Author: MinnPost

Rep. Dean Phillips, far right, actor Woody Harrelson, in back, with K-Pop stars from BigBang and BLACKPINK and popular South Korean actor, Park Bo-gum, standing next to Harrelson. Instagram WASHINGTON – While the U.S. House was on a two-week break earlier this month, Rep. Dean Phillips, D-3rd District, traveled to the spot in rural Vietnam where his father, a captain in the Army, had died in a plane crash 54 years ago. It was a tearful moment when Phillips arrived at the site. He scooped up some of the area’s red earth, placing it in a plastic bag to take…

A legislative plan to launch a high-profile campaign to rid light rail trains of crime and other unsafe conditions requires a combination of state, local and nonprofit police and social services agencies. But what if all of those agencies are not willing — or able — to take part? Commissioners from both Ramsey and Hennepin counties are telling lawmakers that they don’t think they can divert their social services staff from their current duties. Ramsey County Commissioner Rena Moran, a former House member who was chair of the House Ways and Means Committee last session, told the committee it will…

The interior of the SouthWest Station being constructed in Eden Prairie as part of the Southwest Light Rail Transit project. Metropolitan Council So much bad news has flowed from the Met Council and its Southwest Light Rail Transit (also known as the Metro Green Line Extension) project that a harsh report from the state’s legislative auditor might be seen as just more of the same. “Minnesota has a mismatch between the entities that fund the construction of light rail transit projects and the entities responsible for constructing them,” wrote the Office of the Legislative Auditor in a special report requested by the…

The Met Council and Chair Charlie Zelle did not take a position on the bill, perhaps because Gov. Tim Walz is supportive of the concept of an elected council. MinnPost file photo by Peter Callaghan The Metropolitan Council has long been a target of legislative Republicans who have complained about everything from cost overruns and delays on the Southwest Light Rail Transit (also known as the Metro Green Line Extension) project to limits on growth and development in suburban cities. Rarely do they reference the chair and the members of the council without the preface “the unelected.” But a new…

Gov. Tim Walz speaking at Monday’s press conference as, from left, Management and Budget Commissioner Jim Schowalter, state economist Laura Kalambokidis, and Assistant Commissioner Ahna Minge, look on. MinnPost photo by Tom Olmscheid Had Gov. Tim Walz’s budget office presented the latest economic and revenue forecast one week ago, it would have reported a $19 billion revenue surplus. But when Minnesota Management and Budget Commissioner Jim Schowalter walked to the podium Monday, he revealed a surplus of $17.5 billion. What changed in one week to reduce the reported surplus? Did state tax collections plummet from previously robust levels? Did some…

Hiring and keeping staff has been the greatest challenge for the Stay ’n Play child care centers in Litchfield and Willmar. Pay is typically around $15 an hour, including a $2 bonus that stems from federal COVID-19 relief money. But raising wages above that would mean increasing tuition, which executive director Kristin Jaquith said isn’t so easy. “Parents can’t afford to pay any more,” Jaquith told MinnPost. “We’re rural, so our rates are quite a bit lower than what they are in the metro.” Jaquith’s dilemma is not unique. Industry leaders and politicians — all the way up to Treasury Secretary…

The conversation about providing school lunch and breakfast for all Minnesota students has been carried on at two levels: one on food, one that dips into the arcane nature of school funding. One has been very public, the other less so. After passing the House of Representatives on a party line, House File 5 is expected to receive similar treatment in the Senate. The $190 million a year price tag for expanding free and reduced price lunch to all students, regardless of family income, has the support of Gov. Tim Walz, who has included it in his proposed budget for the next…

“This is a balanced budget, but it is far more than that,” Gov. Tim Walz said Tuesday in the fourth of five events convened over the past week or so to roll out different segments of the plan. “It is a transformational budget.” MinnPost photo by Tom Olmscheid When a student at a St. Paul grade school last week asked Gov. Tim Walz why he wanted to be governor, he quickly said: “For this day. For THIS day,” referring to the release of a $5.2 billion boost for education and families with kids, part of a $65.2 billion proposed budget.…

State Sen. Kelly Morrison, a doctor who practices obstetrics and gynecology, shown speaking last Friday during a Reproductive Freedom Caucus press conference.MinnPost photo by Peter Callaghan As Minnesota Democrats move quickly to adopt a bill that would cement the right to an abortion in state law, Republicans have accused them of allowing late-term abortions, up until the moment of birth. It’s an argument the DFL has painted as hyperbolic and misleading. Democrats say the Protect Reproductive Options Act — or PRO Act — only reinforces existing standards in the 1995 Minnesota Supreme Court ruling that established abortion rights and does not address…

How soon? Who’s in charge? How high will taxes be? How will criminal records be expunged? MinnPost’s guide to the marijuana legalization bill being considered at the Legislature in 2023 answers these questions and more. By Peter Callaghan | Staff Writer A worker organizing cannabis flowers before the opening of the first legal recreational marijuana dispensary in Manhattan on December 29, 2022. Photo by REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz The bill legalizing marijuana in Minnesota is 243 pages plus appendices. While it relies on a dozen existing state agencies, it also creates a new one with sweeping authority and perhaps unrealizable marching orders. It would make…