Still On the Fence Regarding MN Legislative Races?

October 30, 2024

Let’s review what happened after the DFL won control of both the MN Housse and Senate:

Election Integrity (Election Omnibus Bill SF4729/HF4772)

Several new election laws. Only protection against an illegal immigrant voting is the honesty of the immigrant. We must depend upon the illegal immigrant to opt out of being automatically registered and to refrain from filling out a ballot. People can now register to vote without listing a physical address. The election office decides in what precinct the new voter will vote. Election Judges are prohibited from finding such an “address” deficient.

If you believe in TRUST but VERIFY, vote Republican. If you believe no one would ever be guilty of fraud, vote DFL.

Education Policy (Education Omnibus Bill SF3567/HF3782)

This bill gave almost no relief to the many local school districts that are experiencing severe budget crises due, in part, to 65 top-down mandates imposed in the previous sessions,. In fact, it adds new ones. The READ Act is changed to disqualify evidence-based instructional models if certain experts decide they are insufficiently culturally responsive or reflective of diverse populations, even as literacy rates are going down.

If you believe that increased funding to schools should be performance-based, vote Republican. If you believe that Education Minnesota, the powerful teachers union, should have more say in library policy and in teachers’ certification, vote DFL.

Legacy Finance Bill (HF4124. SF5116)

This bill appropriated proceeds from the state’s regressive sales tax to the outdoor heritage fund, Clean Water Fund, parks and trails, and the Arts and Heritage Fund. The parks appropriation ($73 million) specified spending money on programs “designed to provide under-served you and youth who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer the opportunity to experience the outdoors with similar peers.” A competitive arts program is provided for cultural development of minority groups including the LGBTQIA+ community.

If you believe that state revenue should not be dispensed to vaguely-defined groups (such as “underserved communities”) to promote vaguely-defined goals with no clear measures of effectiveness, vote Republican. If you believe that such groups should be favored without concerns with how the money is spent or by whom it is spent, fostering organizations in whose interest it is to have a continuous flow of government funding, vote DFL.

Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund Appropriations (HFF3377, SF3507)

This bill included several million dollars of questionable expenditures that should have received much greater scrutiny:

  • $1.5M to Wilderness Inquiry to promote equity in outdoor activities
  • $657K to Dakota County to establish linear native plantings and install electric-vehicle charging stations along the Mississippi River Greenway (This trail is intended for nonmotorized uses such as walking, bicycling and in-line skating)
  • $375K to the U of M to determine carbon-sequestration and nitrogen-credit potential for sustainable cropping
  • $200K to Native Skywatchers Inc to collect images and acoustic data from turtles and other “culturally significant” animals
  • $199K to Prairie Woods environmental Learning Center to empower youth to reduce their carbon footprints
  • $69K to the Loppet Foundation to promote urban nature connections for north Minneapolis residents through nature storytelling and environmental justice programs

These proposed expenditures are allocations from state lottery proceeds. If you believe that it would be better to reduce the state sales tax that is now dedicated to environmental and cultural efforts rather than waste them on questionable endeavors, vote Republican. If you feel these are praiseworthy examples of state government expenditures, vote DFL.

The bills above were all passed largely along party lines and signed by the governor. They are clear examples of why partisan balance is critically needed in the Minnesota legislature. The state is best served when bills are passed in a collaborative manner, with reasonable debate leading to a consensus. Collaboration was conspicuously absent in the 2023-2024 legislative session.

With thanks to the research provided by the Legislative Evaluation Assembly of Minnesota, Inc.