NEW ULM — The ongoing Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities conference, taking place this year in New Ulm, saw a guest speaker come in on Thursday.
Lisa Demuth, R-Speaker of the House, was the featured speaker during the second Gubernatorial Town Hall event on Thursday, with the first being Kendall Qualls, R, on Wednesday. After giving her backstory, Demuth began talking about some of the biggest issues she sees facing cities today. Chief among those concerns seemed to be a discussion surrounding local optional sales tax.
“That is a local issue that matters very much,” Demuth said. “We know how important it is.”
Demuth sees a local optional sales tax as a way of decreasing property taxes and of “right-sizing government,” and laments the fact that all that was needed to pass a bill allowing cities to implement a local optional sales tax was one Democratic vote, which she and the Republican caucus didn’t receive.
“All I needed was for one of my Democrat colleagues to come across the aisle, not physically, but by pushing the button, and we would’ve had the votes that we needed to have pushed forward the local optional sales tax,” Demuth said.
Demuth also talked about energy and housing. On the former, she said that she does not, “vilify one type of energy over another.”
“I’m really proud of the fact that we were able to finally kick the door open on exploring nuclear here in the state of Minnesota. For much too long, we had a nuclear moratorium, and so anyone that wants to invest, or even look at the idea of nuclear, is just ignoring Minnesota,” she added.
As for housing, she’s in favor of giving local authorities control over local zoning.
“I support local control. When it comes to zoning and planning, I think that is the best way to get things done,” she said, adding that all types of housing are needed in the state. “You know what you need in your communities, that’s the best way to get it done.”
Demuth also turned her attention to the gubernatorial race in Minnesota, addressing a few topics surrounding her main competitor: Mike Lindell.
“I was a little bit surprised by it,” Demuth said, referring to President Trump’s decision to endorse Lindell. “I know that they have been friends for a very long time. So was I shocked, absolutely not, but yeah, (I) didn’t know when and if that might come up.”
She also addressed a recent KSTP/SurveyUSA poll that came out surrounding the race, showing Lindell still leading the pack of Republican candidates but noting that Demuth was slowly closing the gap.
“Polls come out all the way up through the election, and the way that I look at this is I have been working incredibly hard on the race to be the person that wins the primary, and that’s been the focus of my campaign. And I look forward to winning the primary, and then going on to defeat Amy Klobuchar,” she said.