Good morning, and happy Tuesday.
Gov. Tim Walz will release the final portion of his budget proposal today. This one is expected to include his plans for tax rebates and the state tax on Social Security income. Yesterday, Walz proposed spending for public safety, health care and housing, as Dana Ferguson reports: The public safety piece would distribute $300 million to cities, counties and tribal governments to adopt public safety initiatives. Walz made the same proposal last year as a spike in violent crime was becoming a campaign issue, but the Legislature adjourned without agreeing on a plan. Republicans had pushed for more funding directly to police departments and for money to recruit more police officers. Local governments are better positioned to work on their own plans than to have them dictated from the state, Walz said. “This proposal will make sure that communities have what they need,” Walz said during a news conference at a Roseville fire station. “We get to sleep easy at night knowing that if we dial 911, professionals will be there and they will be there quickly. But as the chief said, that doesn't come without a cost. And we have a responsibility to make sure that the equipment, the training, the personnel and everything that makes that happen is there for those folks.” Walz is also calling for a number of new laws on guns, including expanding background checks for gun purchases, the ability to temporarily remove firearms from people determined to pose a danger to themselves or others, raising the age to buy a semi-automatic rifle to 21 and banning high capacity magazines. He also proposes nearly $5 million for local law enforcement agencies to buy body cameras.“ Republicans said the proposed funding failed to meet the current moment. “At a time when Minnesota is facing unprecedented levels of crime, the governor’s public safety proposal comes up dramatically short,” House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, said in a statement. “The $300 million of public safety aid proposed by the governor is a fraction of the total budget and demonstrates where the governor’s priorities are.”
Walz is also renewing his call for stricter gun laws. "So I would tell you one of the things you're going to see is we're going to finally tackle this issue around some common sense gun things, making sure we have family members have access to red flag laws, making sure we're doing serious background checks,” Walz said. “And again, as someone who inherited my wife's grandfather's gun, we're not talking about all the things we do normally, there's just no darn reason that we should have handguns in recreation centers. There's no reason we should have handguns in the State Capitol." DFL leaders in the Legislature have said that tighter firearm restrictions are among their top priorities.
In the face of criticism, University of Minnesota President Joan Gabel said Monday that she resigned from the board of a St. Paul financial services company.MPR’s Matt Sepic reports: In a letter to university regents, Gabel said she quit Securian Financial's board out of respect for the U and to "eliminate any further distraction of our work." She said sitting on Securian's board would have expanded the U’s networking. Gabel, whose annual pay package at the U tops $1 million, could have made another $130,000 with the Securian position, although she said in her letter that she’d waived compensation from the financial firm. The U's Board of Regents had approved the arrangement. Critics, including some lawmakers, said it would have been a conflict of interest because of Securian's contracts with the university.
The role of the University is still a big question in the proposed merger between Sanford Health and Fairview Health Services. MPR’s Michelle Wiley has a look: The two health care companies have set a planned deadline of March 31 to complete the merger. What’s still unclear, however, is what role the University of Minnesota will have in the combined company. Meanwhile the University recently announced its own plans to grow, which officials say were pushed up by the merger proposal. “The announcement by our clinical partners at Fairview of their planned merger with Sanford certainly sped our announcement of the need for the focused academic medical center for the future on the campus,” said Dr. Jakub Tolar, dean of UMN medical school. “[The proposed merger] actually has made it obvious that we need to answer this question no matter what in the next couple of years. So now is as good a time as ever.”
A bill to extend unemployment benefits for more than 400 laid-off miners on the Iron Range is headed to Gov. Walz for his expected signature.MPR’s Dan Kraker reports it passed the Minnesota House Monday by a vote of 127-7. The bill extends benefits for an additional 26 weeks for workers who were laid off last spring at Northshore Mining, which operates an open pit taconite mine in Babbitt and a processing plant in Silver Bay along the North Shore of Lake Superior. "I tell people, the history and traditions of the Iron Range run as deep as the minerals under our feet,” said Rep. Dave Lislegard, DFL-Aurora, who sponsored the bill. “And I'm proud of our lineage and our heritage. It's a tough world up on the Iron Range. It's cyclical." The bill had bipartisan support, including from Rep. Roger Skraba, R-Ely, who spoke on behalf of the laid-off miners. "They don't like being idled. They like working, they want to work. They have every opportunity to work. They just need to be called back. While they wait, they need our support." Mine owner Cleveland Cliffs has said the mine and pellet plant will remain closed until at least April.
Minnesota lawmakers in the Asian and Pacific Caucus say their priority is legislation to prevent hate crimes.The Star Tribune reports: “Our communities are living in this state of red alert," Rep. Samantha Sencer-Mura, DFL-Minneapolis, said. "That's the state our community has been living in for the last few years." She said the hate crime bill would provide money to better track bias crimes and train law enforcement in working with victims. In the unveiling their agenda, Sencer-Mura and the other nine members of the caucus, all Democrats, talked about how issues such as education, poverty and financial support for nonprofits are intertwined and can give rise to violence and hate within and targeting the Asian-American community. "White supremacy is here and it's something we have to fight," said Rep. Liz Lee of St. Paul. Other bills prioritized by the caucus include increasing the per-student funding amount for English language learners from $704 to $1,000 and requiring that school curriculums include ethnic studies providing accurate versions of history. Two additional bills would provide support for culturally-specific nonprofits and the health and wellness of veterans who are of Asian and Pacific Island descent. The overall goal of the bills is to "increase equity and opportunities" for Asian and Pacific Islander communities, said Sen. Susan Pha of Brooklyn Park, who is vice chair of the caucus.
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