Good morning and welcome to Wednesday.
The Minnesota House on Tuesday passed an 18-week paid family and medical leave program that could take effect starting in 2025. MPR’s Dana Ferguson reports the vote was 68-64, with two Democrats and all Republicans voting no. Under the bill, Minnesota workers and employers would pay into a state program similar to Minnesota’s unemployment insurance fund. Workers would then be able to access partial wages from the program if they take leave to welcome a new child, get sick or need to care for a loved one. DFL lawmakers, backed by faith leaders, business owners, unions, health organizations and others pressed to pass a similar program for eight years. And now with DFL control at the Capitol, supporters said they felt confident that the measure could make it across the finish line this year. Opponents, including GOP lawmakers, along with business and insurance groups, said the bill was too rigid. And they said there should be more incentives and flexibilities to encourage employers to offer more paid leave options.
The Minnesota Senate passed a plan Tuesday that expands a state tax exemption for Social Security benefits without eliminating the tax after maneuvering around a version of repeal that fell short. MPR’s Brian Bakst reports that was just one element of the sprawling tax package, which would also deliver one-time rebates, boost child and dependent tax credits, send more money to local governments and bump up property tax relief programs. The bill also includes an increase in taxes on companies with foreign subsidiaries they sometimes use to trim their tax liability. The final vote was 34-33 along party lines, with majority Democrats voting in favor. Much of the debate centered on the tax treatment of Social Security benefits, given that it was a potent campaign issue. The bill would prevent the state tax on Social Security income for couples earning $100,000 or less and singles under $78,000 — more than current law allows and at a level that would cover about three-quarters of benefit recipients. It still has to be reconciled with a House version.
Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Kari Dziedzic returned to the Senate floor Tuesday after undergoing extensive cancer surgery earlier this spring . In March, Dzeidzic had surgery to remove a tumor in her ovary. Weeks afterward, she revealed that her spleen, appendix and uterus were also removed as part of the surgery. Dziedzic continued working remotely as she recovered from the surgery. She said she would transition back to work at the Capitol on a gradual basis. "I want to just thank everybody for all their kind notes and kind words of encouragement,” Dziedzic said. “It's been greatly appreciated, and it motivates me to get back here. And you know it's just going to be gradual, so, one day at a time."
American Indian students in Minnesota may soon be able to attend a public college or university for free. MPR’s Feven Gerezgiher reports that both the House and Senate have $24 million in their higher education budget bills to establish the American Indian Scholars Program, providing for a full tuition and fee waiver for American Indian students to pursue an undergraduate education at Minnesota’s public two-and four-year colleges and universities. "This has really been a vision and a desire of elected tribal leaders and tribal governments as a whole, and American Indian students and community members for multiple decades,” said Dennis Olson, commissioner of the Minnesota Office of Higher Education and an enrolled member of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. “We're really excited to finally be able to act on long-standing tribal consultation and collaboration with tribal nations to be able to bring it forth this year.”
Hundreds of students gathered in a school auditorium in Richfield Tuesday morning to listen to the oral arguments before the Minnesota Supreme Court in a legal case that has the potential to re-make the racial and socio-economic structure of schools statewide. MPR’s Elizabeth Shockman reports that plaintiffs, including parents of students who attended Twin Cities schools, argued that racial and socioeconomic segregation in Minnesota schools has led to achievement gaps and is a violation of the state constitution’s education clause. But there are some who worry a decision in favor of the plaintiffs in this case would harm students of color who attend charter schools that cater to specific groups. The class-action lawsuit against the state Department of Education and the Legislature was first filed in 2015 by lead plaintiff, Alejandro Cruz-Guzman, together with other parents who had students in Twin Cities school districts.
Former Minneapolis police officer Tou Thao was convicted Monday of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter for his role in George Floyd’s 2020 killing. As MPR’s Jon Collins reports it was the final pending criminal charge against former officers involved in Floyd’s death. Thao was the officer who kept bystanders at bay on May 25, 2020, as his colleague Derek Chauvin kneeled on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes on a south Minneapolis street, even as Floyd begged officers to let him up and told them “I can’t breathe.” In his ruling, Hennepin County District Court Judge Peter Cahill wrote that Thao discouraging his colleagues from using a tool called a hobble, which is meant to safely restrain someone, encouraged them to keep Floyd in the dangerous prone position, which can make it difficult to breathe. Cahill also said Thao’s actions as a “human traffic cone” allowed the officers to continue their restraint, and prevented bystanders, including an off-duty firefighter, from intervening or offering Floyd medical attention.
A United Nations panel examining issues of racial justice and equity — created in part in response to the murder of George Floyd — was in Minneapolis Tuesday, to hear from community members affected by systemic racism in policing and prisons. MPR’s Nicole Ki reports two experts from the United Nations Expert Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in the context of Law Enforcement were at the Twin Cities Urban League Headquarters in North Minneapolis as part of a fact-gathering tour across the country. “This is a part of an investigation to see what is happening in the US,” said Salimah Hankins, the director of the U.N. Anti-Racism Coalition, one of the organizations that coordinated the visit. “And Minnesota felt like … a key place in that fight, because of what's happening with the police, and because this mechanism came as an outgrowth of the killing of George Floyd. So it felt like it made sense to have a full circle moment to come back here.” Among those who spoke were Myon Burrell, who was given a life sentence at 16-years-old for a first-degree murder he said he didn't commit. That sentence was later commuted.
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