Good morning and look, it’s already Thursday.
Gun legislation is back on the agenda at the Minnesota Capitol. MPR’s Dana Ferguson and Brian Bakst report: A conference committee working on a public safety budget bill on Wednesday added language that would expand background checks for gun transfers between private parties. It also added a provision that some call a red flag bill to allow law enforcement to temporarily take guns from persons believed to be a risk to themselves or to others. “I know some of the opponents have said will this stop and end all gun violence? It will not," said Rep. Cedrick Frazier, DFL-New Hope, of the red flag language. “But it is a tool that can prevent, and it is a tool that if it saves 10 lives, if it saves one life, we have done a job that needs to be done.” With the legislative deadline nearing and with the DFL holding a narrow majority in the Senate, it’s still not clear that the proposals could pass that chamber. Gun rights groups say the red flag measure is a constitutional infringement because the revocations could occur before the gun owner has a full court hearing. They also note the reservations of local law enforcement who could be put in dangerous situations retrieving guns from people believed to be in crisis already. Sen. Ron Latz, DFL-Saint Louis Park, who chairs the Senate Public Safety Committee, said small tweaks were made to the red flag bill as an effort to address the concerns of some moderate Democrats. “The volume that we're seeing right now of homicides and suicides by firearm is dramatically up, compared to what it was when we first started this effort. And at some point, you've got to say, if you want to separate the guns from the people, you have to be able to do that,” Latz said. “If it's not the guns, fine, if it's the people, let's screen the people to see if they are legally eligible to possess the guns. And if they are a danger to themselves or others and certainly an imminent danger, we need to separate them from the guns.”
And last night, one of the key swing votes on the issue, Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown, told Northern News Now he would vote for the gun measures: “I came to the conclusion that we have to do something. There have been far too many school shootings,” Hauschild told reporter Quinn Gorham. “There has been far too much gun violence in our streets. And so background checks and the extreme risk protection orders made sense to make sure that we are addressing these where we can.”
There were no Republicans on the conference committee that added the gun language to the public safety bill. And GOP leaders were not happy about it. “It remains to be seen if Senate Democrats have the votes to pass their public safety bill. The self-described moderates will have to decide if they will stay true to the promises to their constituents or bend to the will of party leadership. But they will also be voting for a bill that no longer funds three important provisions: mental health grants and wellness grants for first responders, additional school safety center staff and body camera grants for law enforcement,” said Senate Minority leader Mark Johnson, R- East Grand Forks. And House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, said Democrats were shutting out the voices of 48 percent of Minnesotans. “These gun control measures violate the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding gun owners, and are being forced into a budget bill to avoid an up or down vote because Democrats know these bills have bipartisan opposition and would not pass,” Demuth said. “It’s now up to Senators Hauschild and Kupec — whose constituents and Sheriffs oppose these bills — to decide whether they will side with their party leaders or listen to the people they represent.”
A bill that would allow students from families that make less than $80,000 a year to attend public colleges at no charge is on its way to the governor. Brian reports: The bill also freezes tuition for two years in the Minnesota state system, and aims to hold down tuition increases at the University of Minnesota. The Legislature can’t require a tuition freeze at the University of Minnesota because it is constitutionally autonomous. Overall the bill spends $416 billion on higher education over the next two years, an increase of $650 million over the current budget. The Senate passed the final version of the bill Wednesday 34-30 after the House passed it Tuesday, both largely along party lines in the Democratic-controlled chambers. The chair of the Senate Higher Education Committee, Omar Fateh, DFL-Minneapolis, said the goal of the bill is to allow students to focus on being students, not on the cost of their education. “We're making a promise to them that if they work hard that we're going to cover your tuition,” Fateh said. “And we're going to go beyond that. We're going to have a Pell match. Because we learned from you, the students, that school is much more expensive not just because of tuition, but because of the cost of living on campus and being a student.” Many Republicans voted against the bill and some argued that the nearly $120 million Northstar Promise tuition program squeezed out other higher education priorities, including lower tuition for all students.
Most Minnesota voters still back Gov. Tim Walz after his reelection last fall, according to a new poll. The KSTP-TV/SurveyUSA poll of 681 registered voters across Minnesota finds 54 percent approve of the governor’s job performance, while 41 percent disapprove and 5 percent are not sure. It’s a different story outside the Twin Cities metro area, where only 38 percent approve of the governor’s performance. As for the Minnesota Legislature, state lawmakers as a group lag far behind the governor in approval. When asked their view about the work done so far by the Legislature, 37 percent rated it “excellent” or “good,” while 57 percent rated it as “fair” or “poor.” Outside the Twin Cities metro area, only 19 percent rated the Legislature’s work as “good” or “excellent” and 72 percent as “fair” or “poor.”
The same poll also asked about some of the elements of the DFL agenda at the Capitol. On issues, the poll found 64 percent support the framework of paid family and medical leave bills making their way through the Minnesota House and Senate, while 30 percent disapprove and 6 percent are unsure. When it comes to income taxes paid on Social Security benefits, Minnesotans continue to favor the total elimination of that tax. According to the poll, 55 percent support total elimination, with 23 percent supporting a partial reduction as proposed by the governor, House and Senate. The survey shows 67 percent want the governor’s tax rebate plan compared to $275 and $550 rebates proposed by the Legislature. That plan is supported by just 12 percent of those surveyed.
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