Minnesota

Southwest Minnesota legislators hear concerns about paid leave program, park transfer

Published

8 months ago

December 19, 2023

Southwest Minnesota legislators hear concerns about paid leave program, park transfer

GRANITE FALLS

— Like the ghosts of Christmas past, the bills of the prior legislative session dogged two southwestern Minnesota legislators as they heard from constituents in preparation for the upcoming 2024 session.

State Sen. Gary Dahms, R-Redwood Falls, and Rep. Chris Swedzinski, R-Ghent, hosted a town hall meeting Thursday in Granite Falls where they heard constituent concerns about the impact of Minnesota Paid Leave legislation on rural businesses and about the process of finding replacement recreational value for the loss of the Upper Sioux Agency State Park.

Scott Van Binsbergen, of Van Binsbergen & Associates property management in Montevideo, said, “It’s a huge concern,” referring to the new Paid Leave program.

Paid Leave launches Jan. 1, 2026, to provide both family leave and medical leave, funded by shared premiums between employer and employee. According to the

Paid Leave summary

on the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development website, the program provides paid time off when a serious health condition prevents a person from working, when time is needed to care for a family member or a new child, for certain military-related events or for certain personal safety issues.

Van Binsbergen expressed concerns about finding temporary replacement workers and said that many employees will be taking lengthy leaves as a result of the legislation. It’s already a problem retaining people, he told the legislators.

Kevin Wald, of SpecSys, also joined in voicing his concerns. He said his engineering and manufacturing company will manage the added costs he attributes to last year’s session, and added that he would not be moving any of his company’s 300 Minnesota jobs out-of-state.

“We can get through what they did this year,” said Wald, but warned about the impact of a continued move to increase costs on businesses.

He argued that the Republican Party needs to put pragmatic politics over principles and regain the outer suburbs so that it can win a majority status in either the House or Senate.

“Fact of the matter is, these are ruby red districts out here. We could run a German shepherd out here and get him elected. He can bark just as loud as you. It does us no good,” said a frustrated Wald about the minority party status of the local legislators.

Both legislators said there are a lot of problems with the Paid Leave legislation, and they believe a corrections bill may address some of them at the start of the session. But Swedzinski noted that with DFL control of both chambers of the Legislature and the governor’s office, the ability of Republican lawmakers to address the concerns is limited.

The lawmakers cited their own concerns about the increases in state government operations and the spending of the $17.5 billion surplus that existed when the last session began. Voicing his own frustration about state spending, Swedzinski quoted the late British prime minister Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is sooner or later you run out of other people’s money.”

Other attendees at the town hall meeting cited concerns about the process and the funding allocated for finding

replacement recreational value for the Upper Sioux Agency State Park.

Both legislators voted against the legislation authored by Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-Brighton, and Rep. Zack Stephenson, DFL-Coon Rapids, requiring the transfer of the 1,300-acre park to the Upper Sioux Community.

The Department of Natural Resources must submit a report to legislators on the barriers to the transfer in January 2024.

Dahms said the local legislators were not informed about the legislation. “It was done in a very unfortunate way,” he said.

He said there is a $5.5 million funding appropriation for replacing the recreational value being lost. The DNR has indicated that $4.5 million of the amount would be available for purchasing property or improving amenities on other public lands.

The Friends for the Upper Sioux Agency State Park provided the legislators with a letter describing a request for $30 million or more to replace the loss of a staffed and operating 1,300-acre park.

The legislators voiced doubts about their ability to submit new legislation to address the replacement value process or funding. If local citizens could identify land to purchase, they would seek funding for it, they said. They urged the local community to contact Gov. Tim Walz and DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen to address their concerns.

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Minnesota

Ilhan Omar faces a strong challenge while GOP choose Senate candidate in Minnesota primaries

Published

5 hours ago

August 12, 2024

Press Room

Ilhan Omar faces a strong challenge while GOP choose Senate candidate in Minnesota primaries

(The Center Square) – With Minnesota primaries Tuesday, there are a few key races to watch for.

