Good morning, and happy Tuesday. 

DFL control at the Minnesota Capitol next year means a renewed push to require 100 percent of Minnesota's electricity to come from carbon-free sources by 2040.MPR’s Kirsti Marohn reports with DFLers now in charge of both the House and the Senate, the proposal’s chances of approval have improved. But some of the state’s top utilities say meeting that new deadline could be a challenge. Nick Frentz, a DFLer from North Mankato, will chair the Senate Energy, Utilities, Environment and Climate committee next year. He said passing carbon-free electricity by 2040 will be a top priority for his committee. "I think moving it up sends a message that we recognize that the news on climate change is more urgent than we may have thought 10 or 20 years ago,” Frentz said. "I think it also recognizes that in the field of clean energy, we want to signal the strongest possible incentives to innovate." State Rep. Jamie Long, DFL-Minneapolis, has pushed the 2040 measure in the House the last two years, but it failed to pass the then-Republican-controlled Senate. He will be the new House majority leader. “We've heard loud and clear from Minnesotans that it's a top priority for them,” Long said. “I think that people don't understand that climate change is here. It's having real impacts on our lives. And they want us to step up and act.”

Could that budget forecast predicting a massive surplus be on the conservative side? It'll take a good 30 months to know for sure if the money matches the estimates. But in month one, the state overshot its projection. November tax revenue exceeded expectations by $59 million or about 0.5 percent. That overage won't be calculated into the pool of money lawmakers will use to set a new budget until the next forecast comes out in February. It does mean the surplus surge is panning out so far. 

Fresh off a quick-turn visit to Minnesota National Guard units in Kuwait, Gov. Tim Walz said Monday he hopes lawmakers sweeten incentives to encourage Guard signups. Brian Bakst reports: Walz traveled secretly to the Middle East and returned over the weekend. He said that the 100 members in two units are providing crucial support to missions in the region. The governor and top state Guard leaders spent parts of two days on the ground meeting, eating and otherwise engaging with the Minnesota troops. Walz says the deployments that will last through the holidays come at great sacrifice to the soldiers and their families. More recruitment and re-enlistment incentives could be included in the next Walz budget proposal. “We need to come up with a plan that makes it easier for people to say yes in their busy lives,” Walz said, noting how some states allow dependent children of Guard members to access post-secondary education benefits. Minnesota recently gave out service bonuses to troops who were part of post-Sept. 11 missions.

If the DFL-controlled Legislature moves to make recreational marijuana use legal, they may use a bill already passed by the House as a model.MPR’s Mark Zdechlik reports: The legislation passed by the House in 2021 came out of more than a dozen town hall meetings throughout the state. Under that plan, the sale of marijuana would generate about $180 million in revenue for the state. Rep. Ryan Winkler and other supporters say their primary goal is not to increase tax collections. “There is money to be made at the state level for tax revenue,” Winkler said, “but really all we're trying to do with cannabis is have it pay for itself. We want taxation at a level that will help address some of the mental health and chemical dependency issues, some of the drug recognition expert training that we need for law enforcement. We really just want to have this product pay for itself.”

Another issue on the DFL priority list is gun control.The Star Tribune reports: Democrats plan to renew talks of expanding criminal background checks to cover most private firearm transfers, and of "red-flag" protective orders that would allow authorities to temporarily take guns away from people deemed dangerous. Their gun control push will follow yet another year with several mass shootings — at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado, a Walmart in Virginia, a supermarket in New York, an elementary school in Texas and a July 4th parade in Illinois. "The U.S. is an outlier when it comes to this issue. We lose many more of our residents to guns at a much higher rate than other countries," said state Rep. Dave Pinto, DFL-St. Paul, who sponsored the background check bill last year. "I feel renewed urgency, and I am hearing from community members and colleagues who feel the same way." Republican legislators and gun rights activists are preparing to play defense on the issue. "The overwhelming majority of guns used in the commission of a crime are obtained illegally already," said state Rep. Jim Nash, R-Waconia. "The universal background checks that they're advocating for are only for people who are already law-abiding citizens."

Walz and some DFL lawmakers say they want to provide meals to all students at no cost to them or their families.MinnPost reports that creates a potential school funding problem: The issue becomes complicated because of how deeply free-and-reduced-price lunch measures are entrenched in school funding. About 10 percent of district money comes not from per-student funding formulas but by categorical funding that puts extra money into schools for low-income students, students who grew up speaking languages other than English and other special needs. If districts don’t have to tally up how many students get lunch subsidies, how would they prove how much money they should get from these so-called compensatory revenue programs? “That is the big concern and one we have expressed to our colleagues at the Department of Education and legislators,” said Scott Croonquist, the executive director of the Association of Metropolitan School Districts, which is made up of school board members and superintendents from metro schools. “If you do move away from filling out the forms for free and reduced price eligibility, that is what we also use to generate compensatory revenue for school districts.”

Tell MPR News: What do you hope lawmakers accomplish this session?