After a historic 2023 legislative session, which saw DFL majorities enact a sweeping policy agenda and use most of a record $17.5 billion surplus to make major public investments from education and health care to transportation and housing, local legislators are gearing up for a 2024 session that is likely to be, at least by comparison, briefer and more modest in scope.
While the session won’t begin in full force until Feb. 12, key committees have already met, as legislators prepare to debate several hot button issues, including physician-assisted suicide, sports betting, and the potential addition, pending voter approval, of a new Equal Rights Amendment to the Minnesota Constitution.
Fixes and updates
In several policy areas, “fix-it bills” are also likely, as legislators in both parties closely track implementation of the massive policy changes passed last year, and propose tweaks, clarifications and adjustments to address various issues as they arise.
Most notably, legislators will revisit the issue of school resource officers, after legislative changes criticized by law enforcement leaders and County Attorneys for their lack of clarity led some Police Departments to temporarily pull SROs from local schools.
The controversy outraged Republicans, divided DFLers and almost led Gov. Tim Walz to call a special session before Attorney General Keith Ellison issued an opinion holding that the law does not limit the types of reasonable force officers can use to carry out their lawful duties.
While the opinion was sufficient to temporarily mollify the Minnesota Peace and Police Officers Association and law enforcement agencies across the state, even Ellison himself indicated that the Legislature should further clarify the law to avoid further issues.
In another significant example, legislators will look to correct a drafting error in last year’s tax bill that, if unaddressed, would accidentally raise taxes by more than $350 million. The error occurred because lawmakers accidentally used the 2019 standard deduction amount for tax year 2024, undoing five years of adjustments for inflation.
Last year’s cannabis legalization bill is likely to be revisited, with the Office of Cannabis Management encouraging legislators to add a temporary license system and streamline the application process to help growers and dispensaries get their businesses off the ground faster.
On the other side, several dozen Republican legislators, including local Reps. Brian Daniels of Faribault and John Petersburg of Waseca, expressed concerns so deep with the cannabis legalization bill that they believed a special session was warranted to fix them.
In joint letters addressed to Walz, Speaker Melissa Hortman and Senate Majority Leader Kari Dziedzic, Republicans argued that the legislation as passed doesn’t do nearly enough to keep marijuana out of the hands of youth and allow local communities to regulate it as they see fit.
Particularly controversial was a provision which attempted to lift all penalties for juvenile use and possession, but was apparently thwarted by an unrelated section of Minnesota law which imposes a petty misdemeanor when a crime has no specific punishment.
A petty misdemeanor is the lowest level of offense in state law, with no jail time and punishment limited to a fine of up to $300. Petty misdemeanors don’t even technically constitute a crime, although they may show up on an individual’s court records.
The bill’s Senate author, Sen. Lindsay Port of Burnsville, defended the law by arguing that criminalizing marijuana possession for youth is ineffective, while also emphasizing that possessing marijuana remains a petty misdemeanor for those under 21.
While dismissing the Republican call for a special session to amend the cannabis bill as “outrageous,” Port did acknowledge that parts of the cannabis bill should be fixed and updated as part of the regular legislative session and the bill would likely need regular updates in fact.
House author Zack Stephenson of Coon Rapids had a different perspective, arguing that it was always his intention to keep marijuana possession illegal for minors as part of the bill’s broader aim of reducing access to cannabis among Minnesota youth.
However, Republicans questioned whether such a small penalty, comparable to a parking ticket, would truly prove an effective deterrent in stopping youth marijuana use, and pointed out that existing penalties in state law for youth alcohol use are much stiffer.
Also at issue are the penalties of selling marijuana to minors. While Stephenson and Port touted the penalties for selling to minors as the toughest in the bill, Republicans say they were significantly weakened and that if a minor sells marijuana to another minor, it would now constitute just a petty misdemeanor.
Bonding bill
Perhaps the biggest ticket item likely to come before the Legislature’s desk this year, and the only one requiring bipartisan support, will be a bonding bill. With the budget set in the first year of the two-year legislative cycle, the second is traditionally reserved for bonding.
By focusing on bonding in an even numbered year, legislators have traditionally afforded themselves the opportunity to run on delivering crucial projects for their constituents before hitting the campaign trail for potential re-election.
That cycle got somewhat mixed up in 2022, when legislators failed to pass a bonding bill at all after their bipartisan legislative “framework” fell apart at the 11th hour. They largely made up for that last year, passing a $2.6 billion bonding bill, $1.1 billion of which was funded by cash.
House race
While 2024 will be marked by a hotly contested presidential election and other major federal and local races, at the state level, only the Minnesota House will be up for election, with DFLers seeking to keep full control of St. Paul and Republicans looking to restore divided government.
