of a s a situation. And uh so I called the former chair of the energy committee, called potentially the future chair, depending on how the election goes in November, just to kind of chat with them about what you can do, right? When when big government shows up and says we're doing this, what do you do? And it's really frustrating, but the the one piece of advice that I told the Sentinel, and the Sentinel didn't post in their newspaper, which frustrated me to no end, was uh the former chair of the energy committee told me that he said, Your constituents are gonna ask you, what do you do? What do you think? And you should tell them three words don't sign anything. Until this whole situation plays out, don't sign anything. Because what they're gonna do is they're gonna go through these proposed routes and they're gonna try and get signatures from people, which then they're gonna take to the Public Utilities Commission and they're gonna say, look, this line is 65% agree upon. There's not any uh there's no opposition to it, let's build it on that line. And so he told me, until everyone's been able to read the fine print, until everyone knows what's going on, just don't sign anything. Uh so I I think that's a big uh piece of information that individuals should have, and that's that's something that they need to think for themselves, right? Because this is personal property rights are a really important thing to me. When people are making a decision to accept the the offer that the these organizations, as companies, are giving, well, then that's their decision, that's their own personal property rights decision. But at the end of the day, imminent domain is a factor in this game that they're talking about, and and that's what's real frustrating. So I've been talking with our county commissioners as well. I actually just spoke with one yesterday just to see what we can do. Because as I told them all, I said, when I was the mayor of Elmore, uh, we would be having these conversations of can we do something? Can we do this new ordinance or can we put this into place? And I'd look at our city attorney and I'd ask him, I'd say, is this legal for us to do? And the count or the city attorney would say the same thing to me every single time. He said, You can do whatever you want until someone tells you that you can't. So I I told the commissioners that. I said, You are the government, you are a local government entity, you can do whatever you want until someone tells you that you can't, and that someone would be a judge. And so I've been encouraging the county to get involved. The county has uh attorneys, they have land use attorneys that are on tenure, they have them there, and I think it's a wonderful, you know, I'm not I live in the city of Hermann, I'm not on their I'm not on their proposed routes, but I think that my property taxes would be well used, defending our landowners who are potentially at risk of losing portions of their land to imminent domain. So just recently, the county commissioners here in Martin County passed a resolution saying they don't want any 765 KV lines going through the county. I just spoke with the county commissioner yesterday, and he told me that they're getting they're having a meeting between Fairbill County, Martin County, and Freeborn County coming up here soon, and Jackson County, they're hoping to get on board as well. Because I told them, I said, hey, if if the southern route counties get together and say we don't want this, they might just choose a different route. And if we can put up enough of a fight, we might win this thing. So I'm actually encouraged by it. I'm I'm I told the county commissioners, I said, we owe it to our constituents to make sure that we can look them in the eye at the end of the day and say we fought as best we possibly could. And I think that that's what they're doing. So I'm really, really proud of what our county commission has been doing here in Martin County with regards to this power line.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

Outstanding. But um, with that in mind and what we talked about earlier, does it not slow progress for the nation if we don't continue adding all this stuff?

The Three-Word Advice For Landowners

SPEAKER_00 14:21

So the reason why they're proposing the 765 KV line is due to 50 years of really, really poor energy policy here in the state of Minnesota. We can't generate our own power. If you look at this line, this line is being proposed from South Dakota where they use base power coal power plants, and they're going to Rochester to provide energy to Rochester. This is this is a symptom of a really bad disease that the state has pulled on, and that disease is uh a misunderstanding of how energy is used. We need base power. There's two ways of doing it. Either you use fossil fuels or you use nuclear, neither of which we can legally use here in the state of Minnesota because of really poor energy policy that we've been adopting since then. We haven't done anything on nuclear since the 90s. And so that's a real problem. We gotta do one or the other. There is no way in the state of Minnesota that we can keep the lights on if we're only depending on wind and solar. So something has to give, and that's the problem. So they're building these lines and they're taking our land from us just because we can't make our own power. Rochester needs energy, and they can't build a coal-based power plant, they can't build a nuclear power plant to do it themselves. As a result, they got to import it somewhere else, and that's the frustrating part because three billion dollars, they estimate three billion bucks are going to travel in energy across this line, and it's not gonna make the people of Martin County even three three dollars. So that's the frustrating part about it. We in Martin County won't get anything for this after the easement are paid for. So that's the real frustrating part. So I don't think it's I don't think it's holding up progress. I think it it is requiring a new look at energy policy in the state because we desperately need it.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Well then that's I mean, then that is a solution that we could redirect. I mean, would we be able to get better energy policy uh uh and get that that sort of play on board fast enough to redirect the thought? And and I mean, is that possible? They're talking about this being 10 years away.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

