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Pa




Dear Neighbor,

We’re coming up on the last two weeks of this legislative session and it’s hard telling where a number of key issues will land. I’m still hopeful we can get this session’s big ag bill through the House. For that to happen, Democrats will need to drop their proposal to ban a particular herbicide.

In other news, a House Democrat bill that reduces state funding to cities and counties that choose to fly the old state flag instead of the new version caused a stir around Minnesota this week.

This issue is cropping up because the new flag was never given final approval by the legislature, or by a vote of the citizens of Minnesota. Instead of passing via votes in the legislature or as a public referendum, the enabling law specified that the commission’s final choice would automatically become the official state flag on May 11, 2024.

Since then, the new design has faced resistance from a growing number of Minnesotans. Cities such as Champlin, Zumbrota, Elk River and Inver Grove Heights all have opted to continue flying the former flag on public property.

Current state law does not require local governments to display the new flag, but this bill (H.F. 5077 [ [link removed] ]) would reduce local government aid by 10 percent for entities choosing to display any other flag than the one that became official in 2024. That’s a costly penalty because LGA is a key source of state funding local governments rely on to support essential services such as police and fire departments.

It’s too bad we’ve gotten to the point where bills are being drafted that force Minnesotans to fly a flag they may not want to fly or suffer funding cuts as a consequence. It seems heavy handed.

The good news is Republicans solidly oppose this bill in our tied House. This proposal also faces procedural hurdles because it was introduced after this year’s bill deadlines had passed.

On a final note, you may have seen the governor issued his final State of the State Address earlier this week. One thing that struck me is it felt like a speech that should have been issued a couple of months ago because he spoke about things he wants to accomplish this session but we only have two weeks remaining before our adjournment.

Until next time, have a good weekend and please stay in touch as we make our way through the home stretch in St. Paul and continue working to get some of this session’s most important bills to the finish line.

Sincerely,

Paul






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State Rep. Paul Anderson
2nd Floor, Centennial Office Building
658 Cedar St., St. Paul, MN 55155
[email protected]
(651) 296-4317







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