Capital report is a production of Senate Media Services this week Senate tax chair anr talks about taxes and artificial intelligence Senator Jeremy Miller renews his effort to legalize sports betting and lawmakers grapple with how to get school resource officers back in school stay tuned for this and more on this week's Capital [Music] report welcome to this week's program I'm Shannon lury it was a sweet and bipartisan start to the 2024 legislative session initiated by Governor Tim Walls sharing
homemade apple blondies with lawmakers upon finding a still empty Senate chamber Governor walls found more success in the house thank you Governor you are welcome anybody Apple Blondie do I look like an a some absolutely and in the Senate chamber Senate leaders spoke of working together Senator Murphy congratulations I look forward to working together in a bipartisan manner with you I have a lot of high hopes for our relationship and the work that we can do here in the Senate the work that peop
le of Minnesota ask us to do and a bipartisan manner leader Johnson I look forward to building that strong Earnest open working relationship with you and with the members of your caucus and with the members of this body and hours later staked out their positions as the 2024 session gets underway the capital is a place uh to hear rumors uh and as usual the place is full of rumors and one of them that uh I am hearing a little bit of is that this is a session where we won't have to do a lot of work
because we did so much last session and I want to be really C crystal clear with the people of Minnesota that we are here to do the work of the people of Minnesota um that we raised our hand we asked to run for office and we know that it is our job to show up every day uh to show motans that we hear them we know what they're contending with and we're ready to do that work we passed a powerful agenda last session we did but that doesn't mean we've run out of good ideas that doesn't mean that min
nesotans aren't still contending with the cost of child care uh the lack of Access to Health Care um the rent is sometimes too high food insecurity Etc we recognize that motans are struggling uh and so therefore we know that we have more work to do things are going to get a lot more interesting going forward based on the agenda that the Democrats have uh but then also the work that Senate Republicans are doing on repairing a lot of the damage that was done last session when we saw the trifecta a
nd the extreme Pace that they went for forward uh and we are really working hard as a team to address those needs Point them out and show some of the issues that we have they had 17.5 billion dollar of surplus last year Democrats did they spent that they raised taxes by $10 billion they spent that and we're looking at a budget deficit going forward so they're going to really have to scrape to try to figure out ways to prioritize everything that they want to [Music] [Applause] [Music] prioritize
the Senate tax chair is one of the most powerful positions in the Senate because the chair decides which proposals will come before the committee for consideration regarding significant new spending or tax increases for the 2024 session Senator Anne rest the tax chair has offered a one-word answer no she joins me to talk about that about artificial intelligence and more thank you so much for being here you're absolutely welcome uh your one-word answer made the news uh granted a new budget and ec
onomic forecast is yet on the horizon but the November forecast said that the 2627 banum uh could be in fiscal trouble How concerned are you and is that why you're lowering expectations on any new spending for this session the answer is uh absolutely yes we we have in the past um gotten ourselves into trouble with uh with real deficits um by not in my mind by not paying attention to the signs of uncertainty that um that we receive in in a uh uh in a budget forecast the November one you know was
over $2 billion but we established I think just generally um from the governor on down um that we wanted another significant capital investment Bill and that there were other um the there were other needs uh some adjusting of some Health Care Formulas and also providing um U programs that that relieved um uh some of the burden or the overburden of U middle-income families for child care which we have the child care child tax credit which um is helpful for uh lower income and lower middle income
families but we need to con conate on those those families with two earners that struggle to meet legitimate child care costs so um lower expectations absolutely and um uh new taxes no on the opening day of session the house took up a bill that would fix an inadvertent error in the 2023 tax law that if not changed would increase taxes for a majority of Minnesota s of filers who take a standard U deduction beginning next year your committee is also working on that issue is this an easy fix um it
is the correct fix we made uh we made two mistakes um that had a fiscal impact money impact on uh in the in the tax bill and um we should fix both of them it's been the tradition when when mistakes were made in tax bills and they were discovered that the tax chairs would write um a letter saying as soon as possible we will we will fix those mistakes and the bill that we had today in committee that we passed to the floor um fixes one of them um which is considerable I mean it's over between 300 a
nd $400 million but we did not fix the others mistake which was um a simple one of uh getting the year right that a a tax was going to be um effective so that's that's upsetting that um uh one mistake was corrected or and supported by the administration and the other mistake was characterized as spending rather than tax savings do you have plans to fix this other mistake well uh representative lizard uh is taking the lead in the in the house to um introduce a separate bill so it won't be in the
one that is going to the floor in both bodies soon um to um uh have a separate hearing on that and I'm the chief author in the Senate and I'm going to be we're going to be working together to see that that um that that mistake is is also uh corrected so that it does not result in an extra $15 million of taxes on um on uh our business our Minnesota businesses and it's mostly small businesses that would take that any any business that has a net operating loss um uh which which happens and then the
y get better and then they're able to use that um portions of that net operating loss going forward to smooth out their income um so um they're big businesses there are small businesses that would be Main Street businesses as well as big businesses that would be um affected by it so we'll watch for that uh Senate Republican leader Mark Johnson was asked earlier this week whether the Republican caucus would push for a full income tax subtraction on Social Security benefits for Minnesota beneficia
