St. Paul – Senate Democrats today passed a hyper-partisan State Government and Elections budget agreement that will astronomically grow state government bureaucracy and undermine integrity and transparency in Minnesota’s elections processes. The bill is approximately a 40% increase in spending over the last budget cycle. 

ELECTIONS BUDGET MAKES MINNESOTA’S ELECTIONS WEAKER, RISKIER 

“This is a bill that makes Minnesota’s elections weaker, riskier, less transparent, and less trustworthy,” said Senator Mark Koran (R-North Branch), the lead Republican on the Elections Committee. “Minnesota has a long tradition of only approving election law changes with bipartisan support precisely to avoid bills like this. It is disappointing that Democrats have thrown out that time-honored custom in favor of controversial, hyper-partisan, and divisive policies aimed at helping their special interests. We should prioritize efforts to help our local elections officials run safe, secure, transparent, and accessible elections. This bill takes us in the opposite direction.” 

Notable provisions of the Elections bill:  

• The most controversial item in the elections budget is the National Popular Vote Compact, which would add Minnesota to the list of states that agree to bind their presidential electors to the winner of the national popular vote. Doing so would reduce Minnesota’s influence in Presidential elections, and effectively eliminate the Electoral College, which was created in part to protect the influence of small states. Some scholars argue the National Popular Vote Compact itself is unconstitutional, as Congress must consent to interstate compacts.     
• The bill moves Minnesota closer to implementing a controversial Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) program by approving funding for an RCV Task Force and providing RCV education to municipalities.  
• Democrats kept in place a pay-to-play loophole that House and Senate Democrats attempted to use to violate a law prohibiting legislative caucuses from fundraising during session. In March, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, Senate Majority Leader Kari Dziedzic and House Speaker Melissa Hortman were scheduled to headline a meet-and-greet for the state Democrat Party where donors were asked to contribute between $250 to $2,500, opening the door to influence buying. The Senate previously added language to ban all party units from accepting lobbyist contributions but Democrats eliminated the change, leaving the law and loophole intact.   

• The elections budget weakens residency requirements to give candidates the ability to simply claim that they “maintain residence” in a chosen location. Many concerns were raised last after a traffic stop with DFL Representative John Thompson, who used a Wisconsin driver’s license, revealed there is little oversight in place to verify a legislative candidate’s residency claims.   
• The bill infringes on free speech rights by prohibiting certain clothing and attire at polling places. This provision contradicts Supreme Court precedent.  
• The elections budget threatens election integrity by laying out the formula for how to get caught ballot harvesting, giving bad actors a road map on what to do to avoid detection.  

STATE GOVERNMENT BILL PUTS SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS AHEAD OF TAXPAYERS 

The state government portion of this legislation erodes checks and balances, reduces transparency in government and puts special interests ahead of taxpayers. This bill changes state law to allow the government to take grants from wealthy organizations. It also includes pay raises for constitutional officers and agency heads along with the top political appointees of governors and re-sets their pay structure for the long-term. 
 
“One-party control has led to Democrats astronomically growing state government operating budget by nearly 40%,” said Senator Bruce Anderson (R-Buffalo), the lead Republican on the Senate State and Local Government and Veterans Committee. “Instead of ensuring government functions have strong oversight and accountability, Democrats are choosing to pay for more and more bureaucrats. I see this as a path to government that will diminish the role of the legislature by granting more authority to the executive branch.”  

 
Notable provisions of the State Government bill:  

• Establishes a working group to redesign the state flag and seal without legislative approval of the final design 

• Provides salary increases to agency heads  
• Increases Constitutional Officers’ salaries 
• Removes the compensation cap for government officials 

 
When this legislation was first heard in the Senate, Republicans successfully offered an amendment to require legislative approval of the redesigned state flag. Democrats stripped this provision in committee, refusing to provide more oversight and final approval by elected officials from every part of the state. Now, the bill creates a large task force that will present flag options, and without legislative action, approve the new flag.