Daily Digest: Walz promises LGA boost

Good morning, and welcome to another cold morning. Who would have thought George Will would end up on the Amy Klobuchar bandwagon? Here's the Thursday Digest.

1. Walz promises funding boost for rural Minnesota. Just before DFL Gov. Tim Walz arrived at a Capitol-area hotel to speak to a few dozen local officials, the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities priorities were projected on a screen. Atop the list was a $30 million annual boost to the program that sends state tax dollars back to cities to help them defray the cost of services. That amount would return the total pot of aid back to where it was in 2002 when adjusting for inflation. As if on cue, Walz delivered. “Our intention in a budget is to restore local government aid to 2002 levels,” he said during brief remarks. But then the first greater Minnesota governor in almost 30 years made an appeal to his audience. “I am preaching to the choir but what I’m asking is for the choir to sing loudly for the next three months,” he said. Walz said his forthcoming budget plan will contain other things rural residents will appreciate.“A moonshot type of an approach toward broadband in greater Minnesota,” he said. “We don’t have time to wait until 2025.” (MPR News)

2. Debate begins on paid family leave. To Mazel McCoy-Anderson, juggling a severe family health ailment and her nursing job proved too difficult. “I had to quit my job when my parents needed me,” she said. “Their health started to fail.” They lived in North Carolina while she was holding down a household in Minnesota. “I ended up worried, depressed, mentally sick and enduring a whole lot of stressing.” McCoy-Anderson told her story to the House Labor Committee, which began examining a DFL proposal to provide caregivers like her at least partial wage replacement for up to 12 weeks. The same benefit would be extended to parents upon the birth or adoption of a child. To pay for it, employers would face assessments toward a new state fund similar to unemployment insurance. And they would be barred from firing or demoting an employee who applies for leave. All of it has major players in the business community on edge, including among companies that voluntarily offer such leave already. “There’s only a handful of other states that have ever done this, and most of those states already had existing infrastructure in place that they just built upon. Minnesota would have to build this from scratch,” said Jill Larson of the Minnesota Business Partnership, echoing other business lobbyists in saying the proposal would add to business costs and step on companies' own efforts to craft leave plans. There are also concerns about the state’s ability to handle such a program after high-profile failures with other government technology rollouts, including an online health care marketplace as part of the Affordable Care Act. The bill cleared the committee on a party-line vote, but there are many more hurdles ahead. (MPR News)

3. A push to force drug companies to pay more to curb Minnesota’s opioid epidemic got a boost from the family of the late artist Prince on Wednesday, as advocates rallied in support of new proposals to combat the epidemic. “We’re losing legends, we’re losing potential legends and that’s a shame,” drummer and activist Charles “Chazz” Smith said of his cousin, who died of an accidental fentanyl overdose in April 2016. “Prince had everything, everything you can ever want, and it touched him.” Smith’s appearance at the third annual Opioid Awareness Day at the State Capitol came amid a renewed effort to pass broad legislation on the issue. Speakers, including several legislators, urged state leaders to hold companies that make highly addictive prescription drugs accountable for their role in the crisis. Advocate Shelly Elkington held back tears as she recounted her own daughter’s struggle with heroin and eventual overdose death after becoming addicted to painkillers doctors prescribed after a surgery. “Republicans and Democrats are sending one message to the pharmaceutical companies. And they’re saying: It’s time to pay,” Elkington said. (Star Tribune)

4. DHS hit by phishing scheme. The Minnesota Department of Human Services is sending out letters Wednesday to up to 3,000 people whose personal information might have been exposed in a data breach. The agency notified state lawmakers that a phishing scheme in September resulted in an employee clicking on a malicious link. The hacking incident has been reported to the Legislative Auditor and the FBI. DHS commissioner Tony Lourey says there is no evidence yet that the information was viewed, downloaded or misused. The type of data at risk includes names, phone numbers, birth dates and information about child protection cases. "We respect and value the privacy of the Minnesotans we serve and sincerely regret any concern or other negative impact this incident may cause," Lourey wrote in a letter to lawmakers. "Although we are not aware of any misuses of the information contained in the DHS employee's email account," he added, "our notification letter to the individuals who may be impacted by this incident includes suggestions about how they can protect against identity theft and other forms of fraud." The Social Security numbers of about 30 people were also possibly exposed. (MPR News)

5. County commissioner closes nonprofit after lots of complaints. A Ramsey County commissioner is shutting down his decade-old housing nonprofit, leaving a trail of unhappy tenants and unpaid tax and construction bills. Blake Huffman’s Journey Home Minnesota is the subject of at least three complaints to the attorney general’s office, owes more than $9,000 in taxes on numerous properties and faces liens of around $162,000 for unpaid labor and materials. Huffman, who doesn’t take a salary from the nonprofit, said that two costly projects have wrecked the charity’s finances and that he’s tired of being a landlord. He aims to dissolve Journey Home by June, pay off the debts and distribute the remaining assets to a similar charity. A retired Wells Fargo executive who sought the Republican nomination for governor last year, Huffman says a recorded message from U2 singer Bono at a church service  inspired him to create the nonprofit in 2008. He estimates Journey Home has placed military veterans, battered women and sick kids in safe and affordable homes for 23,000 nights. (Pioneer Press)

• Politics Friday: Should we stop trusting pre-election polling?
• MPR News congressional debates: 7th District and 8th District
• Politics Friday: 1st District, 3rd District congressional candidates debate the issues