Legislature faces daunting challenges

The list of issues awaiting the Minnesota Legislature when it reconvenes on Monday is daunting both in length and gravity, and will demand lawmakers' best efforts.

This session marks the third in which a pandemic that refuses to relinquish its grip remains front and center. A robust economic recovery is underway nationally, with growth rates not seen since the mid-1980s. But so too is an old nemesis: inflation, which has hit a 40-year high and is eating away at purchasing power. In another sign reminiscent of the '80s, the Federal Reserve is likely to tap the brakes by hiking interest rates, putting an end to very low-cost borrowing.

Violent crime is on the rise, particularly — though not exclusively — in urban and suburban centers, even as law enforcement agencies struggle to recruit and retain officers. Small businesses continue to be buffeted by supply-chain disruptions, labor shortages, mask and vaccine requirements in some areas, and customers still uneasy about crowds.

One bright spot is that the state has plenty of funds to deal with the array of challenges. Maybe too much. At $7.7 billion, the projected surplus is expected to become another source of contention, especially in an election year. Did we mention redistricting? That decennial redrawing of political boundaries is due out in mid-February and is expected to trigger a slew of retirements and faceoffs over who gets to run in which newly redrawn districts.

And yet, for all that, there is at least some common ground between the two parties, whether they acknowledge it or not.

Democratic Gov. Tim Walz and Senate Republicans are both proposing funding that would make it easier to retain and recruit police officers. Both Democrats and Republicans want to rein in rising violent crime and provide aid that will help small businesses punished by the pandemic. Both want to give bonuses to front-line workers who risked so much during the worst of the pandemic. Walz and Republicans want tax relief.

As always, there is a difference in approaches.

"The overarching theme for us is workers, families and small businesses," House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler told an editorial writer. "If you help people who are struggling, the economy grows stronger. Help with child care means businesses have access to a more reliable workforce and children who get a better start in life."

On public safety, Winkler said, "We are working with police chiefs and community groups because we want to help recruit police who reflect local values." Minneapolis, he noted, is down a third of its officers. Prosecutors could use help, he said, including increasing the ranks of public defenders. "You need both for the system to work," he said. "We need more resources for intelligence work and analysis. Local police departments need support and they need help to work better across jurisdictional lines."

Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller, R-Winona, said his caucus' top priorities will be public safety, education and tax cuts. "We know more cops results in less crime," he said at a presession news conference. That, he said, means recruitment campaigns, retention bonuses, police pension reform and college scholarships for those entering law enforcement. It also means, he said, enhanced penalties for crimes such as armed carjacking and getting tough on prosecutors who choose not to bring charges against violent offenders.

On education, he said, the GOP will focus on a singular area: boosting literacy rates. Sen. Roger Chamberlain, who leads the Education Finance and Policy Committee, said "we should focus all our efforts on ensuring all children across all demographics have 90% reading proficiency. Nothing else matters until a child can read."

Tax relief, Miller said, should come in the form of permanent rate cuts rather than the one-time checks Walz proposed, which he decried as "gimmicks." His caucus also will propose eliminating all taxes on Social Security income. A portion of that income is already shielded from state taxation.

Walz has released expansive supplemental budget proposals that would increase child care access, fund more prekindergarten and student meal programs, and strengthen mental health services. There is a paid family and medical leave proposal, a jobs initiative and the plan to issue a portion of the surplus as checks to a majority of Minnesotans. Walz decried the "naysayers" and said "we cannot afford ... to not do the things that we've proposed here."

Despite dramatically different approaches, the Legislature can and must ultimately come together on a single plan to maximize this once-in-a-generation surplus in a way that will do the most good for the most Minnesotans.

Said Winkler: "I think voters are going to prize results over rhetoric. They just want their lives to be better."