Today, the Minnesota Senate passed a significant State Government, Veterans, and Transportation bill. The legislation works to increase election transparency and participation, support Minnesota veterans, and invest in state infrastructure.

“Our state government bill has two key focuses: accountability and transparency,” Senator Julie Rosen (R-Fairmont) said. “People need to have confidence in their government. That’s why we are cracking down on outsiders and nonprofits taking advantage of the system and guaranteeing the security of our elections.”

Ensuring Transparency and Increasing Participation in the Election Process 

The State Government portion of the 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 two key provisions, SF 2956 and SF 3469, championed by Sen. Kiffmeyer, 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. Minnesota law already allows for a voter to turn in up to three ballots at an in-person early absentee voting location. 

Additionally, these provisions provide the Secretary of State’s Office onetime funding of $6 million for local election grants to help hire temporary staff to enter voter registration applications into the Statewide Voter Registration System. Further, the Minnesota IT Services receives $4 million in Fiscal Year 2023, and $1 million each Fiscal Year thereafter, to publicly provide and maintain election livestream recordings and requirements for absentee ballot boards.

The State Government package also includes an important policy provision, introduced by Sen. Kiffmeyer, to block special interests from buying access to state government. This addresses a current issue where many contracted lawyers in the Attorney General’s office have ties to other politically affiliated groups and may be using their influence to push an outside agenda using a public office. This provision, therefore, requires all legal services of the Attorney General’s office to be performed only by employees.

To keep Minnesota elections free of outside influence, the bill also contains a significant provision prohibiting non-governmental groups from paying for election related expenses. Under this bill, authored by Sen. Mark Koran (R-North Branch), counties, municipalities, and school districts are prohibited from accepting contributions of any form from a for-profit or non-profit organization related to local or federal elections expenses. In other words, this bans ‘Zuckerbucks’ from being used by locals to execute or influence any sort of election activity.

Finally, to protect taxpayer dollars and ensure they are not misused, this legislation includes a provision, authored by Sen. Michelle Benson (R-Ham Lake), to ensure non-profits receiving grants from the state of Minnesota have the track record of quality financial management. It changes the requirements for grants going to tax exempt nongovernmental organization, such as requiring the organization to submit two years of Internal Revenue Service Form 990 and prohibiting the hiring of public employees or elected officials. 

Other notable state government policy provisions include:

• (Kiffmeyer) Daylight Saving Abolishment: States that if the federal government does not abolish daylight saving time by 2030, Minnesota will automatically transition to standard time year-round.
• SF 639 (Ingebrigtsen) Pollution Control Agency (PCA) Unadopted Rules: Prohibits the PCA from enforcing or attempting to enforce any unadopted rules.
• SF 2862 (Housley) Gambling Control Board (GCB) Modifications: Prohibits the GCB from deactivating E-pull tab devices, games, or systems that had been approved under the rules of the GCB at the time of enactment in future rulemaking decisions. The only way to make these changes would be through direct legislative action. 
• SF 2950 (Duckworth) Use of Horse Breeders’ Funds: Allows the horse breeders’ fund fees to be used to support racehorse adoption, retirement, and repurposing, which will cover the administrative costs as well as promote horse breeding in Minnesota.
• SF 3041 (Limmer) Capitol Security Advisory Committee (CASAC) Sunset: Moves the Committee’s sunset from June 30, 2022, to the year 2036.
• SF 3065 (Mathews) Consumer Choice of Fuel Act: Prohibits a state agency from adopting rules that restrict consumer choice of motorized equipment, based on the equipment itself or the equipment’s fuel source.
• SF 3129 (Abeler) State Fossil Designation: Designates the giant beaver as the official state fossil of Minnesota.
• SF 3157 (Howe): Renewable Energy Building Requirements: Modifies the renewable energy requirements for B3 projects, which are projects funded through state bonding dollars.
• SF 3846 (Kiffmeyer) Legislative Coordinating Commission (LCC) Provisions: Gives the director of the LCC more involvement in the contracting of professional or technical services related to the House, Senate, legislative commissions, or joint offices.
• SF 4065 (Kiffmeyer) Policy Modifications to the Board of Cosmetology: Aims to fix specific items at the Board of Cosmetology that are either in need of general updates or are based on recommendations from the Office of the Legislative Auditor.

