Daily Digest: No targets in sight
Happy Tuesday. Get it started right with your Daily Digest.
1. Budget negotiations stall. Gov. Tim Walz and top legislative leaders worked into the night Monday but couldn't reach an agreement on top-line numbers for major spending areas of a new two-year state budget. That means they missed their own deadline for keeping the session on track. Republican Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka said the talks have been complicated by fundamental differences in how each side built its budget. "There are two different directions," he said. "I wish we were on the same page, but we're not." Gazelka said the primary difference is that the Senate budget relies on existing resources and holds down spending, while the DFL governor and House majority raise taxes to cover increased spending. There's also that big disagreement over transportation funding. Gazelka said the governor's 20-cent-per-gallon gas tax increase is a red line. "The gas tax is not going to happen. We made it very clear that that's not where we need to be," he said. Walz expressed frustration with the stance of Senate Republicans. He said his transportation plan would bring generational change and theirs would not. (MPR News)
2. Amazon bid revealed. Minnesota economic development officials on Monday released 122 pages of documents laying out the economic pitch made to lure an Amazon headquarters to the Twin Cities. The effort ultimately failed. Monday marked the first time the entire proposal to Amazon was made public. In 2017, the online retail giant invited cities around the country to bid on landing its second headquarters, a proposed $5 billion project outside of its hometown of Seattle. It triggered an incentives war between mayors and governors. The St. Paul-based regional economic development group Greater MSP and state economic development staff submitted a proposal to Amazon. Although it fell short, Greater MSP initially opposed public disclosure of the offer and fought a lawsuit brought by media and others who wanted to see any incentives Minnesota might offer. (MPR News)
3. Census citizenship question could impact Minnesota representation. While it might not be the most exciting event of the decade, the 2020 U.S. Census is set to determine the future of Minnesota. First and foremost, it will determine whether or not the state will lose a seat in the U.S. House. While every state is guaranteed at least one representative in In the House, the total number of U.S. House seats is capped at 435. This means that in order to ensure seats are distributed by population — a process called apportionment — they have to be redistributed among the states every ten years each time the Census is taken. Officials in Minnesota has long feared Minnesota is due to lose a House seat after 2020 as states like Texas and Florida grow at a faster rate. Now there’s a new complication added in to the 2020 Census. As part of the president’s wide-reaching net of immigration policies, the Trump administration decided to reinstate a question asking whether Census respondents are U.S. citizens, something that has not been on the Census since 1950. The Census Bureau’s own research show that the citizenship question may significantly reduce response rates in non-citizen populations. (MinnPost)
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4. Honsey brings unique perspective to sentencing guidelines commission. Before she was a teen, Tonja Honsey knew what it was like to be under court supervision. Decades — and several jail stints — later, she almost lost her youngest child while four months pregnant and behind bars on a probation violation. "I say that I'm an incarceration survivor," Honsey said. The 42-year-old St. Paul woman has since found sobriety and built a deep résumé as a criminal justice reformer, a different type of record that led Gov. Tim Walz to put her on the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission. When Honsey arrives for her first meeting later this week she will join a new panel of jurists, law enforcement and legal officials tasked with recommending changes to the Legislature and the courts on how Minnesotans should be punished and rehabilitated for their crimes. Believed to be the first woman to serve on the commission after having served time behind bars, Honsey brings a wealth of experience helping mothers and pregnant inmates in the years since her return to society. She also brings direct knowledge, having bounced back from the receiving end of Minnesota's criminal justice system. (Star Tribune)
5. Minneapolis neighborhood plan hits snag. A Minneapolis City Council committee voted Monday to revise a controversial proposal to change how the city's 70 neighborhood organizations operate. Neighborhood leaders worried about increase governmental control and potential funding cuts had criticized the plan, which has been years in the making and was released earlier this year. The vote followed a lengthy public hearing dominated by residents who criticized the plan as a threat to the groups' survival and a missed opportunity to support their work. The city now plans to bring in the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs at the University of Minnesota to revise Neighborhoods 2020, an initiative to restructure the organizations once their current source of municipal funding dries up next year. The full City Council is expected to vote on the collaboration next week. "We have a good framework but there's still more work to do," said Council Member Phillipe Cunningham, the chair of the engagement committee that held Monday's hearing. "We're ... building on it in a different way and making sure we're addressing some gaps." (Star Tribune)