Yeah, so there is there's actually some pretty encouraging uh information coming out from the state regarding nuclear energy. So I told you that we haven't done anything significant since the 90s regarding nuclear energy. This last year, for the first time in 30 years, we passed a study. So it's not it's nothing significant, but in a sense,

Energy Policy Behind The New Lines

SPEAKER_00 16:52

it might be a little significant in the fact that we're now performing a study on how to do nuclear in the state of Minnesota. So the conversation is being had. I think people who uh for years and years and years have been very, very concerned and hesitant about the issue are looking at it saying, Well, what do you want? You either need coal-based, fossil fuel-based energy production, or you need nuclear production, one or the other. And this is one of those instances where I think the French have done a wonderful thing. You know, there's not a lot that the French are super well known for being good at, but nuclear is one of them. And the one of my buddies up in St. Paul, he stands a chance of being somebody important in the in the energy committee, but he just recently, last um couple weeks ago, got back from a trip to France where he went and did some um you know tours of French power plants, French nuclear facilities, their enriching capabilities to see how the French deal with energy in their country. And so I think there's some things he can bring back to the state. I think there's some conversations that are being had, and I definitely think that there are things we can do. Um, I don't think anyone's talking, because I've talked to Excel Energy in the past about stuff like that. No one's talking about these enormous, huge nuclear power plants. They're talking about micro-nuclear plants, which the nuclear power plant is the size of a house and it provides enough energy for a small city. And I think that's where the future of this power idea is is going. And and we we need we need to move in that direction that will help us not have you know these monstrous power lines coming through our neck of the woods just so they can power other people's houses, not our own.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

Right, right. Well, as you were saying, that is I I'm imagining the size of a nuclear power plant. I and then at the same time I'm comparing it to a football field zone every mile under each one of these towers. Am I understanding it correct?

SPEAKER_00 18:58

Yeah, so the football field that you're talking about, those easements are they're 250 foot easements uh all the way across the line. So they're huge. Huge. These lines are enormous, and uh they try uh you know they they tell you that they're gonna try their best to go along property lines, and so farmers are only gonna need to give up 125 feet. But there's a lot of these, a lot of these fields where there's no other way for these lines to go, and they're gonna cut right straight through a farmer's field. Imagine having to give up 250 feet all the way across your field, having to turn around early, having to watch out, make sure you don't hit those things, that's gonna get really frustrating. And I think it hurts the property value of the farm itself, because you look at this nice straight half-mile field, and then all of a sudden there's a power line that goes through it, meaning that the farmer who's looking to buy that field has to turn around halfway in between or or move out of the way. So I think it hurts there's a lot of farmers who are concerned about their value of their land, saying no one's gonna want to buy a field that's got a huge 260

Nuclear Momentum And Microreactors

SPEAKER_00 20:09

there's 765 kV uh power line going through it, and I I don't blame them.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

Right. I I I'm I'm concerned about all of our our our health because again, we already live in a cancer belt, which is you know sad horrifying. But you add power lines on top of it. Um yeah, it's not it's not it's not a positive thing of hearing an effect, it affects milk production. Um we're just building a million-dollar school and and sure. I mean, that's gonna be right outside their window. Um I heard that the FoxClick Event Center, they're hosting uh talks and conversations, and they were informed that, well, if we take that middle line and that I-90 route is gonna go right through your building and you're gonna have to bug out, and they're like, what?

