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Paul Thissen
DWon the General, 2016 Minnesota State House District 61B
Won the General, 2012 Minnesota State House District 61B
Minnesota Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (2019 - Present)
To be claimed
Former Member, Education Finance Committee, Minnesota State House of Representatives
Member, Health Care Access Commission
Member, Health Transformation Task Force
Former Member, Job Growth and Energy Affordability Policy and Finance Committee, Minnesota State House of Representatives
Former Member, Legacy Funding Finance Committee, Minnesota State House of Representatives
Former Ranking Minority Member, Rules and Legislative Administration Committee, Minnesota State House of Representatives
Former Member, Education Finance Committee, Minnesota State House of Representatives
Member, Health Care Access Commission
Member, Health Transformation Task Force
Former Member, Job Growth and Energy Affordability Policy and Finance Committee, Minnesota State House of Representatives
Former Member, Legacy Funding Finance Committee, Minnesota State House of Representatives
Former Ranking Minority Member, Rules and Legislative Administration Committee, Minnesota State House of Representatives
— Awards:
— Father's Name:
— Father's Occupation:
— Mother's Name:
— Mother's Occupation:
1. Abortions should always be illegal.
- No Answer
2. Abortions should always be legal.
- No Answer
3. Abortions should be legal only within the first trimester of pregnancy.
- No Answer
4. Abortions should be legal when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape.
- No Answer
5. Abortions should be legal when the life of the woman is endangered.
- No Answer
6. Prohibit public funding of abortions and to organizations that advocate or perform abortions.
- No Answer
7. Require clinics to give parental notification before performing abortions on minors.
- No Answer
8. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Education (Higher)
- Slightly Increase
2. Education (K-12)
- Greatly Increase
3. Emergency preparedness
- Slightly Increase
4. Environment
- Greatly Increase
5. Health care
- Slightly Increase
6. Law enforcement
- Slightly Increase
7. Transportation and Highway infrastructure
- Greatly Increase
8. Welfare
- Maintain Status
9. Other or expanded categories
- No Answer
1. Alcohol taxes
- Slightly Increase
2. Capital gains taxes
- Maintain Status
3. Cigarette taxes
- Slightly Increase
4. Corporate taxes
- Slightly Increase
5. Gasoline taxes
- Greatly Increase
6. Income taxes (incomes below $75,000)
- Maintain Status
7. Income taxes (incomes above $75,000)
- Slightly Increase
8. Property taxes
- Slightly Decrease
9. Sales taxes
- Slightly Increase
10. Vehicle taxes
- Maintain Status
11. Other or expanded categories
- No Answer
12. Should the state sales taxes be extended to Internet sales?
- Yes
13. Should accounts such as a ?rainy day? fund be used to balance the state budget?
- Undecided
14. Should fee increases be used to balance the state budget?
- No
15. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Do you support limiting the number of terms for Minnesota governors?
- No
2. Do you support limiting the number of terms for Minnesota state senators and representatives?
- No
1. Individual
- Yes
2. PAC
- Yes
3. Corporate
- Yes
4. Political Parties
- Yes
5. Do you support requiring full and timely disclosure of campaign finance information?
- Yes
6. Do you support imposing spending limits on state level political campaigns?
- Yes
7. Do you support adopting statewide standards for counting, verifying and ensuring accuracy of votes?
- Undecided
8. Do you support prohibiting media exit polling of voters until all polling locations in Minnesota are closed?
- No
9. Should Minnesota recognize civil unions between same-sex couples?
- Yes
10. Do you support a constitutional ban on same sex marriage?
- No
11. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Increase state funds for construction of state prisons and hiring of additional prison staff.
- No Answer
2. Implement the death penalty in Minnesota.
- No Answer
3. Support programs to provide prison inmates with vocational and job-related skills and job-placement assistance when released.
- X
4. End parole for repeat violent offenders.
- X
5. Implement penalties other than incarceration for certain non-violent offenders.
- X
6. Strengthen penalties and sentences for drug-related crimes.
- No Answer
7. Minors accused of a violent crime should be prosecuted as adults.
- No Answer
8. Require that crimes based on race, ethnic background, religious belief, sex, age, disability, or sexual orientation be prosecuted as hate crimes.
