Is Gov. Walz starting to get it, on sulfide mining?

From a couple of weeks ago:

(MN Gov. Tim) Walz’s press secretary Teddy Tschann said the governor “takes these concerns seriously. The [water quality] permit is currently being reviewed in court, and he believes that process should continue.” - MPR

From a couple of days ago:

Gov. Tim Walz has urged Glencore, the Swiss mining giant that recently took a majority of shares in PolyMet, to work with unions and to add its name to numerous permits at an hour-long meeting with company officials Thursday, Aug. 8...

“There are still questions to be answered, and I made it clear that there’s not a lot of confidence in Glencore, whether that’s fair or not, that is their perception,” Walz said Thursday afternoon. - Grand Forks Herald

This is certainly welcome, but it’s far short of any indication that Gov. Walz has seen the light on sulfide mining in the state, and is prepared to do what he can to end this crap. What he’s doing now is the safest political play.

As far as getting back the state legislative seats the DFL has been losing in or near the Iron Range, that’s highly unlikely for as long as our nominees continue to be pro-sulfides corporate Dems.

MN lege: Some good things in 2019

I’m noting a few things that I considered to be particular priorities/concerns.

First of all, on the whole the session ended better than I feared it might. Gov. Tim Walz did the “moderate” thing as a U.S. Representative for southern Minnesota, and I was concerned that as governor he’d be willing to give too much to the Party of Trump to make deals. That didn’t happen.

Some positives happened for workers. Especially a strong wage theft bill.

The Legislature’s work isn’t over, however, with Minnesota AFL-CIO priorities such as new revenue to fix our roads and bridges, paid family & medical leave, OneCare public health insurance, and the 40-hour work week waiting for the 2020 session. Additional Labor priorities including teacher licensure reform, drivers licenses for all, a two-person train crew requirement, restoring voting rights, protecting Minnesota’s call center workers from outsourcing, and a state Equal Rights Amendment were all met with obstruction in the Republican-controlled Senate. - Minnesota AFL-CIO

I thought the GOP would really demand a king's ransom for extending the medical provider tax, although it did take a cut from 2 to 1.8%. I’m not entirely sure why there actually wasn’t all that much drama. All of those polls showing health care as the public's top issue, or very close to it, for 2020 presumably had something to do with it.

One more:

...the Minnesota Senate and House of Representatives passed the Omnibus Agriculture Policy Bill which includes dedicated funding and support for Farm to School and Early Care initiatives across the state. The bill will now head to Governor Walz to be signed. The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) and a coalition of other farming, nutrition and anti-hunger stakeholders worked to support this policy that will expand access to fresh, local and healthy foods for Minnesota students and new, stable markets for Minnesota farmers. - IATP

MN lege: Reproductive rights, so far

Emboldened by Traitor Trump and his Supreme Court picks, forced-birth zealots in state legislatures everywhere are running amok, especially with bans after 20 or even 6 weeks. And of course Party of Trump legislators in Minnesota have to be part of the action.

A Minnesota Senate panel on (March 14) voted to outlaw abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, paving the way for the proposal to advance in the Legislature.

The bill would ban abortions on women who are past 20 weeks in their pregnancy except in cases of possible death or serious physical harm. Risk of substantial and irreversible psychological or emotional conditions would not be included...

House Speaker Melissa Hortman said the issue would be a top campaign point in 2020 and predicted that Democrats would flip nine Senate seats currently held by Republicans.

“There are some members of the Minnesota Senate who are out of touch with their constituents on this issue,” Hortman said. - Pioneer Press

To say the least. And even if something like this somehow got through the House, it won’t get through Gov. Tim Walz, who has been consistently good on this issue. But grandstanding attacks on women making their own decisions are considered a political necessity for just about any elected Republican, and so time and effort have to be wasted, every session.

MN lege: Education, so far

It’s unclear whether we’ll get any real change for the better in education funding through the Party of Trump-controlled MN Senate. Here’s what they’re about:

A proposal at the core of the differing education policies favored by Minnesota Republicans and DFLers might end up on the table for end-of-session negotiations between Gov. Tim Walz and Senate majority Republicans.

