Jan. 7—WORTHINGTON — With the start of Minnesota’s 2025 legislative session set to begin on Tuesday, District 21 Sen. Bill Weber (R-Luverne), along with District 21A Rep. Joe Schomacker (R-Luverne) and 22B Rep Marj Fogelman (R-Fulda) spent time meeting with constituents in Worthington Saturday morning during a Legislative Coffee.
Hosted by Forward Worthington, the event gave legislators an opportunity to talk about what they anticipate being a difficult session with a looming budget deficit. There was also time set aside for attendees to ask questions.
“It is going to be an interesting time. We’re living history right now,” shared Weber, speaking of a 67-66 Republican majority in the House and a 33-33 tie in the Senate with the recent death of Sen. Kari Dziedzic (DFL-Minneapolis). Gov. Tim Walz has scheduled a Jan. 28 special election for the District 60 seat.
“Right now you cannot elect a senate president with 33 votes,” Weber said, adding that the lieutenant governor cannot vote. “We may be in business a week from Tuesday; we may not be in business.
Weber, in his 13th term, said he anticipates another DFL senator will be elected to the District seat, putting the majority back in the hands of the DFL party. But waiting for the special election to fill the seat is concerning.
“If we aren’t organized until the end of January, our adjournment date remains the same — May 19,” Weber said. “We’ll see what happens.”
Fogelman, who serves on the capital investment and transportation committees, as well as education policy, said that with over a billion dollars in fraud happening in Minnesota in the last two years — and a newly created committee selected by Walz to be fraud watchdogs — it’s “going to be an interesting two years again.”
Schomacker, who has kept a close eye on the budget forecast, said he was somewhat optimistic it would be a rosier picture, but after seeing recent figures, “it may not be as rosy as I’d hoped it would be.”
Nobles County Commissioner Gene Metz asked legislators where they see the cuts coming from.
“We just get more and more things that we have to do that are not paid for,” Metz said, referring to state mandates handed down with no funding attached.
Weber said state legislators passed a budget last session that increased by 40% for the biennium, in addition to spending an $18 billion surplus.
“And yet roads aren’t fixed, mental health continues to be a problem,” Weber said. “Never have I seen such recklessness with the people’s money as I’ve seen the last two years.”
“This isn’t going to be easy or fun to be the parent in the room,” added Fogelman. “We’re just going to have to sit down and take a big pencil and go through this. We’re hurting businesses, we’re hurting schools. We can’t keep doing this; we can’t keep raising taxes … and think that’s going to make things better for everyone.”
Schomacker added some insight to the discussion, comparing the current projections for a looming deficit with the $6 billion budget deficit early in his legislative career.
“The dollar was worth a whole lot more 14 or 15 years ago,” Schomacker said, adding that it was a strong farm economy that helped them work through the deficit last time. This time, however, the ag economy is hurting.
“(With the) rampant fraud, if we can clean that up, it will help push this (deficit) out,” Schomacker said. “We have a surplus this first year; it’s the out years where the deficit comes in.
“From a fiscally responsible perspective, we’re in a good position here,” he added. “It’s not just an open bank account like it’s been the last two years.”
Worthington City Administrator Steve Robinson asked Fogelman how many requests are pending for bonding this session.
“There’s lots. I have no idea what the number is,” she replied.
“I think there’s multiple thousands,” Robinson said.
Weber said needs still exist, and with many communities in that age range of 125 to 150 years, a lot of infrastructure has lived beyond its usefulness.
“Bureaucrats are making it more expensive for us out here,” Weber said. “Many people go to the extreme with design or what have you, and sometimes it isn’t necessary. Water, wastewater, public utilities (policy writers) — many of them should come out here and spend a year or two in the field before they go back and start drafting policy.”
Regarding Local Option Sales Tax and the ability for cities and counties to implement them, Metz asked the legislators where they stood.
“I’m not a fan of Local Option Sales Tax,” Schomacker said, saying if cities and counties need funding for public infrastructure, the state should be providing the money.
“But, if the state as a whole isn’t going to be working on local projects and the locals have to put the money up anyway, I’d rather see a different option,” he added.
He and Fogelman said local option sales taxes are just driving residents out of their communities to shop.
“You have to look at needs more than wants,” added Fogelman.
One attendee asked the legislators why Minnesotans didn’t get to vote on such issues as abortion, the redesign of Minnesota’s state flag, and cannabis legalization.
Having the public vote on each of those three issues would have required a constitutional amendment, shared Schomacker.
“I think legalizing marijuana would have failed if it was brought to the voters, but the opposite would have happened for abortion,” Weber speculated. “I’m convinced the reason we lost the majority in the Senate was the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade.”
Weber did say he thinks a majority of people in Minnesota think the state’s abortion legislation goes too far.
“There was a time where all of our churches were against abortion,” he said. “Now you have to search for a church that’s against abortion.”
Rural Rushmore farmer Rod Bosma asked legislators what is positive or negative for agriculture in the upcoming session.
“It’s going to be like small business and everything else — it’s going to be a rocky road,” Fogelman said. “We need to change things with our taxes. I think small businesses are important for our economy, as is farming.”
“Some of the policies passed that hurt agriculture the last two years, they’re not going away,” responded Schomacker. “We’ll have to bring forth some reasonableness — to get some of the policies put in place reimagined. There should be reason to be optimistic on what can be done, but it’s going to take a lot of work on our part to get that to happen.”
Other topics raised during the hour-long gathering included paid leave and a request for legislators to work more as moderates to get things done.