Good morning and welcome to Monday. There’s one week to go until the day the Legislature must adjourn, although DFL leaders in the House are hoping to end the session sooner.
The House is expected to take up a public safety bill Monday after the Senate passed an $880 million bill late Friday night that funds the state court system and also contains a number of public safety policy provisions, including two gun measures.MPR’s Brian Bakst has more: The Senate vote was 34-33, with all Democrats voting in favor and all Republicans against. The pair of gun restrictions expanding background checks to more sales and allowing for temporary removal of guns from people in crisis faced opposition from Senate Republicans and raised doubts about whether the bill would get the support of every Senate Democrat. But the bill was also getting pushback over the possibility some people in prison could get out sooner, language about bias-motivated crimes and altered procedures around pardons. Sen. Rob Kupec, DFL-Moorhead, said the two gun measures won’t solve all problems, but he called them the least onerous of proposals entertained by legislative Democrats this year. “There are a lot of people, even in Greater Minnesota, who want enhanced background checks,” Kupec said, adding it took him longer to get behind the extreme-risk orders. Another rural Democrat, Sen. Grant Hauschild of Hermantown said he had been talking with many people in his district about what to do. "Gun owners want nothing more than to reduce gun violence" Hauschild said, adding, “We should always do everything in our power to keep our loved ones safe.”
As Democrats at the Capitol push ahead with a paid family leave plan, some tax hikes and other measures, they are seeing increasing opposition.MPR’s Dana Ferguson reports: Business groups, health care organizations and Republicans have pushed back, saying they’ve had little input in shaping the budget and could face higher costs and more state mandates should it pass. The Mayo Clinic earlier this month threatened to pull investments and projects from Minnesota unless a pair of provisions on health care pricing transparency and staffing levels in hospitals are dropped from a broader health bill or changed. And some small business owners say they’re considering moving across the border as plans to implement a paid family and medical leave program and raise revenue for the state with new taxes and fees make their way through the Capitol. Finding replacement workers and paying a payroll tax to fund the family leave program would create financial hardship for businesses, they said. “We have a presence in Ohio and we don't deal with really any of these mandates,” Ameet Shah, CEO of the Burnsville-based technology consultant the Shah Corporation, said. “We're competing nationally on what we can charge. So if the cost of doing business continues to accelerate here, it's going to be hard for us to continue to work in Minnesota.” Taken together, the DFL stand on taxes and family leave have spurred condemnation from Minnesota’s business community. And the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce deemed the DFL agenda “anti-employer, anti-business.” “I do think this is a historic session, because I think it is the potential cost and growth and spending that might be imposed, really is going to set the state on a path. And the concern is it's on a path that is not sustainable,” said Beth Kadoun, vice president of tax and fiscal policy for the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce.
Conference committee updates: On Saturday, the conference committee working on the paid family and medical leave plan agreed on a bill, but pushed back the starting date of the benefit by six months to Jan.1, 2026 and limited the maximum length of the leave to 20 weeks. The bill will now head back to the House and Senate for final votes. A conference committee also agreed on a $2.26 billion education finance and policy bill that will increase the per pupil funding formula by 4 percent next year, 2 percent the year after and then tie increases to inflation with a 3 percent cap. There’s also money to help with special education expenses. They're expected to sign off on the plan today. The conference committee on legal cannabis met for the first time Friday. House bill sponsor, DFL Rep. Zack Stephenson of Coon Rapids, told a packed hearing room of supporters and opponents that the panel hopes to get a finished bill soon. “It is my expectation, intention, desire that this bill will be on the governor's decks before the end of this legislative session,” he said. “And I expect to deliver on that.” His counterpart, DFL Sen. Lindsey Port of Burnsville, said even when a 21-and-up use law passes, the system will be refined in the years ahead. “It's going to be a continuing industry that there's going to be tweaks for years and years and years, just like we do with the liquor bills,” she said. “Twelve to 18 months for dispensaries to open, and probably as long as this legislature stands for continued work on the cannabis industry.”
Democrats seem poised to move ahead with a cash-only plan to fund public works projects in Minnesota, after they were unable to reach a deal with Senate Republicans to get enough votes to pass a bonding bill. But it also seems as if the negotiations aren’t quite over. Dana reported on Friday: With a little more than a week left in the legislative session and negotiations with Senate Republicans still in limbo, DFLers said they would move forward with a $1.3 billion proposal that wouldn’t require GOP votes to pass. “Although I'm hopeful negotiations continue, we only have a week till the end of session,” Senate Capital Investment Chair Sandy Pappas, DFL-Saint Paul, said. “We have to move on.” DFL House Speaker Melissa Hortman said construction projects are too important to be held up by Republicans.
State DFL Party chair Ken Martin is apologizing and calling for an emergency meeting of the party’s state executive committee after fight broke out at a DFL caucus in Minneapolis on Saturday.The Star Tribune reports: Minneapolis police spokesman Brian Feintech said officers responded to the convention at Ella Baker Global Studies & Humanities Magnet School to find a large group of people dispersing. Police made no arrests Saturday, but the officers heard several reports of injuries and fights. At least one person was taken to HCMC by paramedics for non-life-threatening injuries, and another was treated at the scene, Feintech said. Video posted to Twitter by John Edwards, who blogs about Minneapolis politics as Wedge Live, shows the chaos break out at the Ward 10 endorsing convention after supporters of Minneapolis Council Member Aisha Chughtai took the stage. Supporters for Chughtai's challenger, Nasri Warsame, shouted and jeered in the gymnasium, and a man waving a Warsame sign jumped on the stage. More people in Warsame shirts followed and continued to shout, slam on tables and wave signs, disrupting the convention proceedings. "This is embarrassing!" convention chair Sam Doten shouted, finally adjourning after pleading futilely for order. "We are shutting this down!" he said. "This is no longer safe!"
Tell MPR News: What do you hope lawmakers accomplish this session? | 