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A democratically unhealthy trifecta of single-party rule was ended this fall by Minnesota voters, forcing the Legislature to have to cooperate and get along — and even compromise — in order to be effective.
So you’d think.
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Just days before the 2025 legislative session, however, lawmakers are already snubbing Minnesotans’ mandate to work for them, the people first, not politics or party first.
This week, DFL leaders in the Minnesota House, including from Duluth, childishly threatened to not show up at all for the Jan. 14 start of session in St. Paul. Their beef is over a power-sharing agreement that seems necessary with an expected 67 DFLers and 67 Republicans in the House following a special election on Jan. 28. Just as childishly, House Republicans have backed away from that power-sharing agreement following a court ruling over a candidate’s residency that makes the special election necessary.
The DFL calls what the Republicans are doing “illegitimate” and an “outrageous power grab.”
The Minnesota GOP insists that since the court ruling left a 67-66 Republican advantage in the House, one that will remain at least until the special election, it suddenly has “an organizational majority” (even if a short-lived one) that “we fully intend to exercise.”
Minnesotans caught in the middle of all this posturing and political playmaking can be excused for their eye rolls and their “here we go again” proclamations of exasperation. We didn’t go to the polls in record numbers in November to elect representatives to send to St. Paul so they could continue the stubbornness that’s only dividing and infuriating us. We need to be able to expect our elected leaders to focus on important and pressing matters. Those certainly exist.
Look no further than the crippling, $5.1 billion state budget deficit that’s expected by 2029, according to the latest state budget forecast, released last month. It’s no wonder, going into a new biennium, Sen. Jason Rarick, R-Pine City, for one, will “be focused on repairing the damage to our state’s budget, getting our finances in order, and doing right by Minnesota taxpayers.” In a commentary distributed to Minnesota media this week, including to the News Tribune Opinion page, Rarick also said, “Minnesotans have been loud and clear: they want us to rein in spending and they want relief.”
Minnesotans can also insist legislators put aside partisanship and focus on priorities. Like finding state dollars to complete Aerial Lift Bridge and Duluth Water Treatment Plant improvements, which are at the top of the city’s “Legislative Priorities” list. Or improving state mental health services while also providing state money for an integrated solid waste management campus in Canyon, among St. Louis County’s top priorities. Or even fully funding education, which a headline screams for on the Duluth Public Schools’ “Legislative Platform 2025” document.
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Instead, lawmakers, frustratingly and once again, are continuing the political gamesmanship voters clearly no longer want. And the 2025 session hasn’t even begun yet. Minnesotans should be able to expect more. We should be able to expect better.
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