Minnesota Report
On Monday, the legislature met in a joint session to advance four persons to serve as members of the University of Minnesota Board of Regents from the 2nd, 3rd, and 8th Congressional Districts along with one at-large member, all for a term of six years. With a combined majority of 104-to-97, the DFL selected the following, four as recommended by the joint Legislative Committee Relating to the Board of Regents. 2nd –Robyn Gulley, a member of the West St Paul City Council, 3rd–Mary Turner, President of the Minnesota Nurses Union, her selection, returns a union member to the board for the first time in over a decade, 8th–Tadd Johnson, a member of the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa, who was appointed to the spot by Governor Tim Walz to replace David McMillan, who left the board to become the Chancellor at UMD, and Penny Wheeler, a former Allina Health CEO, of which Turner had an adversarial relationship due to their respective positions. Wheeler prevailed in the closest contest requiring two ballots over University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Student Body President Flora Yang.
These selections create an 8-4 majority of women on the board.
On Tuesday, the House passed its version of up to 18 weeks of Paid Family Leave on a vote of 68-64, largely a party-line vote with two missing DFL members.
To date, Governor Tim Walz (DFL-MN) has signed all thirty-one pieces of legislation to arrive on his desk. Governor Approval (31)
And the work continues. There are currently eighteen Conference Committees underway, and we are awaiting the first reconciled bills, so there are no Conference Committee Reports. The list of current Conference Committees and membership are found at https://www.leg.mn.gov/leg/cc/ If you look at the specific bills which have passed both bodies, you can also see the other bills included inside the omnibus bills.
Many are waiting on the Capital Investment Bill, to see what projects make the cut, which will likely not be a bonding bill because it will be a cash bill with the target of $2.29 billion.
We will remind our readers the targets for each area are:
- taxes, aids, and credits (net), $3 billion;
- debt service and capital projects, $2.29 billion;
- K-12 education, $2.21 billion;
- human services, $1.3 billion;
- children and families, $1.17 billion (HHS – children and families, $875 million; early education, $300 million);
- transportation, $1.07 billion;
- housing, $1 billion;
- health and human services, $755 million;
- environment and natural resources, $670 million;
- paid family and medical leave, $668.3 million;
- higher education, $650 million;
- public safety, $650 million;
- HCAF Financing ($621.6 million);
- pensions, $600 million;
- federal economic development match, $500 million;
- state government, $400 million;
- stadium, (inc. reserve impact) ($340.8 million);
- other items, $310 million
- energy and climate, $255 million;
- economic development, $250 million;
- workforce development, $240 million;
- lead lines, $240 million;
- judiciary, $230 million;
- veterans and military affairs, $128.4 million;
- broadband, $100 million;
- agriculture, $48 million;
- disaster relief, $40 million;
- commerce, $10 million;
- elections, $10 million;
- labor, $8 million;
- earned sick and safe time, $4.8 million; and
- claims bill, $1.5 million.
Here is a separate list of the Omnibus bills. https://www.senate.mn/omnibus.