Dear Neighbors, This has been another busy week at the State Capitol, having now passed all of our budget proposals off the House Floor. You can read into the specifics of our budget proposals in the House Public Information articles written on each: Higher Education, Legacy, Environment and Clean Energy, Housing, Veterans, Elections, State and Local Government, K-12 Education, Agriculture, Transportation, Early Learning, Children & Families, Jobs & Labor, Human Services, Pensions, Commerce, Judiciary & Public Safety, Tax, and Health. Each of these proposals makes Minnesota a better, stronger, and more equitable state. The Minnesota Senate is passing their proposals as well, and though we share a common goal, our proposals differ in some areas. We’ll resolve these differences in our remaining weeks (less than 4 left!) in conference committees, where House and Senate members come together to work on final versions of these budget proposals, which we’ll then pass into law together. Legalizing Adult-Use CannabisMinnesota’s current cannabis laws are doing more harm than good, especially for our communities of color. By creating a regulatory framework, we can address the harms caused by cannabis, establish a more sensible set of laws, improve our healthcare & criminal justice systems, and ensure better outcomes for our communities. Minnesotans deserve the freedom and respect to make responsible decisions about cannabis use themselves. All these reasons and more are why I voted to pass our bill to legalize adult-use cannabis in Minnesota. We’ve passed a similar bill in the past, but now, with a DFL majority in the Senate, we have the opportunity to finally pass this bill into law. The Senate is actually voting on the bill today, and you can watch their live floor debate here. This is another area where the House and Senate proposals differ, but if the Senate is able to pass their version today, I’m optimistic we can finally get this bill to Governor Walz. Our bill does the following: |