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-CIOI 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
