Good morning, and welcome to Wednesday.
The Legislature is back in town, and one thing they were talking about Tuesday was taxes. MPR’s Dana Ferguson reports the House taxes committee considered a proposal to create a fifth tier income tax bracket for those who make $600,000 per year or more. The bracket would create a 10.85 percent rate for single filers and married couples who make more than $1 million a year. Rep. Liz Lee, DFL-Saint Paul, said the higher tax would impact about 24,000 people. "I want to make sure folks understand this is not the doomsday, like, tax everybody bill that folks want you to think,” Lee said. “And I also want to make sure we also remember the impact of this. We have to talk of investment in childcare in our public goods–in nursing homes, because that's what happens when you have good government and good policy." Republicans opposed the plan and said it would motivate more people to leave Minnesota. “We want to encourage people to grow their business here. We want to encourage retirees to live here to a ripe old age. We don't want to penalize people for dying in the state of Minnesota. And that's what this potentially is going to do. This is going to penalize people to die in Minnesota," said Rep. Chris Swedzinksi, R-Ghent. The bill was held over to possibly be included in a larger tax bill.
An array of elected officials joined the head of the Federal Transit Administration in St. Paul Tuesday to accept hundreds of millions of federal dollars for the Gold Line rapid bus transit project in the east metro. MPR’s Mark Zdechlik reports that when it begins operating in 2025, the Gold line will provide buses with an exclusive right of way adjacent to Interstate 94 from downtown St. Paul to Woodbury. Nearly $240 million from the bipartisan infrastructure act will cover almost half the cost of building it. Gov. Tim Walz praised the project as a good use of taxpayer money. "These are things that make a difference and it's not always the flashy stuff that you hear about,” he said. It's the hard work of everybody in their lane to get things done."
Senate Majority Leader Kari Dziedzic of Minneapolis has been working from home as she recovers from surgery to remove a cancerous tumor. The Star Tribune talked to her about it: When the doctor eventually informed her that she needed surgery, Dziedzic said she responded, "This is really not good timing." Delay wasn't an option. On March 13, she underwent surgery that started as a less invasive laparoscopy but led to doctors cutting open her abdomen. By the time it was over more than five hours later, she'd had a full hysterectomy and her spleen and appendix had been removed, the senator said. She has been recuperating at home since the second week in March and doesn't know when or if she will be cleared to physically return to the Senate offices this session, which has a May 22 deadline to adjourn. "I would much rather be at the Capitol than sitting here, definitely," she said in a recent telephone interview with the Star Tribune from her home. Dziedzic said her doctor is optimistic about her prognosis. "They think they got all the tumor and because it is the most common ovarian cancer that they know how to treat." But she also said she will probably need chemotherapy. "We're still having that discussion," she said.
Supporters of new laws restricting guns say the Legislature needs to act now. KSTP reports: Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison says the mass shootings in Nashville and Louisville in less than two weeks add more urgency to passing new gun laws in Minnesota. “Six more weeks! Prioritize gun violence prevention laws now,” Ellison said at a news conference alongside gun control advocates. “In the week since the Legislature went on recess … there were eight mass shootings in the United States,” said Maggiy Emery, interim director of Protect Minnesota. The groups say they support three measures in Minnesota: Universal background checks, “extreme risk protection” laws, also known as “red flag” laws, and funding for community violence intervention programs. Rob Doar of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus says his group supports violence intervention. “When we talk about community violence intervention efforts, that’s something we’ve always supported and been advocates of,” he says. However, “red flag” laws are a different story because the current legislation doesn’t allow for due process for gun owners targeted with accusations of being a danger. “That is definitely the one that is the most ripe for abuse and violations of people’s individual rights,” Doar said.
A Minnesota program is helping students raised in foster homes go to college. MPR’s Nicole Ki reports a new program called Fostering Independence Grants is the first of its kind in the nation to use state funds to pay for full cost of attendance at college for people who have been in foster care, according to Foster Advocates. Since FIG began last fall semester, 485 college students have received state funding to help cover college tuition and living expenses. In total, the Minnesota Office of Higher Education reports more than $2 million has been given out to help fosters pursue a post-secondary education. The grants are meant to cover “last dollar money,” or the costs left over after all resources from federal grants and third-party scholarships are exhausted. Minnesota is one of more than 30 states that provide tuition waivers or scholarships to students who have experienced foster care, but advocates say FIG is the most comprehensive and easiest to access in the country.
And the Associated Press reports: The Biden administration is proposing strict new automobile pollution limits that would require as many as two-thirds of new vehicles sold in the U.S. to be electric by 2032, a nearly tenfold increase over current electric vehicle sales. The proposed regulation, announced Wednesday by the Environmental Protection Agency, would set tailpipe emissions limits for the 2027 through 2032 model years that are the strictest ever imposed — and call for far more new EV sales than the auto industry agreed to less than two years ago. If finalized next year as expected, the plan would represent the strongest push yet toward a once almost unthinkable shift from gasoline-powered cars and trucks to battery-powered vehicles.
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