- No Answer
9. Increase state funding for community centers and other social agencies in areas with at-risk youth.
- X
10. Strengthen sex-offender laws.
- No Answer
11. Support the restriction of the sale of products used to make methamphetamine (e.g. tablets containing pseudophedrine, ephedrine and phenylpropanolamine).
- No Answer
12. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Support national standards and testing of public school students.
- X
2. Provide parents with state-funded vouchers to send their children to any public school.
- No Answer
3. Provide parents with state-funded vouchers to send their children to any private or religious school.
- No Answer
4. Increase state funds for school capital improvements (e.g. buildings and infrastructure).
- X
5. Increase funds for hiring additional teachers.
- X
6. Support teacher testing and reward with merit pay.
- X
7. Endorse voluntary prayer in public schools.
- No Answer
8. Support requiring public schools to administer high school exit exams.
- No Answer
9. Provide state funding to increase teacher salaries.
- No Answer
10. Increase funding for Head Start programs.
- X
11. Provide state funding for tax incentives and financial aid to help make college more affordable.
- X
12. Support sexual education programs that include information on abstinence, contraceptives, and HIV/STD prevention methods.
- X
13. Support abstinence-only sexual education programs.
- No Answer
14. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Increase funding for state job-training programs that retrain displaced workers and teach skills needed in today?s job market.
- X
2. Reduce state government regulations on the private sector in order to encourage investment and economic expansion.
- X
3. Provide low interest loans and tax credits for starting, expanding, or relocating businesses.
- No Answer
4. Provide tax credits for businesses that provide child care for children in low-income working families.
- X
5. Increase state funds to provide child care for children in low-income working families.
- X
6. Support the inclusion of sexual orientation in Minnesota's anti-discrimination laws.
- X
7. Increase the state minimum wage.
- No Answer
8. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Public employment
- Undecided
2. State college and university admissions
- Undecided
3. State contracting
- Undecided
4. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Promote increased use of alternative fuel technology.
- X
2. Support increased production of traditional domestic energy sources (e.g. coal, natural gas, and oil).
- No Answer
3. Use state funds to clean up former industrial and commercial sites that are contaminated, unused, or abandoned.
- No Answer
4. Increase funding for improvements to Minnesota's power generating and transmission facilities.
- X
5. Support funding for open space preservation.
- X
6. Enact environmental regulations even if they are stricter than federal law.
- X
7. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Maintain and strengthen the enforcement of existing state restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns.
- X
2. Ease state restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns.
- No Answer
3. Repeal state restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns.
- No Answer
4. Allow citizens to carry concealed guns.
- No Answer
5. Require background checks on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows.
- X
6. Require a license for gun possession.
- No Answer
7. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Ensure that citizens have access to basic health care through managed care, insurance reforms, or state-funded care where necessary.
- X
2. Transfer current Medicaid recipients into managed care programs.
- No Answer
3. Limit the amount of punitive damages that can be awarded in medical malpractice lawsuits.
- No Answer
4. Support patients' right to sue their HMOs.
- X
5. Guaranteed medical care to all citizens is not a responsibility of state government.
- No Answer
6. Legalize physician assisted suicide in Minnesota.
- No Answer
7. Allow doctors to prescribe marijuana to their patients for medicinal purposes.
- X
8. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Support increased work requirements for able-bodied welfare recipients.
- X
2. Increase funding for employment and job training programs for welfare recipients.
- X
3. Increase access to public transportation for welfare recipients who work.
- X
4. Redirect welfare funding to faith-based and community-based private organizations.
- No Answer
5. Use federal TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) funds to extend health and child care subsidies to the working poor.
- X
6. Support marriage promotion programs for welfare recipients.
- X
7. Eliminate government-funded welfare programs.
- No Answer
8. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
Please explain in a total of 75 words or less, your top two or three priorities if elected. If they require additional funding for implementation, please explain how you would obtain this funding.
