Olson: Sen. Ann Rest won’t let her final session go to waste

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At 83, Sen. Ann Rest has been in the Legislature nearly half her life. She recently announced she’ll retire in early 2027, giving her one final session to achieve her remaining goals.

She will depart as the only person to have chaired both the House and Senate tax committees, and she wants it known that she doesn’t own a rocking chair and won’t go quietly.

In an interview, Rest wasn’t keen on reminiscing about the changes at the Capitol over the past decades or touting her accomplishments. She’s got a substantial to-do list for 2026 and is girding for policy battles.

“I am not done yet and I am certainly not dead,” the senator said, a refrain that’s become her mantra.

Her resolve takes on poignancy when viewed in light of June 14, when Rest was seemingly targeted by the same assassin who shot one legislator and his wife and killed another and her husband.

About an hour later, former Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark were killed in their Brooklyn Park home, allegedly by the same man who had been outside Rest’s residence.

Rest has credited the New Hope officer with saving her life, but doesn’t consider herself a victim or spend time mulling her mortality.

Instead, she’s looking ahead, wanting to discuss what comes next, both at the Capitol and after she leaves office, including, potentially, something new and entrepreneurial.

Rest was elected to the House in 1984 after working as a CPA and teaching English at Plymouth Armstrong High School. Throughout her tenure, she’s been considered the legislative expert on tax policy.

She’s not feeling nostalgic and is dismissive of the notion that this ending is bittersweet. She said she was pondering retirement four years ago, but the DFL was in the minority and that wasn’t how she wanted to close out her political career. “I wanted to give it one more shot,” she said.

So what big tax changes will she be pushing in 2026 before she heads for the exit? Rest wants the state to “finally” allow local governments to approve their own local sales taxes. Currently, local governments must first receive permission from the Legislature to do so.

“It would be a major, major change and recognize local government officials as policymakers themselves,” she said.

She plans to bring back her 2025 proposal for a first-in-the-nation excise tax on large social media companies that collect Minnesota consumer data. The bill didn’t get through the House. “I handed that to them on a platter as well,” she said. “Not one single Minnesota business would have paid it. So why not do that?”

Rest would like to position Minnesota as a leader in growing camelina as a sustainable fuel for aviation. It grows in the winter with little water, and a coalition of industry players is building around it, she noted.

She’s proud of the child tax credit passed in 2023 that helps lift families out of poverty. Now she hopes the Legislature will revisit the child care tax credit that didn’t pass in 2025. She views it as a means to provide flexibility and honor the work of women in the workforce. “I’m going to find the money for that,” she said, pointing to a stack of fiscal notes on her desk.

She wants to vote to limit sales of assault-style rifles, like the one used on children in the sanctuary at Annunciation Catholic Church on Aug. 27.

We “should not be excusing time and time again gun violence, particularly with weapons that have no business in my mind being in civilian hands,” Rest said. “Those killings aren’t going to be prevented by a lot of funds or money being put into mental health initiatives.”

Rest’s known for being blunt and stern. (She personally enforces a ban on food or drink at her committee meetings and will scold disruptive onlookers.) She’s certainly showing no signs of mellowing with age.

When asked for her thoughts on St. Paul, where residents are again looking at hefty property tax increases, she offered a rueful “Lots of luck” and an unflattering assessment of the city’s leadership.

“It’s definitely not sustainable and you have to look at the leadership in St. Paul, both of City Council, and the mayor. What is their actual vision for the future there?” she said. “What is it that they want to see, that they can afford? And yeah, do I want to see RiverCentre renovated, and that whole complex? Sure, but what’s the cost?”

She ended our chat as she began: preparing for what’s ahead, which meant showing off a long scar from a knee replacement and revealing plans to replace the other knee next month. Come 2027, she will be pain-free, speedier and more agile than she’s been in years.

“I’m getting ready,” she said. “I’ll be door knocking.”