The bill is called the Equity and Opportunity Scholarship Act, and it would allow donations to scholarship foundations to be credited against state income taxes. The foundations would use the money to give private school scholarships to low- and middle-income students.

It is a version of private school vouchers and tax credits that have been used in other states (and to some extent in Minnesota) that have often raise constitutional questions, though the bill’s chief supporter believes the structure of the proposal would allow the program to pass muster with the courts. - MinnPost

A voucher for a few thousand dollars isn’t going to help a typical living paycheck-to-paycheck family be able to make the five-figure tuition at some private school. As always this is just the rich man’s whimpering, groveling political curs of the GOP looking to provide requisite payback. In this case, at the expense of public schools, which in spite of all the obstacles continue to turn out more and more graduates who are just plain too smart to ever vote for a conservative.

Moreover, and as people have been pointing out for a long time now, there is absolutely no evidence that private schools do a better job. Quite the contrary, more often than not.

The EPI report’s findings contribute to a significant and growing body of research showing the negative impacts of school voucher programs on student learning and the public education system.

New America Foundation’s Kevin Carey writes, “a wave of new research has emerged suggesting that private school vouchers may harm students who receive them. The results are startling — the worst in the history of the field, researchers say.”

Carey lays out how recent studies of voucher programs in Indiana, Louisiana, and Ohio reveal that students who use vouchers to attend private schools tend to fare worse academically, particularly in math, compared to their peers attending public schools. - Jeff Bryant/OurFuture.org

Thankfully, while Gov. Tim Walz has said he’ll be willing to negotiate on a lot of things, according to the MinnPost article this isn’t one of them.

MN Gov: Walz budget proposal aims high

You’ve probably seen some things about MN Gov. Tim Walz’s budget proposal. I’ve been concerned - and still am, frankly - that as someone who made a big deal of being a “moderate” in Congress, now that he’s governor Walz will be willing to give away too much to Republicans in the legislature to cut deals. Perhaps this is an indication that I’m wrong, which would be good.

The issue, though, is what chance he has of picking up the two Republican votes he’d need in the MN Senate - and of holding on to all of the DFL votes. (It’s frankly Walz's own fault that he’ll need at least two of those Party of Trump votes and not just one. But there’s no use bemoaning, at any length, what’s over and done with.) He’s pretty clearly shooting for the stars with these opening numbers with the idea of still having some of it when all is said and done. I could see, for example, a few cents/gallon gas tax increase getting through, for now, maybe, but not any more than that. Perhaps I’ll end up actually being happy at having been proved wrong on that, too.

I haven’t looked at the budget details, but there’s presumably plenty therein designed to help get those Senate votes, from both parties. Without speculating with names, there certainly are those who can be persuaded if there’s something really good for their districts. And with Traitor Trump still doing his odious, contemptible things, vaunted Republican legislative “unity” could well be a lot more fissionable than has been the case. We’ll find out.

Why doesn't Enbridge just give up on Line 3?

Because they make a great deal of money moving filthy, climate wrecking tar sands/shale oil around, that’s why. Nothing more, nothing less. Anyway, from a couple of weeks ago:

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton's administration on (Dec. 21) appealed a state regulatory panel's approval of Enbridge Energy's plan to replace its aging Line 3 oil pipeline across northern Minnesota.

The Minnesota Department of Commerce said the Public Utilities Commission got its decisions wrong because Enbridge did not introduce, and the panel did not properly evaluate, the kind of long-range oil demand forecast required by state law.

Dayton, who leaves office Jan. 7, said in a statement that he strongly supports the appeal. He said Enbridge "failed to demonstrate that Minnesota needs this pipeline to meet our future oil demand. In fact, most of the product would flow through our state to supply other states and countries." - MPR

But, as for Gov-elect Tim Walz (DFL):

Walz has said Line 3 should go forward if it can meet environmental regulations. - MinnPost 

You should click and read that article, which is mostly about who Walz might pick for an open spot on the PUC. So, we’ll see.