Good morning, and happy Wednesday.
A final version of the bill to legalize marijuana in Minnesota will come up for a vote in the next few days. MPR’s Brian Bakst reports the conference committee working on the bill reached an agreement Tuesday: Rep. Zack Stephenson, DFL-Coon Rapids, said Tuesday he’s confident of passage and hopes for bipartisan support. “Ultimately what’s really important is that we change these laws because they’re not serving the purpose they were designed to. They’re causing harm to Minnesotans and need to change.” Critics of the bill continue to raise concerns about traffic safety, addiction and youth access as the drug becomes more widely available. The Senate bill author, Lindsey Port, DFL-Burnsville, said this week there is wide public support for the bill. “If we don't get bipartisan support in the Legislature, this will be the only place in Minnesota that there's not bipartisan support for this bill with the people of Minnesota,” Port said. “This is supported across party, independents, Republicans, Democrats, people who don't follow the Legislature. Minnesotans want this bill, whether the legislature actually follows suit on that or not remains to be seen.”
Minnesota workers would be able to earn paid sick and safe time and be covered by a host of new employee protections under a labor and jobs budget bill that the state Senate and then the House passed on Tuesday. MPR’s Dana Ferguson reports: The larger $998 million budget bill includes language that allows workers to accrue paid time off if they fall ill, face a threat to their safety or need to recover from sickness or injury. That’s separate from a paid family and medical leave program moving as another bill. That plan and other provisions in the bill that boost workplace safety standards, require more employee input about staffing ratios and prevent employers from requiring workers to attend meetings that discourage them from joining labor unions represent a historic step forward for workers, supporters said. “This bill is a big damn deal,” Sen. Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, said. “We are making powerful advances for people who work for a living all across the state of Minnesota in a variety of industries, providing worker safety, but as important, worker power and worker voice.” Under the sick and safe time provision, an employee could earn up to one hour of time off for every 30 hours they work with a cap of 48 hours each year. So after six weeks, a worker could earn one 8-hour day off. Bloomington, Duluth, Minneapolis and St. Paul have similar local ordinances in place already. As many as 900,000 Minnesota workers could benefit from the change.
The Minnesota House passed an education spending and policy bill Tuesday that puts more than $2.2 billion in new spending toward K-12 education over the next two years, but as MPR’s Elizabeth Shockman reports , opponents said it also includes new mandates that many schools will have difficulty carrying out. The bill increases the per-pupil funding formula by 4 percent in 2024 and 2 percent in 2025 with increases tied to inflation at a maximum of 3 percent in following years. That will bring the formula up to $7,281 per pupil by 2025, as compared to the $6,863 per pupil the state currently spends. It increases the amount the state contributes to the general education formula, adds new money for libraries, school support staff, menstrual products in school restrooms, changes to reading instruction, an ethnic studies requirement and full-service community schools, bringing the total spent on K-12 up to $23 billion.
Minnesota lawmakers are committing hundreds of millions of dollars to get lead out of drinking water throughout Minnesota. MPR’s Michelle Wiley reports: Standing in front of the water treatment facility in St. Paul, Gov. Tim Walz signed a bill that would allocate $240 million toward removing and replacing lead pipes in homes across the state. “We've got the opportunity with this money and a continued push to go forward is to maybe be one of the first states to totally eliminate lead from our systems, that would be a real goal," Walz said. “It all comes back to that bigger theme that makes Minnesota the best place to raise a child and to have a family.”
The dispute over a bonding bill at the Capitol has some local officials wondering what is going on, although it still feels like there’s time for a deal. MinnPost has more on the standoff: Take the small Iron Range city of Bovey, where $8.8 million meant to reduce the risk of damaging flooding from a massive mine pit lake was removed from a capital investment bill on Friday, as Democratic lawmakers who hold House and Senate majorities cut projects in Republican districts out of a construction package when negotiations collapsed. By Monday, the money had reappeared in the DFL plan, thanks to talks with GOP legislators. “Personally it ticks me off that they can’t do what’s right,” said Robert Stein, Bovey’s mayor, of what has become a months-long, rollercoaster saga. “And as the mayor of the city, it’s just telling the citizens that we’re not important enough … I don’t like being in the middle of it.” Such is life at the Minnesota Capitol, where the unresolved “bonding” debate is a complicated, shape-shifting, and sometimes emotional affair. The upshot, at least for now, is that DFLers have advanced a bill heavily tilted toward their districts in the Twin Cities metro, even with the project near Bovey. That has frustrated minority Republicans and local officials throughout the state.
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