Before the legislature returns to session for 2024, it is useful to review the massive changes passed by the legislature in 2023 that became law.  A number of organizations have created lists; this comprehensive list was put together while doing research for the 2023 LEA Report.

– Compiled by – John Augustine – LEA board VP

What do you think were the biggest developments in MN government from the 2023 session?

• Big tax and spending increases (with very little return of surplus), including dedicated metro sales taxes for transit and housing
• Extreme abortion rights and transgender care refuge laws
• Documentation/DLs for illegals, which will make it easier to violate restrictions on immigration, voting, and air travel
• Free meals for all attending schools, and free MN college tuition for families with less than $80,000 in income
• School resource officer controversy (officers leaving because of language prohibiting prone restraint)
• Carbon-free by 2040 mandates (a priority for youth)
• Mandatory paid leave programs, administered by the state, given funding source of payroll taxes
• Emergency Risk Protection Orders (“red flag” gun confiscation) and background checks for private transfers of guns were passed as part of an omnibus bill.
• Recreational marijuana legalized, taxed, and regulated.

Context–how is this session comparing to the 2013-14 session, the last time the big-government expansionists had total control?

• Young social liberals came out in 2012 to defeat the same-sex marriage ban amendment; they also defeated photo ID for voting. Last election, abortion and climate change mobilized young liberals.
• Meanwhile conservatives’ turnout in 2012 was depressed by the corrupt Vikings stadium deal and scandal that upended Senate leadership. Last election, Republicans were underfunded with weak party leadership
• After 2012 amendment failed, the 2013 legislature legalized same-sex marriage.
• DREAM Act in-state college tuition for non-citizens “pursuing path to citizenship”
• Cigarette tax hikes, and gift tax instituted that encouraged many to leave MN with their wealth.
• Statute of limitations waived for many sexual abuse charges.
• Socialized medicine (creating government-run MNsure health insurance exchange. expanding Medicaid eligibility to 133% of poverty level, expanding moratorium on number of radiation therapy facilities).
• Socialized personal care requiring Personal Care Attendants and independent child-care operators receiving Child Care Assistance Subsidies to have unions negotiate their compensation.
• Large-scale, incremental increases in the mandatory minimum wage
• Ratified generous public-employee agreements with retroactive pay raises dating to start of 2013.
• Authorized Constitutional Amendment vote to set legislative pay using an appointed Compensation Council
• Introduced online voter registration and no-excuse absentee voting.
• None of these policies that were passed the last time the expansionists had total control were ever repealed when one-party control was ended.

What is different about what was pushed in 2023 versus 2013?

• More willingness to override parents (abortion, trans care refuge, etc.)
• More willingness to expand programs unconditionally to non-citizens (DLs and MNCare for all)
• More focus on extreme environmentalism (a top priority of young leftists)
• More willingness to push broader tax increases (confident they won’t lose elections)
• More willingness to curtail speech and gun rights (confident they won’t lose elections)
• Removing checks and balances and giving governor more power (confident of keeping total control)
• Ramping up ethnic subsidies and ideological ethnic education (embracing reparations and tribalism)
• Huge, federally-boosted surplus ratcheted up increased spending and entitlements.

What of importance happened that most people don’t know?

• First Amendment infringements (bias incident database, expanded “misinformation” and “express advocacy” regulations, law enforcement officers may only associate with state-approved groups, counselors confined to state-approved therapy discussions, voters prohibited from wearing campaign-oriented apparel at polls, colleges that require statements of faith not allowed to do so in post-secondary enrollment options program)
• No new hydroelectric or nuclear power plants can qualify for meeting carbon-free 2040 mandates. A “green bank”, the MN Climate Innovation Finance Authority, was created as a state corporation, overseen by 13 appointees of the governor, and given $20 million in start-up funds. The MPCA must submit a “90 percent waste reduction by 2045” plan to the legislature. New ban on use of PFAS in many different products.
• Phased-in requirements for watercraft operator permits, tests, and safety courses.
• Minors granted unrestricted rights to abortion and “gender care,” overriding custody decisions of courts in this state or other states (can be considered be considered abandoned and in need of emergency state protection if family denies access to such care)
• Authorized ballot question to extend Environmental Trust Fund from lottery constitutional amendment, but also changed the fund itself to have ethnic set-asides.
• Created a housing credit “reparations” program. A definition for “environmental justice areas” was also put into statute to be used to define geographic areas to receive special environmental consideration. Public utilities must meet diversity goals for hiring and materials procurement.
• Created a net investment income tax above a certain threshold of income and a retail delivery fee for orders above 100 dollars. Also significantly raised vehicle license tab fees.
• Charitable gaming options outside of casinos dramatically restricted.
• Allowed budget reserve account to expand 20%, from $2.38 billion to $2.85 billion.
• Cap preventing appointees’ pay from exceeding 133% of governor’s salary was repealed. Moreover, confirmation/rejection of gubernatorial appointees limited to 60 legislative days from appointment. Also, legislative oversight through ratification of public-employee agreements was removed, and preparations are to be made for collective bargaining agreements to cover all legislative staff.
• Compensation Council given total authority to set salaries of agency heads and state constitutional officers.
• Established an Office of New Americans within the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) to foster immigrant and refugee inclusion, and also to facilitate equitable access by those groups to all government services and grants. The same omnibus bill passed a prohibition on non-compete clauses in contracts, with very narrow exceptions.
• Mandated redesign of state flag and seal and outsourced it to an unelected commission.
• Attorney General gets to authorize disbursements from a new Consumer Litigation Fund.
• A 16-member State Council on LGBTQIA2S+ Minnesotans was created, funded, and given duties.
• MN is joining the National Popular Vote interstate compact.
• Secy of State must study and report on implementing ranked-choice-voting for elections statewide.
• People can request to be on a permanent absentee ballot list, having ballots mailed to them indefinitely.
• Voting rights expanded to unincarcerated, home-monitored, and work-release felons still under court-imposed sentences despite state constitutional language to the contrary.
• Added gender identity and other ideological gender language as protected classes in MN Human Rights Act, while removing language clarifying that sexual orientation did not cover an attachment to children. Added enhanced criminal sentences for crimes linked to bias.
• Created a vague definition of race in the CROWN Act that will spur more litigation.
• Put retroactive caps on length of probation for nearly all crimes, while also allowing prosecutors to pursue sentence reductions after sentencing has occurred.
• Pursuing more rail projects (Northstar, Northern Lights, Blue Line light rail north from Minneapolis), while also requiring a Transit Fare Elimination Pilot Program for some routes.
• Transportation capacity expansion projects conditioned upon greenhouse gas impact, and Metro Airports Commission must plan for ban on single-use beverage bottles as part of climate mitigation assessment.
• E-12 bill contained ethnic/Holocaust/genocide studies requirements (equating the USA’s conquering of various Indian tribes to WWII Holocaust and genocide), dedicated money for hiring teachers based on race, expanded unemployment eligibility to cover seasonal/part-time school employees, and allowed many existing school levies to be renewed once by school boards without a ballot referendum.
• Gas tax and school funding formula tied to inflation indexes, removing discretionary funding votes.