Capitol Wrap: Recreational marijuana approved, omnibus bills advance, Gov. Walz signs 3 bills and more

Josh Skluzacek KSTP

It was another busy week at the Minnesota Capitol.

For a quick roundup of the latest developments at the legislature, here is this week’s Capitol Wrap.

  • Let’s start with those that crossed the finish line, as three high-profile bills were signed into law this week.

Gov. Tim Walz signed legislation meant to protect reproductive rights and gender-affirming care and another bill to ban the practice of conversion therapy in the state.

Their signings came a week after they were approved by the Minnesota Senate.

All three bills had strong support from DFL lawmakers and advocates but generated fierce opposition from Republican opponents.

  • Perhaps the piece of legislation with the highest profile of the session made huge progress this week.

The bill to legalize recreational marijuana and expunge many prior cannabis-related convictions was approved by the Minnesota House on Tuesday, the day after it first was brought up on the chamber’s floor.

The Minnesota Senate then approved it Friday on a party-line vote, 34-33.

DFL lawmakers and advocates say Minnesotans deserve the ability to make decisions on cannabis themselves, adding that the state’s current laws disproportionately impact people of color.

Republicans offered several amendments — including one to raise the minimum age limit to 25 — to the House bill that were shot down. Before the bill hit the floor Friday, Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson noted the growing support for legalizing recreational marijuana but said his caucus believes the current bill “is such a convoluted bill” and needs more work before it gets approved.

Now that it’s been approved by the Senate, a small group of lawmakers will need to work out the differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill. It will then head to Gov. Walz, who has pledged to sign it into law.

  • Omnibus season continues.

We noted in last week’s Capitol Wrap that omnibus season kicked into high gear, and it certainly didn’t downshift this week. Here’s a short breakdown:

  • The House passed the tax omnibus.
    • The DFL has touted it as including the largest tax cut in state history, although it does also include some new taxes. The cuts include full Social Security state income exemption for those earning under $100,000 (joint) or $78,000 (single) annually — not for all Minnesotans as Republicans pushed for and some DFLers had previously pledged to support — direct rebates, although much smaller than the governor had proposed, and a child and working family tax credit of up to $1,175 per child. The new taxes include a new highest tax rate of 10.85% for anyone making $1 million (joint) or $600,000 (single) per year, and a worldwide reporting requirement aimed at catching corporate profits hidden overseas. Differences between the House, Senate and governor’s versions still need to be sorted out.
  • The Senate passed the commerce appropriations omnibus.
    • It includes the creation of a Prescription Drug Affordability Board, caps co-pays for prescription drugs used for chronic diseases at $25, and aims to stop generic drug manufacturers from price gouging.
  • The House passed the amended health finance omnibus.
    • The bill makes undocumented Minnesotans eligible for MinnesotaCare and offers a buy-in to the program for everyone, includes funding for EMS training and grants, and repeals anti-abortion language.
  • The Senate passed the elections policy omnibus.
    • This includes the “Democracy for the People Act” championed by DFL lawmakers, which allows pre-registration for 16- and 17-year-olds, permits permanent absentee voting, requires multilingual information and resources for those who need it and further penalizes voter intimidation. Republicans contend that it weakens transparency instead of increasing it and say it could lead to more fraud due to the pre-registration and permanent absentee provisions.
  • The House passed the judiciary and public safety appropriations omnibus.
  • The House passed the human services appropriations omnibus.
    • This includes funding to recruit and retain front-line workers, allocates more money for battling the opioid crisis and gives hundreds of millions of dollars to nursing homes. Republicans, however, say the bill doesn’t help nursing homes enough, especially when the state has a projected $17.5 billion surplus.
  • The Senate passed the education finance omnibus.
    • It includes a 4% increase next year in the general funding formula and 5% for 2025 while earmarking millions for English learner cross-subsidies, certified deaf interpreters, the Math Corps program, and to cover special education cross-subsidies. It also requires schools to provide access to free menstrual products for grades 4-12.
  • The Senate passed the education policy omnibus.
    • This requires civics and personal finance courses for high school students to graduate, printed mental health and suicide prevention resources on student ID cards, and calls for ethnic studies in schools. Republicans successfully added amendments to get rid of changes to Tier 3 licensure and to allow exemptions for the prohibition on American Indian mascots. The education finance and policy omnibus bills collectively total more than $2.5 billion in funding for schools and staff.
  • The House passed the jobs, economic development, labor, and industry appropriations omnibus.
    • This features close to $1 billion for economic development programs, aims to improve safety and workforce standards at places like oil refineries and meatpacking facilities, and creates programs like the Emerging Developer Fund and the Office of New Americans while earmarking money for the Empowering Enterprise Program and the Child Care Economic Development Grant Program.

Conference groups will have to work out the differences between the House and Senate versions of the omnibus bills before they can go to Gov. Walz for his signature.

Lawmakers also continue to work on many other pieces of legislation with less than a month left in the current session.

Follow the progress of several hot-button bills throughout the session on KSTP’s Legislative Tracker.

Click here to read last week’s Capitol Wrap.