Fly the wrong flag.
Lose your funding.
Eight DFLers actually introduced this.

HF 5077. Fly the old flag. Lose 10% of your city funding.

House File 5077 was introduced in the Minnesota House of Representatives on April 27, 2026, by eight Democratic-Farmer-Labor members. The bill directs the Minnesota Commissioner of Revenue to reduce Local Government Aid (LGA) by 10% to any county or city that “flies or otherwise makes use of” any Minnesota state flag design other than the one certified by the State Emblems Redesign Commission in 2024. The penalty would take effect the calendar year after a municipality is found to be flying the original flag, with enforcement beginning in 2027.

Local Government Aid is the primary revenue-sharing program through which Minnesota distributes state tax dollars to cities and counties for general operations — police, fire, roads, parks, and administrative services. In 2026, the state certified a total of $644,398,012 in LGA for 747 cities. A 10% cut to a small city that receives $500,000 in LGA annually would cost it $50,000 — real money for a department that may run two squad cars.

The bill was referred to the House Committee on Taxes. Republican leadership made clear it will not advance further.

An unelected commission. An 11–1 vote. A new flag that looks like Somalia’s.

Minnesota’s original state flag was adopted in 1893. It bore the state seal on a blue background: a farmer plowing a field in the foreground, and a Native American on horseback riding toward the horizon. Critics had long argued the imagery was offensive and dated. In 2023, the DFL-controlled Minnesota Legislature established the State Emblems Redesign Commission and tasked it with replacing both the flag and state seal.

The commission voted 11–1 to adopt the new design: a dark navy blue field with an eight-pointed white star, and a lighter blue section at the bottom representing Minnesota’s waters. The new flag was officially adopted on May 11, 2024, under Gov. Tim Walz (DFL).

The backlash was immediate. Critics, including Minnesota Republicans and many residents, noted the strong visual resemblance between the new Minnesota flag and the flag of Somalia — a blue field with a prominent white star. Defenders noted that Somalia’s star is five-pointed while Minnesota’s is eight-pointed, and that several U.S. state flags resemble foreign national flags. The designer denied the Somali flag was an inspiration. The debate has not subsided: two years after adoption, more than ten Minnesota cities have voted by council resolution to take down the new flag and restore the 1893 original.

“Capture the flag: one Minnesota, two flags — the debate still rages.”

Star Tribune headline, April 2026 — two years after the 2024 redesign

Ten cities. Voted. Took the new flag down. The DFL’s answer: threaten their budgets.

Across Minnesota, city councils have been voting one by one to remove the 2024 flag and restore the 1893 original. Elk River’s council voted unanimously. Inver Grove Heights voted 3–2 after a lengthy public hearing. At least ten cities have now done the same — most of them smaller, Republican-leaning communities in greater Minnesota that resent having a flag redesign imposed on them by an unelected commission and a DFL-majority legislature.

Under HF 5077, every city on this list would face a 10% cut to its Local Government Aid starting in 2027. For Detroit Lakes, Wadena, or Babbitt — small cities that depend heavily on LGA to fund police and fire services — that is not a symbolic penalty. It is a direct cut to public safety budgets in retaliation for a city council vote about which flag to fly outside City Hall.

“Taking funding away from police and fire.” Demuth called it. The DFL introduced it anyway.

Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth — who is also running for governor in 2026 — did not equivocate when asked about the bill. Her response named exactly what HF 5077 would actually do in practice: cut the revenue that small Minnesota cities use to pay for police officers, firefighters, and municipal services.

“That bill is dead on arrival. There is no way this bill is moving through. To know that Democrats are trying to take funding away from our police and fire, from our cities, it's ridiculous. We have real work that could help Minnesotans.”

House Speaker Lisa Demuth (R) — April 2026

Demuth indicated the bill has no path forward in the Republican-controlled House. With a divided legislature — DFL governor, Republican House — HF 5077 has no realistic route to becoming law in the current session.

The significance of the bill is not whether it passes. It is that eight sitting DFL legislators decided this was a worthy use of legislative bandwidth — to introduce and formally advance a bill that would cut police and fire funding from small Minnesota cities over a flag. Not a constitutional crisis. Not a budget emergency. A flag.

The DFL’s priorities. In writing. On the record.

In 2023, the DFL used its legislative majority to create an unelected commission to redesign the Minnesota state flag. In 2024, that commission voted 11–1 to replace a 130-year-old flag with a new design widely mocked for resembling Somalia’s national flag. In 2025 and 2026, ten Minnesota cities — most of them small, greater Minnesota communities — voted by democratic council resolution to take down the new flag and restore the original. In April 2026, eight DFL legislators introduced a bill to financially punish those cities by slashing their police and fire funding.

There is no ambiguity about what this bill is. It is not a budget measure. It is not a public safety measure. It is a political coercion instrument: fly the flag we chose, or lose the money you need to keep your lights on. The DFL introduced it, sponsored it with eight names, and sent it to committee. That is the documented record.