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar faces a rematch against former Minneapolis City Council Member Don Samuels, who lost by 2.1% in the 2022 primary.

Republicans, meanwhile, are focused on picking a candidate too challenge incumbent US Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

Omar was first elected in 2018, as the first Somali-American in Congress. Alongside Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, she is also the first Muslim-American woman in Congress.

While she defeated Samuels in 2022, their rematch is expected to be one of the closest watched races nationwide during this year’s primaries after two progressive “squad” members already lost their primaries — Cori Bush of St. Louis and Jamaal Bowman of New York.

In Minnesota primaries, voters can choose between a Democratic or Republican ballot.

Within the past week, Minnesota conservatives have encouraged voters on social media to pick the Democratic ballot to flip the primary.

Even Republican primary candidate, former NBA player Royce White, encouraged the plan.

“I will gladly give up 5,000 votes in the CD5 primary to accomplish this goal. Everywhere else in the state vote for Royce White for US Senate,” White wrote on X. “If you pull Democrat you can only vote Democrat for primary, that’s fine, we’ll see you in the general.”

White is the leading Republican candidate looking to defeat Democratic Klobuchar.

She is expected to win the Democratic nomination, while White received the state Republican party’s endorsement earlier in the year.

Some of White’s other notable endorsements include former Trump White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, who is serving four months in prison on contempt charges.

Klobuchar has served in the US Senate since 2007. In 2018, she won reelection with 60.3% of the vote.

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Minnesota

Tim Walz Signed Bill Requiring Tampons in Boys’ Bathrooms?

Published

12 hours ago

August 12, 2024

Press Room

Tim Walz Signed Bill Requiring Tampons in Boys’ Bathrooms?

Claim:

Democratic vice presidential nominee and Minnesota governor Tim Walz signed a bill requiring schools to stock tampons in boys’ bathrooms.

Rating:

Context

Though the legislation did not specifically mention boys’ bathrooms, Tim Walz indeed signed a bill in 2023 that required Minnesota schools to stock free menstrual products in restrooms regularly used by students in grades four through 12. The language of the statute was gender neutral and therefore compelled schools to apply it to boys’ bathrooms used by transmasculine (trans boys and male-presenting) students, should the schools not provide gender-neutral bathrooms.

After Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris nominated Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate in the 2024 election, rumors began circulating online that Walz had signed a law requiring Minnesotan schools to stock tampons in boys’ bathrooms (archived):

The claim appeared several times on X, Reddit, and Facebook. The posts had accumulated tens of thousands of views as of this writing and earned Walz the sarcastic moniker “Tampon Tim” (archived):

Menstrual Products for ‘Menstruating Students’

In 2023, Walz signed a school funding bill into law containing a provision that guaranteed access to free menstrual protection to Minnesota students from the fourth through the 12th grade. This legislation required all school districts and charter schools to stock menstrual products, and the language of the law was gender neutral. It read (emphasis ours):

A school district or charter school must provide students with access to menstrual products at no charge. The products must be available to all menstruating students in restrooms regularly used by students in grades 4 to 12 according to a plan developed by the school district. For purposes of this section, “menstrual products” means pads, tampons, or other similar products used in connection with the menstrual cycle.

While the law did not specifically mention boys’ bathrooms, it also did not restrict the rule to female or girls’ bathrooms. Paired with the laws protecting children’s access to gender-affirming care, schools that do not provide gender-neutral restrooms would have to stock boys’ bathrooms with such products to allow transmasculine students — that is, students who are either trans boys or students born female whose gender expression is masculine — to access them. Therefore, the claim is true.

‘Tampon Tim’ Goes Viral

Megyn Kelly, the conservative television show and podcast host whom former U.S. President Donald Trump once attacked for having “blood coming out of her wherever,” embraced the monicker “Tampon Tim” as criticism of this and other of Walz’s policies (archived):

But in 2024, talk of menstruation was no longer taboo in the public and political sphere. Far from putting people off, the fact that Walz supported such a law was, to many, a demonstration of empathy and good judgment, including from former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (archived):

https://x.com/HillaryClinton/status/1821189725849276644

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