Good morning and welcome to the last full week of October.
MPR’s Elizabeth Shockman has a look at something that doesn’t usually get a lot of attention in an off-year election: school board contests. Violent school board meetings and threats toward school board members over these issues have caused dozens of Minnesota school board members to quit their positions. And now, Minnesota School Boards Association executive director Kirk Schneidawind said, these issues seem to be at the center of many school board campaigns and platforms. According to Schneidawind, nearly 70 school board members have resigned their positions this year — triple the resignations in a normal year. The vacant seats are, in large part, the result of contentious disagreements over things such as masking, COVID-19 policies, and critical race theory, or CRT.
Gov. Tim Walz says he wants to “go big” with spending and bonding proposals next year. Tim Pugmire sent this: Walz said he will begin unveiling aspects of an ambitious supplemental spending plan next month. He says it will be “fairly significant” for a non-budget year. State finances are in solid shape and there’s federal COVID relief money still unspent. Walz is also looking for lawmakers to pass a large package of public construction projects. “We set the largest bonding bill in state history last time,” Walz said last week. “I would expect us to surpass that, because it makes sense financially. Interest rates are low.” Walz will base his spending plan on the November economic forecast. Next year’s legislative session begins at the end of January. “I think if folks think this is going to be a little session and we’ll just have a little, tiny supplemental, and then we’ll just argue and say well it’s an election year, I’m not really satisfied with that,” Walz said. “I think we need to go big, we need to go big now, because the need is there.”
A Republican state Senator is helping to raise money for members of a Lindstrom family who face federal charges for participating in the Jan. 6 insurrection in Washington. Sen. Mark Koran of North Branch posted a link on Facebook to a fundraising site for the Westbury family, four members of whom have been charged in connection with the January 6th storming of the U.S. Capitol. Koran said they are a good family and they could use some help . He didn't return a call from MPR News for comment on Friday. The fundraising effort was created by Rosemarie Westbury, who identified herself as the wife of Robert Westbury and mother of Isaac Westbury, Aaron James, and Jonah Westbury, all of whom face federal charges. DFL state party chair Ken Martin said Republican officials are turning a blind eye to extremism at best and are fostering it at worst. GOP Chair David Hann told the Star Tribune that Koran was trying to raise money to help people accused of a crime mount their defense. “I think that’s odd that Ken Martin would think it's an extreme position to allow people to have a day in court to defend themselves unless he thinks people are guilty when they're charged rather than when they've actually gone to trial and have been proven guilty," Hann said. "So if that's extremism, I think that's remarkable that the Democrats would believe that our system that's based on a presumption of innocence until convicted, that to try to help people have their day in court is extreme." The Minnesota Reformer has the story too.
Also in the Star Tribune, the board that tracks the conduct of lawyers in Minnesota is in turmoil . From the story: The Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility, for five years has been led by Susan Humiston, a veteran corporate attorney. Since she took charge in 2016, 14 prosecutors have quit their jobs, with most of them citing a toxic work environment. Her leadership practices led a 23-member oversight board to recommend against a two-year extension of her contract in 2020. The vote was taken in a closed-door session and has not been previously reported. All but two members voted against renewal. However, in an unusual rebuke, the Minnesota Supreme Court disregarded the board's recommendation and renewed her contract last year.
Like me, you may have been seeing a lot of social media posts about Democrats wanting the IRS to spy on your bank account. NPR takes a look at the issue : Despite Republican accusations that the IRS wants to spy on taxpayers, it's important to note that banks would not report individual transactions — just an annual total of deposits and withdrawals. Initially, the proposal would have applied to any account with at least $600 in total annual cash flows, but that's now been narrowed in response to opposition from Republicans and banks. Under the revised proposal, banks would only have to report on accounts with at least $10,000 in annual deposits or withdrawals, not counting deposits from paychecks or government benefits. The information would be used to help narrow the "tax gap." The Treasury Department estimates that some $600 billion in income taxes that are owed goes uncollected each year, often because taxpayers fail to report their income accurately. Narrowing that gap and collecting more of the taxes that are owed would help Democrats pay for their ambitious agenda and make the tax system more fair. | 