ST. PAUL, MN -- A bill that will fund judiciary and public safety priorities over the next two years has been approved in the Minnesota House of Representatives on a bipartisan vote of 94-37.
“One important provision in the bill is to raise the criminal penalty from a misdemeanor to a gross misdemeanor for those who block a transit system, a highway, or access to an airport,” said Rep. Mary Franson (R-Alexandria). “We want to discourage folks from putting themselves and other in danger; the law is the law.”
Rep. Tony Cornish, chairman of the Minnesota House Public Safety and Security Policy and Finance Committee, said the bill allocates new money to local law enforcement agencies to help them pay for officers’ training costs, to help officers in dealing with suicidal and mentally disturbed people, and creates crisis intervention team training and training in implicit bias. The plan also improves our judicial system, and allows the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to replace an outdated predatory offender registry.
The proposal also targets sex offenders by issuing stronger penalties and longer supervision for convicted sexual predators, dedicates funds for additional sex trafficking prevention grants, provides new revenue to address domestic violence prevention and terrorism recruitment, and increases penalties against those who possess and disseminate child pornography.
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