Good evening,
Whoever said the last mile is always the longest must have had the Minnesota Legislature in mind. Lawmakers have just over one day remaining before their final deadline to pass a budget, and all indications are they'll make it. But that doesn't mean the final 30 hours will be smooth.
Today is public safety day at the Capitol, as both the House and Senate began debating the exhaustively negotiated public safety budget. Progressives were intent on trying to get amendments into the bills that Republicans refused to accept during leadership negotiations. As of 5 p.m. none of these amendments had succeeded. The final fate of the must-pass bill remained uncertain. (They're likely to pass before tomorrow night regardless — the question is whether lawmakers have to deal with a last-minute curveball.)
The other two major bills, the state government budget and the tax bill, are being held back for Wednesday. The state government bill is caught up in the lingering dispute over Gov. Tim Walz's emergency powers, but both are also good vehicles to tuck last-minute provisions. So they're going to be held to the end regardless.
Correction: In yesterday's newsletter, my chart showed the E-12 budget as having passed the Senate but not the House. The opposite was true.
Walz signed three more budget bills into law today, for a total of eight.
Here's where bills stand now:
| Budget bill | Negotiated? | House status | Senate status | Governor status | | Agriculture | Yes | Passed | Passed | Signed | | Capital Investment | No |
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| | Commerce & Energy | Yes | Passed | Passed
| Signed | | E-12 Education | Yes | Passed
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| | Environment | Yes | Passed | Passed
| Signed
| | HHS | Yes | Passed | Passed | Signed
| | Higher Education | Yes | Passed | Passed | Signed | | Housing | Yes | Passed | Passed |
Signed | | Jobs & Economic Growth | Yes | Passed
| Passed |
| | Judiciary & Public Safety | Yes |
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| | Legacy Finance | Yes | Passed | Passed | Signed | | State Government, Elections & Veterans | Yes |
| Amended |
| | Taxes | Yes |
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| | Transportation | Yes | Passed | Passed | Signed |
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The tax bill got a few amendments teed up today, including provisions related to frontline worker bonuses and aid to Minnesota counties related to the valuation of the Enbridge oil pipeline. [Read more from Brian Bakst]
Protestors blocked the car of Minneapolis Council Member Andrea Jenkins from leaving a parking lot for two hours until she agreed to six of their demands on video and in writing. The activists' demands included a call for Mayor Jacob Frey's resignation, dropping charges against protesters and "leave George Floyd Square alone." [Read more from the Minnesota Reformer's Deena Winter]
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is sending National Guard troops to the southern border between Mexico and Texas to deal with migrants, in response to a request from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. But what's really raising eyebrows is that the costs of the 30- to 60-day deployment are going to be reimbursed by a private donor, Willis and Reba Johnson's Foundation. Willis Johnson is a noted conservative megadonor. [Read more from Lachlan Markay in Axios]
The vote count in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary got chaotic Tuesday, as the city's board of elections tabulated rank-choice ballots and found initial leader Eric Adams with a small 16,000-vote lead over Kathryn Garcia. But the tally came with more than 100,000 votes still uncounted. As more votes are counted, it's possible that Adams, who once appeared to have a nearly insurmountable lead, could be surmounted. [Read more from the New York Times' Katie Glueck]
Why the chaos? Some of the delay is due to the complexities of rank-choice voting, but a lot of it has to do with the fact that New York is just really bad at running elections. [Read more from Sean Morales-Doyle and Chisun Lee in The Atlantic]
Why does it cost so much to build things in the U.S.? Trains and highways alike costs many times more per mile here than in other developed countries, and have become many times more expensive over recent decades. Cost of labor, urban development patterns and other factors may all play a role, but some experts say environmental impact statements and the enhanced ability of citizens to object to infrastructure projects are big factors in cost overruns and delays. Of course, whether you think those are good things that justify added cost or not if a subjective decision. [ Read more from Jerusalem Demsas in Vox]
Something completely different: One of my favorite podcasts is "Revolutions," a history podcast by Mike Duncan (who previously did "The History of Rome"). Unlike many popular history podcasts out there, "Revolutions" does serialized history, telling the story of the great modern revolutions — the American, the French, the Haitian, the 1848, the Russian and so on — in extended seasons of dozens of episodes that examine all the twists and turns of these great historical turning points. As such, I highly recommend starting from the very beginning! (A recent episode, in the Russian Revolution series, delightfully tied together events he had covered in years of episodes and centuries of history to explain how all these past events helped explain the outbreak of World War I beyond just Franz Ferdinand getting shot.) [ Listen on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your shows]
Speaking of Franz Ferdinand: On this day in 1914, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne was assassinated in Sarajevo, kicking off a chain of events that led to the Great War. [Read more]
Listen: One day more left in the special session? Talk of revolutions? There's only one place this can go, and I warn you — it's misérable. [Watch] | |
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