Minnesota News Network

Governor Tim Walz rolls out his two-year state budget plan tomorrow (Tues). The governor has already floated proposals that would have significant impacts in major areas of the budget. For more equity between school districts, he wants the state to pick up a greater share of the cost of E-12 education, meaning less reliance on property taxes. He proposed in the campaign, free tuition at public colleges and universities for the first two years. Senate Republican Majority Leader Paul Gazelka says, “For the governor to meet all of his campaign promises, there would be huge spending increases.”

Walz has pledged increases in state aid to cities and counties, and Republicans expect he’ll ask for 50 to 100 million dollars to finish work on the state’s troubled vehicle licensing and registration system, MN-LARS.

The governor has talked about permanent income tax reductions for middle-class Minnesotans — which Republicans might be receptive to — but has hinted businesses might have to make up the difference — which Republicans would oppose. And G-O-P lawmakers are also strongly against one of the major planks in Walz’s budget platform — a gas tax increase.

Republican Senator Scott Newman from Hutchinson expects Governor Tim Walz in his budget plan tomorrow will ask lawmakers for 50 to 100 million dollars to finish development on the state’s troubled vehicle licensing and registration system, MN-LARS. Newman also expects a request for additional processing fees, plus money to reimburse deputy registrars for losses due to the system’s software problems. “So, in the end, I think we’re really looking at a big chunk of money here,” he says.

The governor has already asked for 16 million dollars in emergency funding to carry MN-LARS through the June 30th fiscal year-end. Newman said late last week it hasn’t been decided whether funding for MN-LARS will be continued, or if lawmakers will scrap it and start over.

Enbridge executives say despite court challenges they expect the controversial Line 3 pipeline upgrade across northern Minnesota to be operational by the end of the year. It’s expected the company would begin work on the pipeline even though the case is still in court, because it would be difficult for opponents to get a court order to halt construction. Winona LaDuke with Honor the Earth, one of the groups that’s suing to stop the line, says, “This is not only an issue of no need in Minnesota — eight percent drop in tar-sands production in Alberta — but also climate catastrophe which is upon us.”

Earlier this week, Governor Walz decided to continue the state Commerce Department’s legal challenge of Line 3.

Officials confirm three people are dead and a deputy sheriff was shot but has been released from the hospital –that after an apparent fatal shooting Thursday night at an in-home daycare near Nevis in north-central Minnesota. Authorities pursued a suspect who left the daycare in a vehicle. That person and another were reportedly found later on a rural road, dead from gunshot wounds. There’s police tape around Lori’s Little Feet Daycare in Nevis, and a relative of the owner told the Star Tribune her family “is in a state of grief.” The state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension has joined the investigation.

Top state lawmakers are trying to decide how to proceed after Thursday’s report detailing multiple causes of problems with the state’s troubled vehicle licensing and registration system, MN-LARS. Republican Scott Newman from Hutchinson, chair of the Senate Transportation Committee says, “At this point, I will honestly tell you I don’t know what the best course of action is, but it’s really a difficult question.”

Newman says he expects Governor Tim Walz will request between 50 and 100 million dollars to finish developing the system. Newman says it hasn’t been decided whether funding for MN-LARS will be continued, or if lawmakers will scrap it and start over.

An Isanti County man charged with second-degree murder in a 1993 Minneapolis cold case has a first court appearance today (Fri) after unknowingly giving authorities a D-N-A sample by throwing away a napkin at a hockey game. Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman says 52-year-old Jerry Westrom at some point sent a D-N-A sample to an on-line geneology company, and investigators got a match with 1993 crime-scene D-N-A they sent to that same company — then tracked Westrom and collected fresh D-N-A which also matched. Freeman says, “I’m sure the defense attorney will try to challenge the surveillance, but the best I can tell from… [everybody] we talked to, it was totally legit, within the confines of the law, and we’re gonna use it.”

Freeman says about the defendant, “After he agreed to talk with investigators he said, never been at the apartment complex, I’ve never been in the apartment, I don’t know who this person is and I didn’t have sex with her. Well then why is his D-N-A all over the place?”

State lawmakers are considering next steps after today’s legislative auditor’s report detailing multiple causes for problems with the state’s troubled vehicle licensing and registration system, MN-LARS. Republican Representative Paul Torkelson from Hanska says about prospects for fully fixing the system in a reasonable amount of time, “My confidence level is not very high. We’ve had a long history of disappointment here. I’m looking for better results, but I’m very cautious and, frankly, a little bit pessimistic.”

Governor Tim Walz and state Senator John Jasinski are in Faribault today, seeing first-hand how specialty license plate transfers are working in MN-LARS. There were serious problems with that function in the past.