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*May 26, 2024*






End of Session Legislative Update

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

The 2024 Legislative Session is over! After nearly three consecutive days of floor sessions, the Democrat majority passed their entire agenda in a massive 1,400-page bill that was not available in print or online at the time of passage, despite loud objections from the Minority.

We are still sifting through this last-minute “kitchen sink” bill to determine exactly what has been enacted into law. Earlier this week House and Senate Republican Leaders sent a letter to Governor Walz urging him to veto the bill due to the blatant abuse of power and the legislative process. As of now, the Governor has not responded to this request.

*Now that we are out of session, my updates will be less frequent. I hope you all have a wonderful summer**, and I look forward to seeing you at various community events!*

 

1,400 Page Mega Omnibus

As mentioned, this year's session ended in chaos. The DFL Majority, in a departure from House Rules and decorum, pushed through a “kitchen sink” bill in the last minutes of session and passed it before anyone in our caucus even had a chance to see a copy. This bill originated as the tax bill but in the dark of night the majority ended up weaving nearly ten other outstanding omnibus bills into this one bill.

We had a constitutional deadline to adjourn by midnight on Sunday, May 19th. At 9:45 p.m. that evening, the Taxes Conference Committee met to release their final bill. They had not met for six days and we expected a quick agreement on the outstanding tax provisions and a swift debate on the floor. However, without discussion, the Chair moved to adopt a final version of the tax bill and add ten unrelated bills.

Some of these additional bills had been debated in the House as Omnibus bills from other committees but had not been taken up by the Senate. *One of the new bills (SF 5019) had NEVER been heard in the Senate and didn’t even have a House companion! *This was an outrageous and clear violation of the Constitution’s “single subject” requirement.

 

Here’s a list of the bills included in the Tax bill:

- HF 3436 – Transportation Policy
- SF 5326 – Higher Ed Conference Committee Report
- SF 4942 – Energy & Agriculture Conference Committee Report
- SF 4399 – Human Services Conference Committee Report
- SF 4699 – Health Conference Committee Report
- HF 5363 – Paid Family & Medical Leave “Fix-It” bill ($887 million tax increase!)
- HF 2609 – Straw Purchase Penalties and Binary Trigger Ban
- HF 4247 – Scope of Practice bill (doesn’t include optometrists)
- HF 4259 – Property Tax provisions
- SF 5019 – State Employee Compensation Plans (no House version never heard in Senate)

*After the Tax Conference Committee created this giant bill, it was brought to the House Floor with less than an hour to go until the end of session.* Remember, it had to pass both chambers in that time. House Rules require that Conference Committee Reports be available to Members before voting, but there were no copies of the bill in the Chamber, and when I tried to access it online, the bill was unavailable!

*Our caucus made motions on the Floor at that time to ask how we could get a copy of the bill, assuming we’d get copies and have at least a brief debate.* Instead, the Speaker ignored inquiries, ended debate by calling the question, and forced a final vote without explanation.

A similar scenario played out in the Senate. Not a single Member of either party was able to read or access the 1,400-page bill that is now Minnesota state law. This is an unconscionable breach of House Rules and decorum.

 

Bonding Bill

After a brief recess, the Democrat Majority brought a “cash-only” bonding bill to the floor in the very last minutes before our midnight deadline. This was a slimmed down version of the usual general obligation bonding bill and since it was a “cash” bill, it required only a Majority vote, not the Super Majority required by the Constitution for issuing debt for bonding.

Minority Leader Demuth received a single copy of the bill without a total cost listed and no other Members had copies. It was not even available online, but the majority called the question again and pushed the bill through with just minutes to spare.

The Senate then also rushed the bill without proper access, but the majority mismanaged the clock, failing to close the vote before midnight, so the bill did not pass.

*All of this is extremely troubling. The abuse of power and lack of transparency we witnessed is unprecedented.* Trust was broken between the Majority and the Minority not over policy, but over the blatant abuse of the Rules designed to protect our democracy and the legislative process.

The Majority also betrayed the people of Minnesota, who expect their Representatives to have access to the bills they are voting on.

What Passed and What Didn't

*Bills that Passed:*
- Uber/Lyft bill interfering with private contracts, holding up Senate work for over 13 hours on Saturday
- Felony penalty for straw purchases and ban on binary triggers
- $887 million payroll tax increase on employees and employers for the new Paid Family Leave Program
- Ban on Historic Horse Racing
- $30 million stabilization funding for EMS Services
- State employee compensation plans (never heard in the Senate, no House companion)

*Bills that Failed:*
- ERAsure constitutional amendment (excluded religion or age, included protections for abortion up to birth)
- Sports Betting
- Bonding Projects for local communities (funding denied for water treatment, roads, bridges, critical infrastructure)
- Tax Relief for Veterans (provisions for disabled Veterans and Veterans’ organizations removed in final bill)

Members and staff are still reviewing the bill, so there may be additional provisions yet to be discovered.






Please Contact Me

Please continue to reach out if I can be of any assistance to you. You can reach me by phone at 651-296-3018 or by email at [email protected].

Have a great weekend! 

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Patti











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387 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Saint Paul, MN 55155
ph: 651.296.3018







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