Good morning, and happy Tuesday.
State budget officials will give the governor and lawmakers a sense today of just how much money they have to work with over the next two years. MPR's Dana Ferguson reports lawmakers in the divided Capitol left more than $7 billion in surplus funds on the table when they closed out the 2022 legislative session with much of their work undone. Since then, the state has reported bringing in more revenue than economists expected month after month, setting up an expected $12 billion surplus over the next two years. "We're starting from an incredibly strong place," said Minnesota Management and Budget Commissioner Jim Schowalter, without tipping his hand on the exact figure before the Tuesday release. While national and international economic forecasts project a potential recession on the horizon, Schowalter said the state was well situated to manage a downturn. Minnesota's rainy day funds are brimming, and expected to get topped off again using any new surplus, as required by law.
The release of the latest forecast raises another issue–should inflation be included?The Star Tribune has a look at that: "Inflation is a word everybody learned again. It will go back down to the traditional long-term number, but I've always made the case that we need to think about budgeting in critical areas with inflation," Walz said in a recent interview. "Especially around education, I think we need to think about pegging it to inflation." Minnesota leaders get an updated economic outlook twice a year. But two decades ago lawmakers decided to prohibit budgeting officials from including inflation estimates in the forecast, in part because the state was facing significant deficits. By removing inflation, lawmakers were hoping to "artificially reduce the size of projected deficits" that they'd have to balance, said Clark Goldenrod, deputy director of the Minnesota Budget Project.
Some hospitals have reached agreements with nurses days before a potential strike. St. Luke's hospital in Duluth and Children's Minnesota hospitals are reporting tentative contract agreements with their union nurses. The Minnesota Nurses Association said last week that 15,000 of its members are set to begin a strike next Sunday at 16 hospitals in the Twin Cities and Duluth area, if contract deals aren't reached. Both St. Luke's and Childrens issued statements overnight saying they'd reached a deal with nurses and that the union had withdrawn its strike notice. There was no immediate comment from the union. The other affected hospital systems are still negotiating.
The state is suing several companies for selling edible candies modeled after gummy bears that allegedly contained as much as 50 times the amount of THC allowed under state law. MPR's Tom Scheck reported the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy filed the lawsuit Monday in Clay County, in northwestern Minnesota, alleging that Northland Vapor and Wonky Confections are selling Death by Gummy Bears edibles that contain as much as 100 milligrams of THC per serving. Northland Vapor has retail operations in Bemidji and Moorhead. Cannabis experts say that much THC per serving is an "intensely intoxicating dose" which users should "consume with caution and intention."
The long delayed requirement for Minnesotans to have to show a Real ID to board a domestic flight has been delayed yet again.MPR News reports the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has delayed enforcement of its Real ID standard until May 2025; standard driver's licenses or ID cards will no longer grant access thereafter. The switch was originally due to take hold next May.
And the final remaining question of the 2022 election should be answered today as Georgia voters choose a senator. Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican football star Herschel Walker have reached the end of a four-week runoff. The Associated Press reports: The runoff brings to a close a bitter fight between Warnock, the state's first Black senator and the senior minister of the Atlanta church where Martin Luther King Jr. preached, and Walker, a former University of Georgia football star and political novice who has waged his bid in the mold of former President Donald Trump. A victory for Warnock would solidify Georgia's status as a battleground heading into the 2024 presidential election. A win for Walker, however, could be an indication that the Democratic gains in the state might be somewhat limited, especially given that Georgia Republicans swept every other statewide contest last month.
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