All this week WCCO Radio is taking a look back at some of the top local news stories of 2023. Today, WCCO's Susie Jones has more on the legislative session that some, especially in the DFL, are calling "transformational".
The 2023 Minnesota legislative session was....
"The most productive legislative session in 50 years."
Or it was....
"This was a session with of a lot, a lot, of angst."
Democrats in control in both the House and Senate and that made for a very differing perspective.
Despite that, Republican State Senator and Minority Leader Mark Johnson (East Grand Forks) says his caucus was able to stand firm on a couple of issues, namely bonding and getting funding for long term care.
"The Senate is a very collegial place to be and it just seemed to be with the agendas, the single party control, the trifecta, they really cut out a lot of the voices," says Johnson. "About half of the voices here in the Senate. That made it very difficult for us to feel heard in that respect."
Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman (DFL- Brooklyn Park), and her colleague Senate Majority Leader Kari Dziedzic (DFL- Minneapolis) worked together to pass a number of bills early on in the session.
"We moved very quickly to protect reproductive freedom in Minnesota state law," says Speaker Hortman.
"I do think we passed a lot of really substantial bills that will help Minnesotans going forward and will have those generational impacts," says Majority Leader Dziedzic.
Restoring a felon's right to vote, legalizing recreational marijuana and providing free meals to every child at school were among the top accomplishments.
As far as going forward into 2024?
"We did the first half, but it's kind of not like a football game where this interim was halftime," says Hortman. "It's more like, say we had an interim after the third quarter."