Day One Commitment · First Session Priority · The D01 Loop Closed
This directive is a resident-first accounting of what was done to Minnesota taxpayers in the last four years, what a Governor can actually do about it on day one, and what gets sent to the Legislature in the first session. Every commitment is labeled by what it takes to deliver it. Nothing is overstated.
The argument is simple: the state collected $18 billion more than it needed — and used that surplus to raise fees, index taxes to automatic annual increases, and launch a payroll program that came in 46% over its promised rate. You didn't vote on any of it. A Governor who works for you will change what can be changed now and fight for the rest.
Every commitment in this directive is labeled by what it actually takes to deliver it. Day One actions require no Legislature. First Session items go to the Legislature immediately. Platform Commitments are the fights that take longer — but they start on day one too.
The 2023 Legislature made two changes simultaneously. First: raised the tax rate from 1.285% to 1.575%. Second — and sneakier — slowed the depreciation formula from 10% per year to 5% in the early years. The result: tabs stopped going down. A truck bought in 2022 is realistically worth 40% less today. The state still taxes it as if it lost only 10% of value. Residents are paying on value they don't have.
The fix is already written. HF3562 died in committee in March 2026 because nobody had a credible funding answer. I do. Directive 01 forensic audit recovery offsets the transportation fund shortfall. Roads stay funded. The depreciation schedule restores to 10% per year. The rate drops toward pre-2023 levels. Tabs go down every year as the vehicle ages — the way Minnesotans always expected.
Minnesota already has legislatively authorized property tax relief: the Homestead Credit Refund, the Renter's Property Tax Refund, and the Senior Citizens' Property Tax Deferral Program. Millions in authorized relief goes unclaimed every year because the state does not actively reach the residents who qualify.
Day one executive directive to the Commissioner of Revenue: audit current utilization, publish within 30 days, and implement an active outreach program — direct coordination with county assessors, simplified enrollment, outreach to identified eligible households. No new legislation. No new spending. Money residents are already owed, actually reaching them.
The Paid Family and Medical Leave program launched January 2026 at 0.88% — 46% higher than projected when the Legislature passed it in 2023. The benefit is not being touched. Workers who need paid leave will get it. What is being audited is whether the rate is accurately calibrated to actual costs in year one.
Day one directive to DEED: independent actuarial review of first-quarter utilization vs. the projections used to set the rate. Report within 60 days. If the fund is collecting materially more than it needs, the rate adjusts down immediately — not at the July annual review. Now. A program that launched 46% over its projected cost deserves that scrutiny. The benefit is protected. The rate is held accountable.
Minnesota's gas tax is indexed to inflation — it goes up automatically every year without a vote. Vehicle tab fees have their own automatic growth built into the formula. Dozens of other fees and assessments across state agencies escalate the same way. Residents have no way to see the total annual cost of automatic increases nobody voted on.
Executive order to all agencies: within 45 days, complete inventory of every automatically-indexed fee — the dollar amount of the current year's automatic increase and the projected increase next year. The compiled total publishes on the Directive 10 War Room dashboard, updated annually. Residents see the number. That visibility is the accountability.
Tips and overtime federal exemptions are addressed in Directive 12 through Revenue Notice administrative guidance. This directive extends that work to the full conformity gap. The Commissioner of Revenue has statutory authority under Minn. Stat. 270C.07 to issue Revenue Notices — binding guidance residents may rely on. Every place Minnesota taxes income the federal government exempts is subject to a Revenue Notice resolving the ambiguity in residents' favor pending legislative conformity action.
Day one directive: 90-day full conformity gap review. For each identified gap, issue a Revenue Notice. Publish the findings publicly. Report also goes to the Legislature as the basis for formal conformity legislation in the first session.
Walz promised $2,000 rebate checks to get reelected in 2022. He had the surplus. He had the DFL trifecta. Residents got $260 — and then watched the Legislature raise their gas tax, tab fees, and motor vehicle sales tax in the same session. There is no structural mechanism preventing this from happening again under any governor.
Support and send a constitutional amendment to voters: when state revenue exceeds 105% of projected expenditures, the surplus returns to residents by formula — not at the discretion of whoever controls the Legislature that session. That is not partisan. That is a structural protection for every resident regardless of who is in power.
The Department of Revenue's own estimate: eliminating or dramatically reducing the bottom income tax bracket would reduce taxes for approximately 2.4 million filers — 80% of all returns — by an average of $1,586. That is the most broadly distributed relief in state tax law. Minnesota's 5.35% bottom rate is higher than the top rate in half of all U.S. states.
This requires the Legislature and a real funding offset. The Directive 01 audit recovery and surplus return mechanism build the fiscal case. The proposal goes in during the first session and returns every session after. This is the long game — and it starts on day one.