ries he indicated that they would if the state could afford it the 2023 tax law raised income limits so that an estimated 76% of motans will not pay taxes on Social soci security income because of that law change in 2023 is the matter settled for you or is there room for more I think it um it's again a matter of of the of the timing we uh we produce tax savings for those um people that relied on Social Security and also um pensioners public pensioners that do not get Social Security uh we improv
e that their situation greatly to get to the 70 6% but we don't have those kinds of resources to take it a step further right now sometime in the future maybe but I agree with Senator Johnson we don't have the resources and um we're going to be adamant however about keeping the tax savings that that we produced in the 2023 bill for senors and now for a subject I know you're excited to talk about in the first Senate tax hearing of the 24 session you had a discussion on artificial intelligence we
read about it more and more and how this latest technology is impacting both jobs and the economy potentially uh what made you want to start the session with this discussion well I I started becoming interested in artificial intelligence just like a lot of other people um seeing so many articles in the newspaper or on TV and um the um action from the White House on an executive order on it and then the work that's being done by Minnesota minute and um and the technology advisory Council um that
has a subcommittee on artificial intelligence and how it can be used not just to catch the bad guys um that we all want to have happen but how can we maximize and optimize the opportunities for our employees uh and ourselves to um make sure that uh we can use um artificial intelligence which actually is kind of a misnomer but nevertheless a artificial intelligence uh to become more uh efficient in our work and legislators need that as much as anybody um effective and efficacious meaning that tha
t it we can get it to work after we understand it and get trained in it and um it had produced a document for policy guiding um state employees but now we need to also look at and we used um their testimony and presentation today both them and the people on the teac the technology advisory Council to um I think begin exploring how we can bring that to the legislature um to other um uh uh constitutional officers maybe even looking at doing it in the in the Judiciary so I'm very excited to begin t
hat discussion locally and not just nationally uh and to improve um our the the work product and the job satisfaction of Minnesota uh government employees Senator enest it is always a pleasure thank you resolving the 2023 law change that prompted some law enforcement agencies to remove school resource officers from schools prompted spirited debate in the Senate education policy committee that the bill has to bring all the officers back to schools and the respectful amendments we brought um excep
t the whole undoing of the thing which I appreciate you didn't want that one um but keep listening and because some of those groups don't feel like they're being listened to they feel like they have not been listened to which is why I brought my Amendment because they're very insecure about some of that and in the precarious place a lot of these law enforcement people find themselves being judged by other people who have done things that they should not have done and in their own forces they're
exemplary and impeccable um you want them back protecting us this is not just a concern from law enforcement they've come forward about it County Sheriffs have come forward about it County governments have come forward City governments school districts parents kids there's a whole a lot of folks out there that have required or excuse me requested that we make a change to the law that was pass last year I appreciate the effort that's being made here today but I don't think it quite meets the thre
shold of what they're looking for I've seen this play out before and I am terrified for what's going to happen because how it played out in my district Mr chair is our students cowering in their classroom for 45 minutes as their SRO had to wait to get physically assaulted before they could do anything and if this bill does not get improved on its way to the floor I think that we're going to be right back where we started what I don't appreciate about this conversation that's been happening here
today is that setting standards for how adults treat children in school as somehow making kids unsafe because it's not the willful misinterpretation of law has done that um and I'm really hoping that we can get this clarification because what was uplifted through that confusion is that there weren't any standards I had no idea there were this many different varying definitions of imminent and reasonable and restraint and shall versus must uh and or and to uh until this bill came forward this is
about um all of the people who have worked and touched this work really deeply listening to everybody who came to us with their feedback and their suggestions and from that work crafting a bill that I actually believe is a good piece of [Music] [Applause] work with the Super Bowl in the rearview mirror where reported 68 million adults place bets according to the American gaming Association Minnesota remains an island of non- betting Senator Jeremy Miller has unveiled a new and improved effort to
legalize sports betting in Minnesota and he joins me now in the studio thank you for being here thank you for having me according to a KSTP TV survey USA poll conducted in late January 55% of minnesotans want sports betting to become legal in Minnesota as it is in 38 other states Puerto Rico and Washington DC this bill is your second effort and over the past few years there have been a handful of proposals by both dflers and Republicans what's holding it up here in Minnesota well what I'm tryin
g to accomplish with the Minnesota sports betting act 2.0 is really bringing together the stakeholders bringing together legislators on both sides of the aisle to ultimately legalize sports betting here in Minnesota it's one of the issues that I hear about most from the constituents I represent in Southeastern Minnesota and folks all across the state of Minnesota and I think it's time to get it done and I'm hoping that this proposal will help get us there uh you live in Winona on the Mississippi
River across river is Wisconsin which does have legalized Sports bedding your constituents basically do have more access to sports betting than people in other parts of the state because of the proximity to Wisconsin and possibly Iowa anecdotally how many of your constituents are going elsewhere to bet well it's an interesting question because the legislative district that I have the honor of representing borders both Wisconsin and Iowa both states of course that have legalized sports betting a
