ST PAUL, Minn. — If anyone thought the feverish pace of the 2023 Session left nothing for the Minnesota Legislature to do in 2024, they were mistaken. Just ask the hundreds of people who crowded into the Rotunda on opening day Monday to press lawmakers for action on a wide variety of policy issues.
We won’t see a lot of big ticket spending this year because last year was the budget year and lawmakers passed a two-year balanced budget. Even-numbered years are for policy debates and public works construction bills, aka capital investment bills, aka bonding bills.
Those policy debates will include things like the medical aid in dying, sports betting, the school resource officer bill fix, the Equal Rights Amendment, medical debt, a constitutional amendment to raise the sales tax for affordable housing, a Met Council governance makeover, a proposed assault rifle ban, and whether to make Minnesota a sanctuary state for undocumented immigrants.
DFL House Speaker Melissa Hortman of Brooklyn Park put the School Resource Officer legislation on a fast track. It passed the Education Policy Committee Monday and will go to the Public Safety Finance Tuesday, Ways and Means on Wednesday on the way to a floor vote next week.
Dozens of law enforcement agencies last fall temporarily pulled their SROs out of schools, asserting that a change in law barring school employees and contractors from using prone restraints could place officers in jeopardy of civil suits or criminal charges. Statewide police organizations wanted language clarifying officers could use those holds on students if needed to save other people.
"These changes went through committees and floor votes. They didn't come from nowhere," Speaker Hortman told reporters.
"But we will send them through the process again, and we will clarify, so that everybody has the clarity they need."
Sen. Zach Duckworth, a Lakeville Republican, said he was glad to see the legislative fix was moving quickly.
"Number one, I’m glad Democrats have joined us in admitting there needs to be a fix and glad they’re trying to do something sooner, rather than later, given the fact that we didn’t have a special session to address it."
House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth of Cold Spring said she's still not convinced the changes are a done deal this year.
"There were 34 members of the House DFL caucus that came out against the school resource officer fix earlier this fall. I think that would be concerning for them."
Hortman also gave sports betting a decent chance of passing after years of stalling out at the Capitol year after year. There are supporters and detractors on both sides of the aisle.
"I think those who are in support are having good conversations together, so I’m hopeful they’ll come to an agreement we can get passed."
Gov. Tim Walz kept to his opening day tradition of delivering dessert bars to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. He walked around the second floor of the Capitol carrying a pan of apple blondies, chatting with legislators as he dished out treats.
Walz said it's a gesture that emphasizes the need for bipartisanship, which will be essential to pass a bonding bill. Those bills must be approved by a 60 percent supermajority, so it will take at least seven Republican votes in the Senate and 11 Republican votes in the House to reach that mark.
"It’s terrible to be in the minority. It’s especially terrible if you feel you’re not being heard at all," Walz told reporters.
"And I think what we’re trying to do is make sure there’s room here. A bonding bill has to be bipartisan. (Republican) Dean Urdahl is the champion of the bonding bill and we’re counting on him."
Senate Democrats elected Sen. Erin Murphy of Saint Paul as their new majority leader, replacing Sen. Kari Dziedzic of Minneapolis, who stepped away from that leadership position after her cancer returned. Sen. Dziedzic will continue to serve in the Senate.
"We’re going to continue to ensure safe communities, strong schools, and a healthy climate," Sen. Murphy told reporters Monday.
"We won’t back down on reproductive rights, reproductive freedom. We’re not going to negotiate against hungry kids or sick workers."
House Speaker Hortman said it's unlikely the sanctuary state bill, known as the North Star Act, will pass this year because there simply aren't enough votes to be found in the House or Senate. She said the proposed Equal Rights Amendment would likely be taken up on the floor again this year, as a ballot question in the 2026 election.
"I think we need to be absolutely clear that there is legal effect to the language, and that the language protects reproductive freedom, and expressions of gender identity."
Democrats hold a slim 70 to 64 seat majority in House, while they have a super tight 34 to 33 seat in the Senate.
This is also an election year, with all 134 seats up for grabs in the fall. That's why Republicans Monday spent much of their time on camera saying they're going to boost the narrative of the DFL majority spending too much of the surplus in 2023.
Republicans continue to press for a do-over on the new state flag design.
"Why were Minnesotans cut out of the process? If we can we should go back and figure out a way to allow Minnesotans to have more input into that flag," Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson of East Grand Forks told reporters.
Sen. Mary Kunesh, the New Brighton Democrat who authored the Senate version of the emblems redesign bill, said the commission worked as intended and did take public input.
"We did everything we said we were going to do, and the way we did it there really shouldn’t be any reason to go back and revisit it."
Republicans continue to press for a do-over on the new state flag design.
"Why were Minnesotans cut out of the process? If we can we should go back and figure out a way to allow Minnesotans to have more input into that flag," Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson of East Grand Forks told reporters.
Sen. Mary Kunesh, the New Brighton Democrat who authored the Senate version of the emblems redesign bill, said the commission worked as intended and did take public input.
"We did everything we said we were going to do, and the way we did it there really shouldn’t be any reason to go back and revisit it."