In the 2023 session, Minnesota passed some optimistic legislation that Governor Tim Waltz (D) says he’s ready to sign. They passed things like voting rights, codified abortion and LGBTQ rights, paid family leave, and so much more!
Before we go any further, lets list off the bills that were passed in a legislature where Democrats have just a slim majority in both the House and Senate.
Here are the details from CBS News:
Open each bill to see the details of what that bill will do. They are in no particular order.
ABORTION RIGHTS
In late January, Walz signed the “Protect Reproductive Options Act,” a bill that establishes a “fundamental right” to abortion access and reproductive care in the state in a post-Roe v. Wade landscape.
While a 1995 Minnesota Supreme Court decision protections abortion rights, Democrats framed the PRO Act as a second line of defense to ensure access at a time when other states are restricting the procedure.
The bill also covers contraception, sterilization, preconception care, maternity care, family planning and fertility services.
UNIVERSAL SCHOOL MEALS
In March, Walz put his signature on the universal school meals bill, providing free breakfast and lunch to all K-12 students, regardless of their parents’ income.
Schools must enroll in the federal program for free and reduced-priced meals to be eligible. The state would pick up the tab for the cost of covering everyone else who doesn’t qualify for the federal program, which is estimated to be $388 million in the next two-year budget. It increases after that.
The program could be operational by summer school in July.
ONE-TIME REBATES
Low- and middle-income Minnesotans will be getting some money back in the form of a one-time rebate. The Department of Revenue estimates 2.5 million households will be impacted.
The $3 billion tax bill includes $260 rebates for singles making less than $75,000 per year, $520 for married couples filing jointly making less than $150,000. There’s also $260 per dependent up to three, so the max rebate for Minnesotans who qualify is $1,300.
CARBON-FREE ELECTRICITY
Gov. Tim Walz signed the bill setting new energy benchmarks for Minnesota in February, an effort to curb climate change’s impacts. By 2040, utilities must offer customers 100% carbon-free electricity.
Right now, renewable energy — like wind, solar, and hydropower — is the largest share of the state’s power supply at 29%, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. More than half of the state’s energy is already carbon-free with renewables and nuclear energy combined.
PAID FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE
DFL lawmakers approved a state-run paid family and medical leave program that will allow workers to take up to 12 weeks of paid time for a serious medical condition, and up to 12 weeks to take care of family members, including bonding with a newborn.
The benefits are capped at 20 weeks in a single year and workers won’t get paid their full wages.
Benefits will start in 2026 and that’s when a payroll tax increase to fund the program will kick in, too. That tax hike on businesses and their employees is the most contentious part of the bill.
Almost 75% of Minnesota’s workforce does not have access to paid leave benefits today, according to an estimate from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.
PROTECTING ABORTION PATIENTS, TRANS REFUGE & CONVERSION THERAPY BAN
In late April, Walz signed three progressive bills into law on Thursday designed to make Minnesota a safe haven for LGBTQ people and others who come from other states where abortion is banned to seek the procedure in Minnesota.
Two of the bills are “shield” laws designed to protect patients and providers from legal actions in other states where abortion and transgender medical care for minors are banned or restricted.
While those two bills passed on party-line votes, more than a dozen Republicans joined Democrats in supporting a ban on the discredited practice of conversion therapy for LGBTQ people, which seeks to change their sexual orientation.
GUN MEASURES
Major gun regulations were into law after a public safety package passed through the Minnesota Legislature earlier this month.
The provisions create a “red flag” law, allowing family members, spouses, roommates, or law enforcement to petition a court to suspend someone’s access to guns if they are determined to be a danger to themselves or someone else. These extreme risk protection orders will go into effect next year.
But starting this summer, background checks will extend to private gun sales and transfers, not just purchases at federally licensed firearms dealers, plugging what gun safety advocates call a loophole.
DRIVER’S LICENSES FOR ALL
Minnesota residents will be able to obtain a driver’s license no matter their immigration status under legislation signed this session.
The effort, dubbed “driver’s licenses for all,” is 20 years in the making for supporters of the policy, who say it will improve public safety and allow people without legal status to continue contributing to the state’s economy.
The Migration Policy Institute estimates there are 81,000 undocumented immigrants living in Minnesota,
RECREATIONAL CANNABIS
Marijuana for recreational use will be legal as early as August 1, allowing for possession of up to 2 pounds of marijuana in your home.
What will take more time is setting up the business rules and regulations. The bill establishes a new Office of Cannabis Management tasked with oversight of a new legal marketplace that will allow licensed businesses to cultivate, manufacture and sell marijuana at retail dispensaries.
VOTING RIGHTS
Earlier this month, Walz signed the “Democracy for the People Act” into law, an elections bill aimed at expanding voter access to the polls. It includes long-sought-after provisions from voting rights advocates.
The legislation implements automatic voter registration, allows 16- and 17-year-olds to pre-register to vote, and creates a permanent absentee voter list that will automatically send people who sign up a ballot each election.
The proposal also requires voting materials and sample ballots to be in languages other than English and prohibits voter intimidation at the polls, among other provisions.
Another change in a separate law will allow people with felony convictions to vote again upon release from prison. They were previously barred from the ballot box until they discharged their sentence, including probation or parole.
FREE TUITION
Starting next school year, thousands of Minnesota students who qualify can attend the state’s public colleges and universities for free under a new program.
Families making under $80,000 a year would be eligible for the “North Star Promise” scholarships, which will cover tuition and fees for residents who attend two- or four-year programs in the University of Minnesota or Minnesota State system or in-state tribal colleges.
PFAS BAN
Both chambers of the state legislature last week approved a ban on so-called “forever chemicals” PFAS in consumer products.
The legislation prohibits non-essential use of the substances in cookware, cosmetics, cleaning products and more starting in 2025. The bill also includes funding to help clean up water contaminated with the chemicals, and will phase out PFAS in firefighting foam.
SCHOOL FUNDING INDEXED TO INFLATION
A large K-12 education funding package that includes a $2.2 billion boost for schools includes indexing per pupil formula funding to the rate of inflation in future years, capped at 3%. There’s additional money to help with costs of special education programs, recruit more teachers of color and hire more school psychologists.
Additional funding will support stocking schools with menstrual products free of charge to students, and keeping a supply of the opioid antagonist naloxone, as the epidemic fueled by illicit fentanyl intensifies.
Personal finance, Holocaust and genocide education, and ethnic studies will be incorporated into school curriculum. And there are new benchmarks and requirements to boost literacy, after test scores plummeted during the pandemic.
EARNED SAFE AND SICK TIME
Inside the labor and economic development budget bill, Democrats included a provision requiring businesses to offer their employees “earned safe and sick time.”
Workers would be eligible to accrue a minimum of one hour for every 30 hours worked, for a maximum of 48 hours per year.
They could use that time for medical appointments, short-term illness like a cold or flu or caring for a child who may be out of school sick.
This is different than the state paid family and medical leave program, which will be funded by a payroll tax and would cover more long-term absences.
How amazing are those bills! This gives me hope that if we can get a majority in both houses again (not counting Manchin/Sinema, since we’ve seen how they can’t be trusted to vote with the Democrats) we could do a lot of these same things. I say could because it all depends on whether or not the establishment Democrats even want any of that.
Help us, Minnesota!
I’m so jealous, but it definitely gives me a little more hope and optimism that it could happen one day on the federal level. Contratulations, Minnesota residents!
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