On Monday, the Minnesota Senate debated and passed legislation addressing a wide range of topics including State Government Reform, Election Security, Veterans Affairs, and Transportation. The bills work to increase election transparency and participation, support Minnesota veterans, and invest in state infrastructure.
“Securing our elections, investing in our roads and bridges, stopping government waste, and taking care of our veterans, are basic government functions that we must continue to invest in and strengthen,” Senator Mark Johnson (R-East Grand Forks) said. “These investments help rural Minnesota by driving our tax dollars back into our communities and focusing on our state’s important functions.”
Ensuring Transparency and Increasing Participation in the Election Process
The State Government and Elections package contains three central objectives:increase transparency for Minnesotans, protect taxpayer dollars, and give voters more opportunities to participate in the election process.
This legislation contains several provisions to keep our elections safe and secure. Highlights include requiring a specific security marking to identify genuine absentee ballots, adding security and transparency measures to drop boxes and ensuring that a ballot is only placed in a drop box by the voter themselves. Additionally, funding is included to improve election transparency by live streaming absentee ballot boards. The bill also contains a significant provision prohibiting non-governmental groups from paying for election-related expenses commonly known as ‘Zuckerbucks’.
The bill also prohibits a state agency from adopting rules that restrict consumer choice of motorized equipment. This provision will eliminate the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s costly ‘California Cars’ mandate.
Finally, to protect taxpayer dollars and ensure they are not misused, this legislation includes a provision to ensure non-profits receiving grants from the state of Minnesota have a track record of quality financial management. It changes the requirements for grants going to tax-exempt nongovernmental organizations and prohibits them from hiring public employees or elected officials.
Investing in Minnesota’s Roads and Bridges
The Senate’s Transportation bill, which also passed Monday, provides more than $5.7 billion in transportation funding, including more than $4.32 billion specifically for roads and bridges over the next five years, without a gas tax, mileage tax, sales tax, or license tab fee increase. The bill dedicates 100% of revenue from existing auto parts sales taxes to roads and bridges which will provide an additional $550.08 million over the next three years and a stable, consistent source of funding for transportation infrastructure for the foreseeable future.
“Our plan ensures long-term sustainable funding for our roads and bridges without raising taxes,” Johnson said.“Our economy depends on safe and reliable infrastructure. Driving funding to our roads and bridges is something we should all be able to get behind.”
The bill also provides special funding for small cities and townships, each of which would receive an ongoing, dedicated funding stream of 7% of auto parts sales tax revenue for their road needs.
The legislation continues Senate Republicans’ strong commitment to roads and bridges by providing an additional $982.98 million for state roads and bridges, $154.5 million for Corridors of Commerce, $303.59 million for County State Aid Highways, $79.75 million for Municipal State Aid Highways, and $69.1 million for town roads and $69.01 million for small cities assistance. The bill also works to secure the state’s share of federal transportation funding allocated by the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021.
The bill blocks state funding for any new light rail projects and requires city councils to approve new light rail or bus rapid transit routes prior to construction. It also stops funding for the costly Rondo Land Bridge project in St. Paul.
Finally, the transportation bill makes good on several Senate Republican promises to improve Minnesotans’ visits to the DMV in the wake of a scathing independent review of the Department of Driver and Vehicle Services operations. The bill implements several of the report’s recommended reforms.
Supporting Minnesota’s Veterans
Language in today’s Veterans bill funds the completion and upgrades necessary for three new Veterans’ Homes located in Bemidji, Preston, and Montevideo, plus an enlistment and re-enlistment bonus program that retains and rewards active servicemembers. Today’s legislation works to take care of those who have served our country.
These pieces of legislation will now head to conference committees to be reconciled with competing proposals passed by the House of Representatives.