As Capitol clock ticks, focus on priorities
Opinion editor's note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.
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Despite Minnesota being governed by a DFL trifecta, several matters of note are unresolved as the legislative session enters its waning days. For their part, reluctant Republican lawmakers oppose most DFL priorities, although GOP votes will be needed to pass a bonding bill in St. Paul.
Beyond bonding, several of the Star Tribune Editorial Board's 2024 legislative priorities deserve a final push before the session ends in less than two weeks, including Senate action on three gun-safety bills already passed by the House that would make straw purchases a felony, require reporting of a lost or stolen firearm and bolster gun-storage rules. Common sense — and increasingly common tragedies like children gaining access to guns and first responders shot while on duty — make these bills a must.
Other essential issues include addressing a funding crisis for rural emergency medical services and other outstate health care needs, as well as avoiding cuts passed in last year's session regarding reimbursement to Minnesota's mental health providers — a particularly pernicious decision amid a mental health and related suicide crisis gripping the country, including here at home.
Additional issues may not have as many life-or-death consequences as legislation on gun safety, rural health care and mental health funding but are important nonetheless. This includes what we deem smart changes to Minnesota's marijuana laws, like social-equity elements as well as allowing some growers to get a jump on their crops in order to meet demand when retail establishments open. Even for those who opposed marijuana legalization, there is no upside in driving users back to the black market just because the legal market is not ready for the expected demand.
Another vice understandably opposed by some, legalized sports betting, should get resolution at the State Capitol, too, especially since neighboring states and the vast majority of the country can legally gamble on sports. Driving that money out of state or toward offshore accounts no longer makes any sense in this new era of sports gaming ubiquity.
A smartly managed marijuana and gambling protocol can not only reduce the criminality commonly associated with those activities, it can produce some revenue for the state as well. So too could more film and TV production in Minnesota as producers tap into talent that is abundant but not streamlined into a dedicated state office. This puts Minnesota's efforts into an unnecessary competitive disadvantage, which is something the Legislature can and should fix.
A modest but critically important bonding bill also deserves attention and passage before the session ends. Because of the need for infrastructure investment statewide, DFLers and Republicans should be able to find common ground.
Other bills are surely worthy of consideration, too, and while we have also urged that lawmakers gathered in St. Paul avoid adding any unnecessary spending on top of last year's landmark session, they also shouldn't miss the opportunity to pass badly needed legislation — a task that's already challenging with the trifecta but will be doubly difficult if Republicans win enough seats in this November's House election to tilt the balance of power toward divided government.
Even now, progress is intermittent, in part because of the slender DFL majority, Rep. Steve Elkins, DFL-Bloomington, told an editorial writer. "You have to bear in mind that our majorities of both houses of the Legislature are very narrow," Elkins said. "Getting [DFL] unanimity, which is essentially what's required on these, can be really hard, especially for our greater Minnesota legislators."
Indeed, party unanimity may be required. But many of these priorities are important if not imperative for the entire state. Politics aside, there's no reason these key bills can't or shouldn't pass on a bipartisan basis.
