Six things that could get done at the Minnesota Legislature before the end of the 2022 session
Some big issues might still get addressed — or go down as lost opportunities.
Peter Callaghan covers state government for MinnPost. Follow him on Twitter or email him at pcallaghan(at)minnpost(dot)com.
Some big issues might still get addressed — or go down as lost opportunities.
See who’s running in each of Minnesota’s House and Senate districts.
The main issue: how and how much of Minnesota’s surplus money — along with unspent cash from the federal American Rescue Plan — the state should spend.
Opposition to the amendment by the state’s teachers union, Education Minnesota, has led many DFL members, and nearly all DFL leaders, to oppose the measure.
The bill, which now has GOP support, came in response to a mysterious request made to the state Campaign Finance Board in September about charging membership dues for a club that would provide access to Capitol decision-makers.
The bill, which would order the Met Council to charge no more than $1 for bus and transit fares in July and August, was offered in the wake of a proposed gas-tax holiday, which many DFLers oppose.
The legislation would clear the way for the settlement money to begin flowing, the latest development in a years-long battle over how hold drug makers and distributors accountable for the opioid crisis.
The move comes amid allegations against the Twin Cities-based Feeding our Future, which is being investigated by the federal government for misusing millions of dollars intended to help feed children during the pandemic.
By giving all the players in the state’s liquor industry — with the significant exception of grocery stores — something they want, the bill that surfaced last week in the state House might actually have a chance of passage.
The St. Paul-based organization Generation Atomic argues that substituting coal and natural gas with nuclear power is a way to provide electricity without producing greenhouse gasses.
“It is not tenable for Hennepin County taxpayers to continue to be solely responsible for completing the largest infrastructure project in Minnesota history,” said Hennepin County Commissioner Marion Greene.
What to do about the state’s reinsurance program — at what cost — is once again expected to be a contentious source of end-of-session negotiations at the Capitol.
What to know, why it matters — and what it portends for the rest of the 2022 session.
While the bill is unlikely to pass the DFL-controlled House, it speaks to the concerns among Senate Republicans about ordinances passed in each city last year.
Six DFLers in the Minnesota House have proposed legislation to stop collecting the state’s 28.5 cent per gallon tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Here’s why.
A look at how some votes at the Legislature are meant not to legislate but to campaign — to prepare for the upcoming election by providing fodder for the mailers and social media ads that will be delivered to voters in battleground districts.
Minnesota’s top election official, Secretary of State Steve Simon, called the bill “part of a broader campaign of disinformation to corrode confidence in the election system.”
The state DFL party seems to think so.
With the February forecast, released Monday, legislators now have a number to work with this as they tweak the state’s budget this session. And what a number.
The increase in the surplus for the current two-year budget grew from $7.75 billion to $9.25 billi0n.
* Please read before republishing *
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license as long as you follow our republishing guidelines. See our full republication guidelines for more information.
To republish, copy the HTML at right, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to MinnPost.
If you have questions, email editors@minnpost.com.
— The Editors
By Peter Callaghan and Walker Orenstein
April 19, 2022