- No Answer
Type: bill Chamber: lower
Type: bill Chamber: lower
Type: bill Chamber: lower
by Governor Mark Dayton, Senator Tom Bakk, and Representative Paul Thissen Minnesotans were given a clear choice between two very different visions for the future of our state in this last election, and the results speak for themselves. Now, with a DFL governor and two DFL majorities in the Legislature for the first time in 22 years, we are focused on our shared responsibility to govern well for all the people of Minnesota and to lead our state forward together. And with so much at stake, we know that Minnesotans are watching closely. Our commitment is not only to give you a government that works, but a government that works for you. That means balancing the budget responsibly without gimmicks and borrowing. It means making our tax system fair in order to invest in education, job creation and property tax relief. And it means continuing to reform state government to make it work better for all Minnesotans. We know this won't be easy, but it starts by being honest about our state's structural budget problems. Incredibly, we've faced a state budget deficit in eight of the last ten years, and this year is no different. After a decade of deep cuts, short-sighted accounting gimmicks, and borrowing from our future, we enter this budget cycle facing another billion dollar budget deficit--and we still owe our schools a billion dollars more. It is clear that the slash, burn and borrow budgeting approach of the past has not put our state on stable footing. Tuition is skyrocketing at our colleges and universities, class sizes are growing in our K-12 schools, property taxes are steadily increasing for families, farmers, seniors and small businesses, and too many Minnesotans remain out of work or underemployed. We need to take bold action to put our state on a path to long-term economic prosperity. It is time for a new approach--one that is fair, responsible and does not place the burden for solving our budget issues on the backs of middle-class families. As we begin to debate the budget at the Capitol in the weeks ahead, we share the basic philosophy that we cannot cut our way to prosperity, just as we cannot tax our way to greatness. That simplistic debate has not served us well. We are instead committed to a budget that will promote our economic competitiveness, provide greater economic security for the middle class, and create pathways into it for those struggling in these tough economic times. We recognize that the road to a sustained economic recovery is a strong and expanding middle class. As our economy grows, it is critical that state policy encourages prosperity that is widely shared in all parts of Minnesota with jobs that provide economic security and wages on which people can improve their lives and raise their families. That is the lens through which we will view all of our policy choices. We recognize that Minnesota's long-term economic competitiveness will hinge on our ability to deliver a world-class education for our kids. A race to the top means that Minnesota should lead the nation in early education, K-12 and in higher education. But after a decade of disinvestment we have declined. This year is our opportunity to reverse course. Further, we know we will never make these critical investments in education to keep our state thriving unless we bring stability and fairness back to our tax system. Middle class Minnesota families and businesses have seen their property taxes double over the past eight years. At the same time, the wealthiest Minnesotans pay a lower percentage of their income in taxes than middle class families and some corporations continue to enjoy unfair tax breaks. Tax reform must not be about picking on one group--indeed, eliminating loopholes while lowering some business taxes makes sense. But everyone should share responsibility for investing in the priorities that put Minnesota on a path to progress--now and for generations to come. We are going to have disagreements, but our differences will force us toward common ground, not a government shutdown. Ideological barriers have stalled progress at the State Capitol for far too long. We will be serious, mindful of the stakes, and inclusive of all voices--including those of Republican legislators. The people of Minnesota want and deserve a government that listens to different ideas and engages in reasoned debate. That's how a democracy is supposed to work. We understand there is tough work ahead. We are committed to working together to address our state's challenges with a focus on the priorities we all share: balancing the state's budget responsibly and expanding economic opportunity for all Minnesotans. That is how we will move our state forward. We are ready to get to work. We are going to have disagreements, but our differences will force us toward common ground, not a government shutdown. Ideological barriers have stalled progress at the State Capitol for far too long. We will be serious, mindful of the stakes, and inclusive of all voices--including those of Republican legislators. Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis, is speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives. Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, is Senate majority leader. Mark Dayton, DFL, is Minnesota governor.
