2022 Minnesota Legislature: Lemon bars, an apology and a school bus

The 2022 Minnesota legislative session got off to a quirky start on Monday. Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan wore masks while they walked between the House and Senate chambers handing out homemade treats — lemon bars from the governor, Scotcheroos from the lieutenant governor. Eventually, they’ll be asked to treat Republicans to tax cuts and Democrats to spending on new programs.

Those decisions will likely take time, but the governor says he thinks refilling the state’s depleted unemployment insurance trust fund to the tune of $2.7 billion and a billion dollars for frontline worker bonuses should happen early in the session.

“I do think time is of the essence on both of those,” the governor told reporters outside the House chambers. “Some of the other stuff should be debated and will take a little longer.”

Minutes later inside the chambers, embattled state Rep. John Thompson, I-St. Paul, issued an apology to a Republican lawmaker after Thompson called him a “racist” on the House floor last June. Republican Rep. Eric Lucero of Dayton filed an ethics complaint with the House Ethics Committee which dropped the complaint after Thompson agreed to issue an apology.

Meanwhile, there are three new leaders in the Minnesota Senate. Republican Jeremy Miller of Winona is now the majority leader, Melisa López Franzen is the new DFL minority leader and Republican Dave Osmek is the new Senate president. Osmek did double duty Monday after starting his morning driving a school bus in the Mound-Westonka School District.

“This is the first day of this, so we’ll find out how it’s going to work out,” Osmek joked as he drove elementary students to school this morning. He took the job a couple of months ago to help out with a bus driver shortage in his home school district.