Republicans need a net gain of just four seats to win the House, and while the Senate won’t be up for election, control of the chamber could be at stake in an early 2025 special election if Sen. Kelly Morrison, a Deephaven DFLer who holds a traditionally Republican but now DFL-leaning west metro seat, is successful in her bid to replace Rep. Dean Phillips in Congress.
Though Minnesota has been known for decades as a Democratic-leaning state, Minnesotans have traditionally kept power divided in St. Paul between the two parties, even as polarization increased. From 1990 to 2022, St. Paul saw one party rule only from 2013 to 2014.
That changed last year, when DFLers were able to ride strong support from suburban voters concerned about abortion rights and distrustful of candidates they saw as associated too closely with former President Donald Trump to very narrow majorities in the legislature.
Outside of the Twin Cities, Republicans were able to pick up a few seats from the DFL but fell short of what was needed to offset strong DFL support in the metro. They also suffered a crucial loss in House District 18A, where Rep. Jeff Brand of St. Peter narrowly regained his seat from Republican Susan Akland in a rematch of 2020.
Local shifts
Locally, the legislative delegation will see major changes, regardless of the election outcome. Republican Reps. Daniels (of Faribault), Petersburg (of Waseca) and Brian Pfarr of Le Sueur have all said they won’t seek another term, leaving behind open seats likely to be comfortably held by Republicans.
While the retirements of Daniels, Petersburg and Pfarr aren’t likely to shift the balance of power in St. Paul, the area will lose significant legislative seniority. Petersburg is currently serving his sixth term in St. Paul and Daniels his fifth, with Pfarr relatively junior in just his second term.
Though all three legislators lost significant influence when the DFL won full control of state government, seniority allowed Petersburg and Daniels to become the lead Republicans on the Transportation and Children and Families committees respectively.
The area’s two DFL House representatives, Brand and Kristi Pursell of Northfield, are likely to face competitive re-election races. While representing college towns that are more left-leaning than Greater Minnesota as a whole, they also represent significant rural turf, which is strongly GOP.
Before they face the voters, Brand and Pursell are both hoping to secure significant bonding dollars for local projects, including upgrades to North Mankato’s South Central College and Caswell Park, and Bridge Square in Northfield.
However, DFLers will need some buy-in from Republicans in order to get the three-fifths majority needed to pass a bonding bill. Republicans have plenty of their own projects they’d like to see included as well, with more than $7 billion in requests made for projects across the state.
A final bonding bill is expected to come in at under $1 billion, and without the cash surplus of last year funding a cash bill would likely be a challenge. While the state does have a $2.4 billion surplus this year, that figure is almost entirely offset by a projected deficit next biennium.
Pursell
As one of just a handful of House DFLers from Greater Minnesota, Rep. Kristi Pursell, DFL-Northfield was immediately appointed as Vice Chair of the Agriculture Committee last year as a first-year legislator and helped to craft a bipartisan Ag bill that passed with strong support.
The former Executive Director of Clean River Partners, Pursell brought to the position not just the perspective of representing rural townships, but also experience working with farmers to maximize sustainability and preserve soil and water health.
In her second year in St. Paul, Pursell plans to continue working on legislation to help her constituents in agriculture, expanding the “Right to Repair” law passed last session to cover agricultural equipment as Colorado has done.
Expanding access to healthcare in rural communities is another issue that Pursell hopes to work on this session. While last year’s legislature laid the groundwork to increase access to health insurance through MinnesotaCare, Pursell noted that many of the hospitals and clinics needed to actually provide that care in rural Minnesota are struggling to survive.
Pursell has other legislation she’d like to bring forth, such as a bill to fund an “Outdoor School for All,” enabling every kid to experience a three day, two night immersive educational experience outdoors. However, she said that any legislation with a significant price tag is going to be heavily scrutinized.
“We want to make sure that school breakfasts and lunches are paid for, and we want to make sure that we are being diligent and our surplus doesn’t become a deficit next year,” she said.
Lieske
As a member of the Health and Human Services Committee, Sen. Bill Lieske, R-Lonsdale, said that he believes there could be a path forward this year towards further bipartisan reforms to the health insurance system to keep costs affordable.
Lieske’s committee is also likely to hear the “End of Life Option Act,” which is likely to face strong opposition not only from Lieske but from a united Republican caucus that is more staunchly pro-life than ever.
While he doesn’t sit on the Senate’s Elections Committee, Lieske said that with the 2024 election fast approaching and DFLers having recently made sweeping changes to state election law, he plans to introduce some election bills of his own to counter that.
Lieske also hopes to secure some bonding dollars for several local road projects, though he’s not likely to vote for a bonding bill himself. A strong fiscal conservative, he said that most recent bonding bills have been filled up with projects that “shouldn’t be in a bonding bill.”
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