Dear Neighbor,
House Republicans have spent another week moving good bills through the committee process and to the floor for votes of the full body. Through it all, a trend is developing that I’d like to clarify for anyone wondering why I sometimes switch my vote to oppose legislation I clearly support.
If Republicans bring a bill to the floor and all 67 of us vote for it while all 66 Democrats vote in opposition, the bill remains one vote short of the requisite 68 votes to pass the House and would be defeated. Except there’s a legitimate parliamentary procedure House Republicans can use to spare a bill from immediate defeat. It goes like this:
As Majority Leader, it is my job to join Democrats in voting against the Republican bill. That allows me to make a motion to reconsider the legislation and then immediately move to table it. That keeps a bill viable, available to be taken up another day instead of simply being voted down and dying.
It’s wonky, I know, but I hope this helps clarify some things if people wonder why I’m voting against Republican bills I wholeheartedly support: It’s to keep them alive.
In other news:
Checking emergency powers
We learned during the pandemic that our statute related to a governor’s emergency powers is broken and House Republicans have a bill to provide more checks and balances. Our system of government requires that the power resides with the legislature, because that's the body that's most representative of the people. We can't have a situation where a governor and one party take over the entire legislative branch for months on end, which is what happened during the pandemic.
I am the No. 2 author of a bill (H.F. 21) to fix this problem by requiring supermajority approval by each legislative body for peacetime emergency powers to extend beyond 14 days. This shifts the balance power by requiring legislative approval for a governor to extend emergency powers, instead of requiring legislative approval to end the emergency powers as is the case today. The bill also says emergency powers can only be extended two weeks at a time instead of a full month as current law allows.
It is unfortunate House Democrats blocked this bill from passing on yesterday, but I spared it from defeat and it remains at the front desk for future consideration. Click here for video of me speaking in favor of this bill on the House floor for more.
Light rail moratorium
House Republicans also brought to the floor this week a bill (H.F. 14) that puts a moratorium on funding for light rail projects. We need to pump the brakes on these projects in light of serious cost overruns and delays our state is experiencing with current rail projects.
For example, Minnesotans already have paid more than twice the original cost of the Southwest Light Rail, which has skyrocketed from $1.25 billion to $2.9 billion and is nearly a decade behind schedule. Then there is the Blue Line Extension, which has gone from a $999 million project with a 2022 finish date, to a $3.2 billion project that won’t be operational until at least 2030.
Once again, House Democrats blocked the bill from passing, but it remains tabled for potential reconsideration later.
Meanwhile, the Northstar Commuter Rail, which runs through our district, also made news this week. The Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Metropolitan Council announced that it may be discontinued and replaced with bus service. The Star Tribune reported the main reason is ridership on the line “declined by nearly 98% during the pandemic as workers transitioned to remote work, with an average of 60 weekday rides reported in April 2020 with a $116 subsidy per passenger.”
I sympathize with people who have taken the train and like it, but it's not something we can do going forward, and we have to find a way out of it. We are working on that. It's a good move by the by the Met Council and MnDOT to finally accept the financial reality because we can't continue to dump good money after bad. This line was not financially viable before the pandemic but, once that hit, it irreversibly changed things and made the Northstar’s liability to taxpayers even more obvious to everybody.
Tax increase on workers
You may have seen the recent news about how the Paid Family Leave tax rate enacted when Democrats had full control of the Capitol will increase by more than 25% from what was initially set in the 2023 bill. The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development indicates the payroll tax rate for the state program will cost Minnesotans roughly $350 million more than the rate approved in 2023.
This program is set to launch Jan. 1, 2026, but it is not ready. Employees and employers were already facing more than a billion dollars in tax hikes due to this legislation, and the latest announcement says that burden will be even higher.
 Preserving girls sports Monday could be an interesting day on the House floor because the Preserving Girls Sports Act (H.F. 12) on track for a vote of the full House that day. I’m a top author of this bill, which says: “Only students of the female sex may participate in an elementary or secondary school athletic team or sport that an educational institution has restricted on the basis of sex to women or girls.” Look for more from the Capitol soon. Until next time, have a great weekend and let me know how I can help. Sincerely, Harry |