A bill headed for a floor vote in the state Senate would redirect state aid bound for Minneapolis to law enforcement agencies around Minnesota, to pay for help they sent during last summer’s riots. Luverne Republican Bill Weber says a lot of people probably don’t like that Minneapolis cut funding for its police department eight million dollars, “And then, when there’s a possible, another large event that may happen, the governor asks for money from across the entire state to help cover it.”
But Democratic Representative Carlos Mariani says, “You had a lot of bad folks traveling in from Greater Minnesota burning and looting and stealing in Minneapolis. I don’t know why we would think that the places where they come from are not responsible for the safety of Minneapolis.”
Governor Tim Walz wants 35 million dollars to have law enforcement ready for the Floyd officer trials, the first of which begins in less than a month.