The 2023 Legislature indexed the gas tax to inflation. It now rises automatically every year without anyone voting on it. Minnesota had the largest gas tax increase of any state since July 2024. Roads need funding — that argument is real. But a tax that rises on autopilot every year is a tax increase without accountability. Legislators should have to stand up, vote for it, and defend it.
Send legislation requiring a direct vote for any gas tax increase above CPI. Remove the automatic escalator. Restore the democratic check that was quietly removed in 2023.
Minnesota's estate tax exemption is $3 million. The federal exemption is over $13 million. A working farm worth $4 million is below the federal threshold — but when the owner dies and wants to pass it to the next generation, Minnesota takes a 13–16% cut before the family sees a dollar. Passing a working farm to your kids is not wealth extraction. It is continuity.
Push to raise the Minnesota estate tax exemption toward the federal threshold. Protect agricultural and small business succession from a tax burden that was never designed to capture it. This is a full-term legislative fight — and it starts on day one.
This directive is not for one income level, one political identity, or one part of the state. The stacking problem hit everyone with a vehicle, a paycheck, and a gas tank. Every item targets systems and decisions — not people.
The 2023 session raised the vehicle registration rate, slowed the depreciation formula, raised motor vehicle sales tax to 5th highest in the country, added metro-area transit sales tax increases, indexed the gas tax to automatic annual inflation increases, created a retail delivery fee, and planted a payroll deduction that launched three years later at 46% above the promised rate. The state was not struggling. It was overflowing. The increases were a policy choice — not a necessity.
Tim Walz campaigned on returning the surplus to residents. He promised $2,000 checks. He won. He had the DFL trifecta. Residents got $260 — then watched the same Legislature raise their fees, index their gas tax to permanent annual increases, and sign a budget that grew state government by 40%. That is the record this directive responds to.
April 2026 — the pattern continues. House Republicans proposed a $4 billion one-time property tax refund — an average of $2,500 back to every eligible homeowner using the surplus that already exists. The DFL blocked it. The surplus keeps growing. The checks keep not coming. Meanwhile the constitutional amendment to mandate surplus returns to taxpayers died in committee before it ever reached a vote. The PFML program launched January 1, 2026 at 0.88% — 46% above what was originally promised — and first premium payments were collected April 30, 2026. No rate review has been ordered. No adjustment has been made. Directive 14 breaks this pattern. Day one.
The Resident Solution position: House Republicans put $2,500 back in every homeowner's pocket on paper. The DFL killed it. The surplus is real. The relief isn't. A growing surplus with no mechanism to return it is not fiscal responsibility — it is institutional self-preservation. My administration orders the PFML actuarial review on day one. If the fund is overcollecting, the rate comes down. That is not a political decision. That is math. And the constitutional amendment the legislature couldn't agree to pass? My Governor's office introduces it on the first day of session — with a credible forensic audit recovery fund behind it this time.
Directive 14 is not a single action. It is a sequence — starting with what requires no Legislature and building through the first legislative session. Each step is connected. The funding for the tab fix comes from the forensic audit in Directive 01. The fiscal room for the income tax push comes from the surplus return mechanism. This is one argument, not nine separate promises.
Every tax relief proposal in Minnesota gets the same attacks. Here is what they are, where they come from, and the honest answer to each one.
Every "how do you pay for it" question in this directive has the same answer: we recover it. Money the state lost to fraud gets found through the Directive 01 forensic audit. That money enters the Resident Solution Fund. That fund is what makes the tab fix viable, the income tax push fundable, and the surplus return argument credible. This is one platform — not fourteen separate promises.
The Commissioner of Revenue is hereby directed to:
The Commissioner of the Department of Employment and Economic Development is hereby directed to:
All executive branch agency commissioners are hereby directed to:
The Commissioner of Revenue is hereby directed to:
Each agency commissioner subject to this order shall designate a senior official responsible for compliance and reporting. Progress reports shall be submitted to the Governor's Chief of Staff on the timelines specified herein. All reports generated pursuant to this order shall be made publicly available within 5 business days of delivery to the Governor's Office. This order takes effect immediately upon signing.
Every resident who paid $800 for a tab bill that didn't go down. Every worker who found out their new payroll deduction came in 46% higher than promised. Every Minnesotan who watched an $18 billion surplus get spent while they were told services couldn't survive a tax cut. This directive is for you. Be part of the coalition that makes it happen on day one.
Minnesota residents aren't undertaxed. They're underrepresented in the decisions that set their tax bill. Automatic increases without votes. Broken rebate promises. A surplus spent on government instead of the people who funded it. This directive doesn't promise to fix everything at once. It promises to start on day one — and not stop.
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