Updating Minnesota’s Prohibition-era liquor laws likely has a lot of support. Here’s why that doesn’t matter.
Bills that attempt to change Minnesota liquor laws run into several interconnected obstacles.
Bills that attempt to change Minnesota liquor laws run into several interconnected obstacles.
Even as top lawmakers pledge to negotiate a compromise over funding for extra security for the trial of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, the episode has highlighted the deep divisions between the state’s rural and urban areas.
The latest bills offered in the GOP-controlled Senate and DFL-controlled House are stand-ins for a continuing argument over the governor’s emergency powers.
Though the program — which allows those who invest in early-stage Minnesota businesses to claim a 25 percent tax credit — has been popular, it has come nowhere near its goals for boosting startups by nontraditional owners.
A bill advancing through the Minnesota Senate aims to put Minneapolis on the hook for any law enforcement help it receives from around the state during the March trial of ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.
On Wednesday, Gov. Tim Walz also tipped attendees at a League of Minnesota Cities webinar that an upcoming budget forecast would be good news — that the state’s current surplus would grow and the projected shortfall in the future would “shrink even substantially more.”
That still doesn’t mean lawmakers will pass legislation to make a key state tax credit permanent before it expires.
In many ways, the bill introduced at the Minnesota Legislature this session reflects the latest national trends around the issue.
The idea is to entice law enforcement from other parts of Minnesota to help with security around the trial for the ex-Minneapolis police officer charged with killing George Floyd. But the plan has already faced opposition from legislative Republicans.
In 2020, the DFL-affiliated groups vastly outspent their GOP counterparts and saw their House majority shrink, while also failing to retake the state Senate.
Neel Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, was at the Minnesota Capitol Tuesday to brief lawmakers on economic conditions in Minnesota and the country.
What had been a tense-but-civil relationship has become one of open antagonism, for the same reason much of state and national politics has: the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
Yes, Minnesota’s corporate income tax is borne by owners and shareholders. But also by workers and consumers.
Companies that could quickly build out fiber optic internet have been squeezed out of areas covered by a federal grant to a company with limited resources and experience, something state funders said was necessary to avoid duplicate use of taxpayer money.
Gov. Tim Walz wants to authorize $150 million in bonds to help redevelop parts of Minneapolis and St. Paul. A GOP proposal, meanwhile, would bar any state disaster aid from paying for repairs to public infrastructure damaged in the riots.
State Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka said tax increases are a non-starter with Senate Republicans, however, calling it “a line in the sand.”
Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, who chairs the state’s Capital Security Advisory Committee, said the state must balance building security and access for the public.
Processing plant closures due to coronavirus forced farmers to euthanize hundreds of thousands of animals. Now, many of the biggest players in Minnesota agriculture are debating how to strengthen the food system.
And why a lot fewer of those bills have been introduced this year.
What two Minnesota Senate resolutions say about where the parties are, even as Joe Biden is sworn in as president.