SPEAKER_00 20:58

Yeah, no, it's and I think that the health is a serious concern as well. You know, there's a a bunch of representatives from Texas who recently submitted to their own public utilities commission down there saying we're really concerned about the health uh of our constituents regarding these lines, and we should put a pause on any further production of 765 KV lines until we know for a fact that there is or isn't health concerns. You know, uh I had a number of constituents tell me that with their pacemakers and their heart their heart equipment, they can't be within X amount of feet of one of these huge things. You know, and and even if you're even if you're one of those individuals who kind of rolls your eyes at the concept of things being dangerous, uh, you stand underneath one of those things and you can hear them crackling and cacking and making all sorts of noise, uh, that's concerning to me. You know, just hearing the electric buzz on these lines tells me that there's there's something there. If you're not gonna touch it with your hands, that that's worry that's worry some. So until we know more, I I absolutely take seriously the concept of them being dangerous to people's health. Yeah, I've got four kids, so I've got I've got two four-footers, a three-footer, and a two-footer. So for those who use the metric system, that's an eight-year-old, a six-year-old, and a three-year-old, and a five-month-old. So, what a blessing.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

Yeah, so again, we're concerned about our children's future and where they live. So with that in mind, and um man, again, you're well-educated, man. I I'm enjoying this conversation. Um what do you think about do we have enough AI when you're talking about uh shooting missiles down from what you saw? Um it takes it it it takes AI technology to do some of the things that we're talking about as far as our civil defense. I mean, when is enough enough?

SPEAKER_00 22:57

Sure. So I I you're probably alluding to the concept of data centers and and having all that kind of stuff. Now, there is a there's a point where a lot of that information we probably should house in the United States, but remember these data centers, you know, some people say, oh, it's gonna bring all sorts of money to your district, it's gonna be great. The only money that it brings is the development of the building. It only has one or two people who work there and they swipe their card and everyone else just logs in remotely from wherever they live. So I don't know how much prosperity it brings to a district or how much prosperity it brings to a city. What I do know is that the internet's a very important thing to our society, and all these data centers, they're all connected, all these servers that play a part of

Farm Impacts And Health Concerns

SPEAKER_00 23:42

the internet, they all play a part. The question is, where should that be? And what's the best location for those to be? Should it be in the United States? A lot of that stuff probably should be, you know, a lot of our own technology should be uh harbored in the United States. There's a lot of security involved in these servers and that kind of stuff. But when you when you want to talk about uh where should it be, that's that's a really good question. I think people are still pondering that. And I think that we're gonna see we're gonna see a huge uptick in AI development. And then I I think that I think that the conversation is gonna be had, you know, when I was a kid, everyone wanted to be a software engineer, and now everyone who became a software engineer has they've done such a good job that they almost engineered themselves out of a job. And so that's the thing. AI has now replaced the entry-level software developers because AI does it themselves. So I wonder at what point do we get to, we're seeing this enormous expanse in AI and the data centers that come with it. I think eventually that's gonna slow down. It just it just has to uh at some point. And I think right now the relevance of the conversation is where's the right place to put these? Is it is the right place to put it on a $14,000 an acre farm, or is it um in a cold climate? Is it next to water? What's the right answer? And how do you conserve and harbor your resources to the best of your ability at the same time? I think those are conversations that are well on their way, but are still uh in that developmental process. So I'll be interested to see what happens. I know that the whole concept of personal property rights makes me I have to sit back uh and kind of take a deep breath. So when people start talking about solar, right? We're kind of getting off topic a little bit, but we're going back to energy. You talk talk about solar, and you've got people coming to me and saying, Representative Olson, we've got to pass a law that says you can't use prime farmland for solar panels. And I said, Well, are you for or against personal property rights? Because if someone owns the land and they want to do something with it, personal property rights in my mind tells them that tells me that they can do what they want with it. The only problem that I can have with solar farms is if the government is giving tax subsidies for that. That's where I can have a problem with it. But if it's just the fact that this person owns the land and wants to make it a solar farm and you think it should be safe for prime farmland, that's that's where we're gonna disagree because it's that person's land. The problem that I can have is if the state or the government's subsidies are going to help turn it into a solar farm because that's our money that's being used for a purpose outside of what I would believe in. But I think that that's the same with data centers. If someone owns the land and they want to turn it into that or they want to sell it for that, that's their own personal property right. If imminent domain is going to jump in and say, well, you know, now they need power lines, and we're gonna take that land uh from someone else, that's where it can have a serious problem.

