Quiet start, big priorities expected for divided Legislature

Jan. 06--MANKATO -- Lawmakers won't have immediate matters to attend to once the Minnesota Legislature starts this year's session Tuesday, but business is bound to pick up.

Legislators are expected to tackle tax conformity, education reform, and health care and health insurance while putting together a two-year budget by the end of May. In the mix is a potential public works bonding bill, corrections reform and potential environmental and energy changes, among other issues.

Complicating matters is a divided Capitol, where Democrats control the House and Republicans control the Senate. Minnesota is the only state with a divided Legislature this year, which will present a challenge for incoming DFL Gov. Tim Walz.

Still, lawmakers see opportunity to accomplish much over the next five months.

"I'm getting more and more excited the closer we get," said Rep. Jack Considine, DFL-Mankato.

Health care

The House DFL plans to introduce 10 bills Wednesday encompassing a variety of issues from the caucus' "Minnesota Values Plan," which will include at least one bill on health care.

At the same time, the Senate GOP is working on a health care package of their own. Sen. Rich Draheim, R-Madison Lake, said he expects the Senate to tackle everything from insurance cost sharing to pharmaceutical drug prices to primary health care. Draheim hopes lawmakers will move beyond a medical price transparency proposal championed by Rep. Jeremy Munson, R-Lake Crystal, last year to address health care costs on top of insurance reform.

"Why have prices gone up so high?" Draheim said. "There's no one person to point a finger at, there's a system that we have created, and now we've got to figure out how to fix that system."

Democrats still support a public health option proposal that would allow residents to buy MinnesotaCare insurance on the state's individual health insurance market. The bill was first proposed by then-Sen. Kathy Sheran, DFL-Mankato, in 2016 and has since been adopted as a priority step toward insurance reform.

Republicans oppose the MinnesotaCare buy-in, as they think it will be too costly to implement for too little gain. They would rather see more privatized and free market solutions to reduce health care and insurance costs. That would include catastrophic insurance plans and interstate health insurance exchanges, which Democrats believe won't do enough to curb rising costs.

Education

Walz is expected to set the tone on what education initiatives lawmakers will discuss this year once he's sworn into office Monday.

The former Mankato West High School geography teacher has made no secret he intends to focus on education policy as part of his first year as governor. He told a group of more than 50 area residents at the end of November he planned to introduce a broad range of policies to improve schools.

"We can make Minnesota known as the education state," Walz said.

The education budget will likely be a major discussion point during this year's session. Gov. Mark Dayton and a GOP-controlled Legislature couldn't agree on $138 million in emergency funding for school districts during the 2018 session.

Corrections

House Democrats have set up a subcommittee chaired by Considine, in part to address staff shortfalls at state prisons in the wake of two 2018 prison guard deaths in Stillwater and Oak Park Heights. Considine plans to introduce funding proposals to increase prison guard staff within the first week or two of the session. He also expects to address sentencing guidelines reform that could reduce the number of people jailed in state prisons.

The Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission is set to introduce new reforms that could shorten suggested sentences. Considine said he hasn't reviewed the potential changes, which cleared the commission last month, but he expects to agree with several of the commission's recommendations.

Tax conformity

One of the most impactful issues lawmakers will tackle this session might not get done until spring.

The Legislature failed to work out a bill last year to conform Minnesota's tax system with the federal tax reforms Congress passed in 2017. Dayton and the GOP had similar tax cuts lined up for families, but the two sides couldn't agree on continuing a medical provider tax set to expire this year.

A GOP plan would have slightly reduced the tax rate for the state's lowest two income tax brackets, affecting everyone who makes less than $85,000. Yet the plan would force $137 million in losses to Minnesota's budget with more revenue decline in subsequent bienniums.

Energy

Lawmakers are expected to tackle how the state handles energy in some form or fashion this year, with Democrats eyeing their return to a majority in the House as an opportunity to push for more renewable energy reforms.

Sen. Nick Frentz, DFL-North Mankato, previously sponsored legislation from the Dayton administration that would have increased Minnesota's renewable energy goals to have half of the state's energy come from renewable sources by 2030. He expects Democrats to push for more renewable energy this year.

Republicans have resisted increasing renewable energy standards in the past. They also point out Minnesota still relies on a ready supply of natural gas for energy, and many have pushed for more discussion on the state's three nuclear energy plants.

Transportation

The much-talked about gas tax increase could make its way into committee hearings once more as lawmakers seek to establish long-term transportation funding to address needed road and bridge maintenance.

Democrats have pushed for a 10-cent per gallon gas tax increase since 2013, but the idea hasn't found traction among Republicans. While rural officials support the increase, numerous polls have found mixed public support for the increase, which hasn't been done since 2008.

Republicans have pushed to shift motor parts and repair sales taxes out of the state's general fund toward road and bridge fixes. Yet neither approach covers the $600 million in annual funding, or $6 billion over 10 years, state officials estimate is needed to catch up with and improve the state's existing road and bridge infrastructure.

Bonding

Though lawmakers passed a $1 billion bonding bill last year, there's building support to tackle another round of infrastructure funding even though the Legislature has traditionally passed bonding funding in even-numbered years.

Lawmakers have found increasing bonding needs in recent years as public infrastructure built decades ago across the state is decaying at a quicker pace. Another bonding bill has some bipartisan support, but it remains to be seen whether lawmakers can tackle a bill at the same time as a biennium budget, tax conformity and other priority issues.

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