Additional elections and campaign finance provisions include:

• SF 651 (Kiffmeyer) In-Person Absentee Voting Requirements: Adapts where voters can go to participate in in-person absentee voting (i.e., early voting).
• SF 3077 (Kiffmeyer) Non-Governmental Voter Registration Mailing Modifications: Requires that any mailing sent by or on behalf of a committee or any other private organization, such as a sample ballot or absentee ballot application, to make multiple statements of transparency to the recipient to it is clear the mailing is not an official absentee ballot or absentee ballot request. 
• SF 3655 (Koran) Classification of Voter Data: Modifies how the state classifies voter data by classifying most voter registration system data as public, except for birth dates, social security numbers, drivers’ license numbers, identification numbers, and passport numbers, which are classified as private data.
• SF 3975 (Kiffmeyer) Absentee Ballot Envelope Technical Changes: Makes technical changes to statute relating to the delivery of absentee ballot envelopes including language referencing the signature envelope and the secrecy envelopes for ballots.

Supporting Minnesota’s Veterans

As part of the package, the State Government bill also includes provisions from the Senate Veterans Committee. The bill funds the completion and upgrades necessary for the three new Veterans’ Homes located in Bemidji, Preston, and Montevideo, plus an enlistment and re-enlistment bonus program that retains and rewards active servicemembers. 

This portion of the bill focuses on meeting the needs of veterans across the state. 

Investing in Minnesota’s Roads and Bridges

The transportation components of the bill provide 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 – a top Senate Republican priority. 

“Safe, reliable roads and bridges are critical to a thriving society,” Rosen said. “We need a world-class transportation system, but we do not need to raise the gas tax to get there. We have plenty of money. Directing revenue from the existing auto parts sales tax will allow us to rebuild roads and bridges without asking taxpayers to pay more.”

The bill 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.

Stable, ongoing funding for roads and bridges

The bill dedicates 100% of the existing tax revenue from the sale of auto parts to roads and bridges, providing an additional $550.08 million over the next three years and a stable, consistent source of funding for transportation infrastructure for the foreseeable future.

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. Small cities under 5,000 residents currently receive no dedicated funding. Township roads receive very little dedicated funds. Both road systems are currently paid for with real estate taxes.

Approximately one-third of transportation infrastructure funding comes from the gas tax. The state faces a significant gap in transportation funding in the near future as vehicles become more fuel-efficient and more electric vehicles are sold. The change to dedicate tax revenue from auto parts to roads and bridges helps sustain this vital funding. A portion of auto parts sales tax revenue is dedicated to small cities and townships.

Other notable provisions

• SF 3494 (Kiffmeyer) Terminating Northstar. The Met Council must ask the federal government to cease service of the Northstar rail line, which has consistently fallen short of ridership goals and has been losing money for years.
  
• SF 3992 (Osmek) and SF 3859 (Chamberlain): Light rail and Bus Rapid Transit reforms. 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. 
  
• Securing the state’s share of federal infrastructure spending. The bill provides $280 million in 2022-2023 to secure the state’s share of federal transportation funding allocated by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021. Minnesota’s share is projected to be more than $5.7 billion over the next five years.

• SF 2898 (Jasinski) Purchasing new helicopters and airplanes for the state patrol. The state patrol’s current fleet of helicopters and airplanes is nearing the end of its useful life. The transportation bill provides $45.1 million to purchase three new helicopters and three new airplanes for the state patrol so they can continue safely performing critical functions like search and rescue operations, tracking carjackers and criminal pursuits, and transporting blood and organs in emergencies.

• Safe Routes to Schools. The legislation includes an additional $14 million for the Safe Routes to School program, which aims to improve safety and reduce traffic so Minnesota students can safely walk and bike to school.

• Cracking down on school bus stop-arm violators. An additional $12 million will be provided to finish equipping every school bus in Minnesota with outward-facing cameras to crack down on distracted and reckless drivers who ignore school bus stop arms. 

• SF 3582 (Newman): Fixing customer service issues at the DMV. 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 a number of the report’s recommendations.