Dear Neighbor,
It’s bad enough our one-party control at the Capitol spent the $17.5 billion surplus, failed on promises to deliver $2,000 rebates, threw $730 million toward an office building renovation and increased taxes by $10 billion despite a historic surplus.
While many of us object to that kind of taxpayer waste, we also pretty much have come to expect that type of budget recklessness from the Democrats. A different issue has now arisen, however, that crosses a completely different line with Democrats attacking our religious freedoms.
In fact, House Democrats now have made it crystal clear the state’s views trump your religious beliefs. They did so by voting down an amendment House Republicans offered in a committee hearing to fix a problem Democrats caused in the Minnesota Human Rights Act they enacted last year.
Here is more on that and some other recent subjects of interest from St. Paul:
Religious freedom under attack
Before last year, when gender identity was included within the MHRA definition of sexual orientation, the still-existing religious exemption for sexual orientation covered gender identity claims as well. When a new, separate definition of gender identity was created last year, there was no corresponding religious exemption added.
The Republican amendment simply restores the religious exemption in the MHRA, protecting religious organizations and faith-based schools against claims of gender identity discrimination. The exemption ensures that religious organizations and faith-based schools can, among other things, hire teachers and ministers consistent with their mission and values.
Unfortunately, the Democrat majority refused to fix the problem it created and voted down the amendment. This is a major red flag regarding the direction our state is heading under full control of Democrats. They have erased the separation of church and state after assuring us for years their anti-discrimination push would spare religious entities.
Senate Democrats can right this wrong by accepting an amendment to restore the MHRA’s religious exemption. It is unclear when that issue will be put to a vote since the Senate canceled a hearing on this bill scheduled for last week.
Local visitors
I always enjoy seeing local faces at the Capitol and hearing about the issues they care about most. Recent groups to visit my office include:
Woodstock & Farmers Mutual Telephone Co.
MinnCAP Day on the Hill, with Prairie Five Community Action and United Community Action.
School safety bill approved
The House recently provided overwhelming approval of a bill to fix a problem Democrats caused after a change in law they enacted last year resulted in school resource officers to be removed from schools throughout the state.
The issue goes back to an omnibus education bill (H.F. 2497) Democrats enacted into law in 2023, imposing new prohibitions on the use of force in schools, banning certain physical holds by “an employee or agent of a district, including a school resource officer, security personnel, or police officer contracted with a district."
The bill we approved excludes SROs as employees or agents of a school district, excludes SROs from the prohibitions on prone restraints and physical holds; revises the “reasonable force standard” and mandates school districts and charter schools use only trained SROs, and establishes new training and model policy requirements for law enforcement.
The House approved the bill (H.F. 3489) 124-8 and it now awaits action in the Senate.
50 cents more for gas?
The Senate Transportation Committee recently conducted the first legislative committee hearing on S.F. 2584, the controversial proposal by House and Senate Democrats to implement a so-called Clean Transportation Standard.
This bill would authorize rulemaking to impose expensive and burdensome mandates that would raise fuel prices for Minnesotans by 40-50 cents per gallon or more in the coming years and decimate our state’s ethanol and biodiesel industries.
With this bill, Democrats are pushing to make gas prices more expensive for every family in Minnesota and deliver a devastating blow to our agriculture economy. A diverse coalition of labor unions, agriculture groups, businesses, and countless others have lined up to oppose this bill because it will harm job growth, hurt our farmers and agriculture economy, and raise fuel prices on families at a time when inflation is still far too high.
States that have imposed CTS mandate have among the highest gas prices in the country — Democrats should listen to the concerns that have been raised and abandon this expensive and burdensome proposal.
Sincerely,
Chris