Author: MinnPost

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…

Minnesota may have a staggeringly-large $17.6 billion budget surplus this year, but as the first week of the 2023 legislative session draws to a close, the biggest and most controversial issue in front of lawmakers so far has been abortion. Top DFL leaders say moving fast to cement abortion access in state law — as a backstop to a 1995 state Supreme Court ruling establishing rights in the Minnesota Constitution — is a top priority for the nascent Legislature, showing urgency driven less by any sort of deadline than a desire to capitalize on an issue Democrats believe is the…

Gov. Tim Walz speaking during his inauguration ceremony on Monday. MinnPost photo by Tom Olmscheid DFL Gov. Tim Walz was sworn in for a second term on Monday, and the Minnesota Legislature will hold swearing-in ceremonies and gavel into session on Tuesday afternoon. Here are seven things to keep an eye on as the 2023 session of the Minnesota Legislature convenes. A surprising DFL trifecta will take power for the first time in a decade. But that has both positives and negatives for Walz and legislative leaders. Will anything pass early? It is one of the great clichés of the…

The state agency that is the closest thing to a regulator of newly legal hemp-based edibles wants out of the business. The state Board of Pharmacy, a small agency not often in the news, repeated Monday that it lacks the people, the budget and the expertise to regulate the manufacturing and sale of hemp edibles – gummies, vapes and seltzers included. Without licensing or taxation, the small board with just five inspectors doesn’t even know the size or scope of the business it is charged with overseeing. Jill Phillips MinnPost photo by Peter Callaghan “We’re limited in what we can do,”…

The Minnesota revenue surplus is now $17.6 billion. That’s a lot for a state that spends about $2.16 billion a month and sets up Gov. Tim Walz and the DFL-controlled Legislature to increase spending and reduce taxes. “Strong collections and lower-than-projected spending add to the fiscal year 22-23 surplus,” Minnesota Management and Budget reported Tuesday morning. “Economic headwinds lower expected growth but (a) large leftover surplus and healthy net revenues in fiscal years 24-25 create estimated $17.6 billion available for (the) budget.” Prior to this update, the state was officially sitting on a $12 billion surplus for the final six…

In Gov. Tim Walz’s first term, DFLers in Minnesota produced lots of official reports on climate change and had plenty of grand plans meant to address the issue. But nearly all of those proposals stalled in the Republican-held Senate, or failed to even pass the DFL-led House. With the Legislature now fully in Democratic hands after the November election, leaders are promising an ambitious climate agenda aimed at shrinking carbon emissions. “Because of the rising awareness of climate change I think there’s more momentum than ever,” said Sen. Nick Frentz, a DFLer from North Mankato who will chair the Senate’s Energy, Utilities…

WASHINGTON — Gov. Tim Walz has made a last-minute pitch for Minnesota to become an early primary state as a key panel of the Democratic National Committee is set to make recommendations on a new presidential primary calendar later this week. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz REUTERS/Eric Miller In a letter sent Monday to the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee, Walz, Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and Majority Leader-elect Kari Dziedzic said the DFL’s electoral victories in this month’s elections guarantee the state can move up the date of its presidential primary. “We are now writing to inform the Committee that…