SPEAKER_01 26:47

Right. And and what I'm with I again I feel hopeful from your conversation about the nuclear option is because that would minimize the need for all those power lines. It would minimize the need for um Yeah. Yeah, migratory, all of that. It would just minimize uh it's not that it it doesn't need to happen. As we've discussed, we need to move forward and have the these this technology, but if you can minimize the damage.

SPEAKER_00 27:15

Absolutely. Yeah, I mean if you can make a micronuclear facility um and connect it and power all of Mankato, that sounds pretty great. It does. And it's it's just one little building about the size of a school or a house, and and you're golden with it. So I think that's I think it's very encouraging. I think that's the way we need to go. Um it doesn't mean we shut our eyes to what's going on in the future or take a hard right turn or a hard left turn, but that that's a serious thing we're looking at.

SPEAKER_01 27:43

Outstanding, outstanding. Um personal question, did you do voice uh voice to eight?

SPEAKER_00 27:52

Yeah, yeah, so actually I was a so a couple different things. When I was a kid, um I was an Eagle Scout, so I was a Boy Scout and went all the way through the to the Eagle Scout aspect of that, and then um through the Legion there in Blue Earth that he sponsored me when I was a junior in high school to go, I participate in Boy State. So all that kind of civic building your country isn't building your love and pride for your nation, I think those are wonderful organizations that really harbor a kid in the right way, and so I hope to hope hope to get my kids involved in those organizations in the future.

SPEAKER_01 28:27

Absolutely, and well, with that in mind, um some of those agencies, the DFWs,

AI Data Centers And Land Use Tradeoffs

SPEAKER_01 28:36

the uh American Legion Auxiliary, they are the try mod our our ladies are are deciding maybe to hang up their gap. Um they they don't have as many people asking to be girls date anymore. I think they only have one or two applicants. Um do you see that being again? We don't want a lot of people with military service, but we do still have a need. Your family has a need. Uh, are you finding finding the support?

SPEAKER_00 29:10

Um you know, so um I left, I went overseas last year, and the uh Fairmont Legion, the Martin County Beyond the Yellow Ribbon organization, they they did just phenomenal things supporting my family. And so I think that there is still a significant need, and they play a huge part, but not only do they play a huge part in you know supporting military families, but look at the value of a local VFW or a women's auxiliary organization from those organizations as well. Look what they do. Um, you know, I was talking with the Legion here because I'm a member of the Fairmont Legion. I was talking with the Legion commander, and he told me that last year the Fairmont Legion did $220,000 worth of good in the area. So that's scholarships for kids to go to school, that's um, you know, they're working on their Veterans Memorial Park up there in the northern part of the city of Fairmont. That's Boise State scholarships. That you talk about supporting a community, some of the best supporters of a community are the Legion organizations in these nonprofits. But you can you can loop everyone in, not just the military organizations, you can loop in the Lions Clubs and the Kowanises, you can loop in all the nonprofits of these areas that are doing such good work for the people of their communities. Um we regularly have conversations about things like charitable gambling in St. Paul. And just we look at, yeah, gambling, there are significant concerns that go with it. There's a lot of addiction problems that we run into with gambling. But when you're talking about e-pull tabs or pull tabs in general, that's that's not, you know, uh that that's not really in my mind on the same playing field as playing cards at a casino or going and and sitting in a slot machine. But the amount of good that those organizations do with those funds on a regular basis, supporting their baseball, local baseball organizations, buying radios for the ambulance service, it's it's great. It's a great or they're great organizations. We need to support them any way we possibly can. But I think that what we're going to see uh is a little bit of a conversion into the next generation. Remember, the United States has been involved militarily

