Good morning, and welcome to another Monday.
The Legislature had a busy first week, and the pace isn’t likely to let up.MPR’s Brian Bakst reports: The first weeks are usually filled with informational hearings: what state agencies do, what are the trend lines in programs, what are gaps that might need addressing. Some of that is happening, but in just the first week there have already been pointed debates and committee votes on a bill to shore up abortion rights, one to speed through $100 million in tax filing deductions and another to put a measure of inflation back into economic forecasting. Of the express-lane bills, the tax proposal could reach a final vote this week. Gov. Tim Walz’s administration wants it done by Friday if possible to allow for needed updates to income tax filing forms and software. “We’ll be taking up that bill and passing it in the House on Monday and working with the Senate to get it through the Senate as quickly as we can,” DFL House Speaker Melissa Hortman said Friday. The abortion bill, which also covers access to contraception and fertility services, might not be far behind. Democrats made it the first bill introduced in both chambers. A bill to provide another half year of unemployment benefits to laid off iron ore industry workers has its first hearing this week and is deemed a priority.
And Bakst notes: Other prominent issues are drawing early attention as well, although they will no doubt take a bit more time to get to resolution. They include: A proposal to allow people to get driver’s licenses regardless of their immigration status. A bill to restore voting rights to felons upon their release from incarceration rather than their completion of a sentence, including probation. A plan to stabilize the long-term care and disability work forces by accelerating rate adjustments around industry wages. A bill to put up state matching money for federal infrastructure aid. The proposal to make cannabis use legal for anybody over age 21 and that clears records of people with past marijuana offenses. The marijuana bill gets its first hearing Wednesday in the House Commerce Committee.
Another priority for DFLers is setting up a system of paid family and medical leave for all Minnesota workers.The Star Tribune has a story about how it might work: DFL legislators and Gov. Tim Walz want to use a portion of the state's $17.6 billion estimated budget surplus to jump-start the program, Speaker Hortman said. Bill sponsors said they don't have an exact figure for the startup cost, but past estimates have been greater than $1 billion. After an initial infusion of surplus cash, the bill states the program would be sustained by a 0.6 percent premium on wages that would be funneled into a family and medical benefit insurance account. Employees and employers would contribute to the program, legislators said. Past cost estimates have suggested a worker earning $50,000 annually would contribute roughly $3 a week and the employer would also spend about $3 a week, said bill sponsor Rep. Ruth Richardson, DFL-Mendota Heights. Employers could opt out and continue offering private plans for paid family or medical leave, or both, under the bill. They would need to apply for state approval to offer the substitute plan, which would have to include at least the same benefits, protections and rights as the public program. Employers could face fees if they don't meet program requirements.
Gov. Tim Walz assured Minnesota nonprofit leaders Friday that new grant oversight measures will protect legitimate organizations. MPR's Bakst and Matt Sepic report that Walz recently proposed anti-fraud law changes and more scrutiny of grants. His plan comes after federal prosecutors last year charged 50 people allegedly connected to the group Feeding Our Future with stealing $250 million from government-run child nutrition programs. “Feeding Our Future was not a nonprofit,” Walz said. “What they were was a criminal organization fronted as a nonprofit to try and benefit themselves. To make the implication this is all nonprofits is simply unacceptable.” His plan calls for more internal controls, the addition of grant inspectors at key agencies, and bolstering criminal investigations where wrongdoing is suspected. Minnesota nonprofit leaders say they support adding more integrity to the system, but extra paperwork and grant administration costs would be counterproductive.
More state regulation of low-dose THC edibles, a limited tax haul, and provisions to keep large operators out of the state are just a few of the items in the legal marijuana bill introduced by DFLers at the Capitol last week.Christopher Ingraham at the Minnesota Reformer had a rundown: Minnesota’s bill would allow adults age 21 and over to purchase and possess up to two ounces of cannabis flower or edible products from a licensed retailer and grow up to 8 plants at their own home. It would also establish a statewide Office of Cannabis Management to oversee the new industry, with authority to grant licenses, tax sales, test product purity and set limits on labeling, advertising and potency. The bill would create a process for expunging certain previous cannabis convictions, amend labor laws around workplace cannabis testing, and update laws regarding criminal penalties for unauthorized sale and possession. But the bill also contains a number of provisions that are unique to Minnesota, some of which could prove to be contentious as the legislation makes its way through the Capitol.
Tell MPR News: What do you hope lawmakers accomplish this session? | 