After lawmakers return on Tuesday from a short break for Easter and Passover, they will reveal their closely-watched tax plans and start to negotiate over what can actually pass the Legislature. MinnPost photo by Peter Callaghan With six weeks to go in Minnesota’s legislative session, DFLers who narrowly control state government with their first “trifecta” since 2014 have a list of early accomplishments such as cementing abortion rights in state law and passing a carbon-free energy mandate. But Democrats also have plenty of unanswered questions left to address, starting with the Big One: how, exactly, they plan to spend a…
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Sen. Alice Mann says she knew her No. 1 priority for the 2023 session was going to take up a lot of her time. Senate File 2 would create an insurance program for paid family and medical leave that would put Minnesota in league with 11 other states that have pioneered the coverage. Mann said she purposefully introduced fewer bills and took on fewer other issues to give herself time because of what she said she knew would be a “heavy lift.” She underestimated. “I have anywhere from one meeting to four or five in one day regarding this bill,” the…
Congress broke out in partisan discord over guns, as it has with increasing frequency in the aftermath of every horrific mass shooting in the nation. U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips U.S. House Democrats quickly moved to call for the reinstatement of a federal ban on assault-styled weapons like the AR-15 that killed three nine-year-old students and three educators at a private school in Nashville this week. “They are not being used to hunt deer, they are being used to hunt human beings,” House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries said at a press conference on the U.S. Capitol steps. Like Jeffries, Rep.…
A proposal in the Minnesota Legislature to add a quarter-cent sales tax in the seven-county metro area to raise money for affordable housing programs has attracted an unlikely pair of opponents. After the bill was presented to the House Housing Committee, it drew criticism from the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and an organization that represents 89 cities in the metro area that will get new housing funding from the bill. The Chamber opposed the tax for expected reasons. It thinks taxes in Minnesota and in the metro are already too high and discourage business location and retention. Use the surplus…
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…