Civic Groups That Hold Communities Together

SPEAKER_00 31:26

around the world for the last 20 years, and there's a lot of veterans who uh I mean you remember World War II, Korea, a lot of those guys they went home, and then my grandpa he got in a tractor and had dealt with all of his post-traumatic stress uh by himself in a field. And then after that, he moved into the conversation. He got a little older and joined these organizations. I think that that's what we're gonna see here with this newer generation of combat veteran, is uh we're gonna see you know, my age kind of individuals, people who've been over in Iraq, people who have been in Afghanistan, are gonna start going to the organization now because they're they're solidly in their next career. They're they're raising their families and they're they're looking for another outlet and a way to to be able to serve. It's and so I don't see them going away. I don't think they're gonna do anything. I think they're gonna just hand the keys to the next generation.

SPEAKER_01 32:22

So you you feel more I'm sorry for that. Um you feel more that there will be a a resurgence.

SPEAKER_00 32:29

Well, I think that they'll hold steady for sure. I think they'll hold steady for sure. It's just there's a big gap. You know, a lot of the uh VSW members, a lot of the Legion members, they're Vietnam veterans. And then after that, we had Vietnam and then 15, 20 years. And so I think you're gonna see kind of that little dip, uh, kind of like a dip in the stock market that's gonna head its way back up with all these uh new veterans that we've had from Iraq and Afghanistan.

SPEAKER_01 32:55

And again, I'm sorry, I'm sorry for that that journey, thankful for your service.

Car Tab Fee Changes And The 2027 Window

SPEAKER_01 33:00

Um I wanted to make sure to note that there was a big tax change, that if you want to buy a new vehicle to do it in 2027, is there anything else that you wanted me to um to note?

SPEAKER_00 33:14

Yeah, so what we're talking about is that the TAM fee reduction. So in 2022, um when we had our so 2022 to now 2023, there was the Democratic trifecta in the election after November of 22. The Democrats took over all of state government, and then they passed some significant changes to uh the laws in the transportation area. I sit on the transportation committee, so I was well well involved in this conversation. I just wasn't listened to very well. But they did some significant changes to the equation for how you evaluate car tab fees. So if you remember when you every year you gotta go and get your new license tab fee, register your vehicle, get all that kind of good stuff up to date, and then you pay some money for that little sticker on your license plate. And what we've seen in the last couple years is a significant increase in those tab fees to the point where a $60,000 vehicle is now costing nearly $1,000 in order to register, and the depreciation on that vehicle doesn't happen for many years. So everyone who drives a $60,000 vehicle new knows that within a couple years it's depreciated in value significantly. But the state of Minnesota doesn't recognize that. In three years, if you bought it, if you bought a new vehicle today, three years would have to go by before the state would recognize it as holding 90% of the original value. And everyone who knows math and knows vehicles knows that a three-year-old vehicle does not hold 90% of its value, but the state taxes it like it does. So there were a little bit of shenanigans that I felt happened. And one of the things that we did this last year is we knew we weren't going to be able to do a whole lot because the House of Representatives was tied with 67 Republicans and 67 Democrats. But one of the things we were able to do was buy down those tab fees for one year. We weren't able to return the equation back to the way it was. All we're able to do is pause that equation for one year. So in January, January 1st, 2027, our state will for one year revert back to the pre-democratic trifecta equation. And so instead of a $60,000 vehicle costing $1,000 for a tab fee, it's going to be significantly less than that. And so I've been telling everyone, if you're looking for the right time to buy a new vehicle in the state of Minnesota, it's going to be in in 2027 because that's when the new, that's when the tab fees go back down for one year. So unless, you know, it all kind of depends on how November turns out for us. But in January of 2027, there'll be a one-year period of time where your tab fees will be reduced significantly, and that's like a five or six hundred dollars savings right then and there. So I would I would be on the market looking for a new vehicle in 2027 if you're if you're looking for the right time to buy. According to the state of Minnesota, that would be the time.

SPEAKER_01 36:15

Okay,

Re-Election And Why Party Control Matters

SPEAKER_01 36:16

okay. Um, so are you up for re-election as well?

SPEAKER_00 36:19

Yep, yep. All representatives we hold two-year terms. And so every one of the representatives, actually, every representative and every senator in our state's up for re-election this year or election, because uh the representatives have two years, senators do four years, and this is the the fourth year for all the senators, so they're all up for re-election as well.

SPEAKER_01 36:42

Who would you like to see as teammates going into office with you? Who would you like to see as teammates going into office with you?

SPEAKER_00 36:51

Well, you know, I think we've got some good some good candidates on the on the ballot. My my number one request would be that we'd have 68 Republicans. Not 67, but 68, because we were able to do some really great things. We were able to stop some really bad things with 67. Put Republicans in the majority in the House of Representatives, and let us let us show you how we can responsibly govern. That's that's what I would say.

SPEAKER_01 37:17

Okay. And you think party lines really make that big of a difference?

SPEAKER_00 37:21

Oh, I know it does. That's what's so frustrating. You know, I my opponent here today is uh telling everyone that you know she's gonna vote her conscience, and I'm like, well, that's that's great. I'd love if you actually did that. But uh if you look at the voting record from last year, there were times when I voted according to the majority of my party, and then there were times I voted when I I didn't vote with my entire party. Uh there were split votes, there were votes where there were 20 of us Republicans who said no, there were times when 67 of us Republicans said no, and uh there were times when 20 said yes and 67 said yes. So there were times when I went with the game, with the game plan of the Republicans, and there were times when I didn't. But what I did notice is there was only one time last year, and I know this because I was the speaker pro tem. So I was the person standing there in place of the speaker with the gavel, doing the whole uh, you know, I recognized the member from this place and and letting him speak. I was running the floor, and there was only one time the whole year where Democrats didn't vote together. Every other time, 67 Democrats voted the same way, except for once, and that was when we were talking about funding the police. And so that's what's so frustrating to me, is that you know, it she can say what she wants, but at the end of the day, there was only one time last year when Democrats voted not along party lines, and that was over police. So that's what I know about it. I know that there's significant differences. Um, Republicans, we kind of pride ourselves on being independent, and so we do what we think is right more often than than we do what they tell us to do, and that's not the same for the other side.

SPEAKER_01 39:04

Well, I respect that, and I appreciate knowing that.

SPEAKER_00 39:07

Yeah, so it's it's frustrating, and I can tell you because I was there. I was standing at that desk with the gavel, directing the conversation, and so I saw that I saw all those votes, and it was one time.

SPEAKER_01 39:19

Well, and and again, that was that's pretty impressive as a 35-year-old um with a very Scandinavian name from Elmore, Minnesota. That's really impressive, John. We appreciate that. Appreciate that.

Final Thoughts And Staying In Touch

SPEAKER_01 39:36

Anything else you want to share?

SPEAKER_00 39:37

No, I appreciate having this conversation. This is my cell phone, so anytime you want you know the insight scoop on stuff, we should send me a message or call me on the phone. I I want to make sure that our constituents know as much as they possibly can about what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 39:51

That's exciting to have that resource, and and I appreciate you. We'll put this in uh uh this week's edition, the July 1st edition of the Martin County Star. I'll do my best to gift this over to the podcast and I'll let you know how that went, okay? Before we go back to the book. That sounds great. Appreciate that. God bless you and God bless your work.

unknown 40:10

Thank you.