little bit different in each state but what I'm finding and what I'm hearing from constituents is most of them are actually going to Iowa because Iowa has legalized mobile sports betting and alls you have to do is cross the border so they can literally drive into the state of Iowa and they can place a bet on their mobile device and then they can drive back to Minnesota so sports betting is happening in Minnesota or minnesotans are betting on sports they're either doing it in other states or the
y're doing it illegally so by legalizing Sports betting not only will we help regulate the market but the state would also benefit from the sales tax revenue that's generated off of sports betting your bill would provide licensing opportunities for Minnesota's 11 tribal Nations for retail and mobile sports betting your bill would also allow non-tribal license holders to operate retail betting at horse tracks and at professional sports stadiums with proper partnership agreements why this approach
so my preference in propos proposals that I've offered in the past would give sports betting licenses to the tribes the horse racing tracks as well as the professional sports teams and I would even like to see the Charities get a license the reality is the votes are not there right now in the legislature to pass a proposal like that so what I was really trying to craft with this is what type of proposal can we put forward that'll bring together stakeholders and bring together legislators on bot
h sides of the aisle to ultimately get it done for our most important stakeholder and that's the people of Minnesota so what I'm trying to accomplish with this proposal is focusing on what's possible rather than sitting back and complaining about what's not possible and I really think that the 2.0 proposal is something that can get Buy in from the stakeholders as well as bipartisan support to get it done for the people in Minnesota that want to bet on Sports and you've been talking about this fo
r about a month so are you having conversations with lawmakers from both sides like are you getting bipartisan buyin at this point yeah we've had a lot lot of good conversations I think the proposal that I put out helped jump start or re-engage uh the stakeholders and ultimately what we're trying to do is we're trying to put a proposal out there that would benefit the tribes but also benefit the tracks as well as the Charities and other folks that have some sort of involvement with existing gamb
ling in Minnesota or uh sports betting in general so I'm trying to put forward a proposal that everybody gets a piece of the action and I believe this is a proposal that that can get it done another aspect of the bill is that it dedicates a portion of the tax proceeds to be used for charitable gaming tax relief for local charities uh to attract major sporting events to the state to boost horse racing to support you Sports and young athletes and then also to help problem gamblers uh from what I r
ead the resources would come from a 15% tax rate on sports betting is that tax on everybody then who's doing both the tribes and uh non-tribal interests and then would that Revenue be split evenly in terms of who gets it or is that yet to be determined so the vast majority of the sales tax revenue would be generated off of the mobile sports betting which is where most of the betting takes place and I think it's really important to note the great work that our Charities do and communities across
the state of Minnesota those that participate in charitable gambling uh play a significant role for a number of different nonprofit organizations all across the state of Minnesota so I thought it was really important for them to be involved in this proposal and a lot of times those Charities end up paying more in taxes than they do in giving out money to other local charities in communities across the state so I thought it was important that we lower the tax rate on those Charities so they can u
ltimately help support our communities more and that's why I have Charities as a as a big part of of this proposal and then um the other important piece that I that I'm very very passionate about is let's attract some more major sports and events to Minnesota and we have an organization here in Minnesota called Minnesota sports and events that's doing a really nice job of doing that so I thought it would make complete sense for us to have a portion of the revenue that's generated from sports bet
ting go to help attract some of these major sporting events to Minnesota uh the Senate finance committee will be the final stop for a bill like this before it can get to the senate floor the chair of that committee Senator John Marty released the following statement quote there has been significant debate over who should profit from sports betting however there has been far too little debate about the human and societal costs that would result from the largest expansion of gambling in Minnesota
History does your proposal offer enough support for problem gamblers so a portion of the proceeds the sales tax proceeds would go to help support uh programs for folks that struggle with problem gambling and provide services uh to those folks it's something that I'm very sympathetic about but the reality is gambling is already going on in Minnesota sports betting is already going on in Minnesota it's just minnesotans that are doing it they're doing it in other states or they're they're doing it
uh illegally so it's something that's already happening I'm very sympathetic to Sender Marty's comments and look forward to working together with him but yes there are resources in The Proposal that I put forward to help uh those to help provide services to folks that struggle with problem gambling this bill would also reverse changes in the 2023 tax bill that are expected to impact electronic pole tabs that beginning in 2025 the law change will eliminate free plays and bonus games from eole tab
s which Native American Casino owners and some lawmakers have argued are too similar to slot machines it's worth noting the EO tabs generated $1.9 billion in 2022 according to the Minnesota gambling control board and those proceeds benefit nonprofits that support Disability Services food shelves veteran services volunteer fire departments and new sports how would legalized sports betting impact EOL tabs and charitable gambling so the 2.0 proposal that I put forward would actually restore some of
those functions that were eliminated in last year's legislative session and I've heard from Charities all across the state of Minnesota that they're very concerned about some of those changes in that it could potentially significantly reduce the amount that people pay electronic pull tabs therefore reduce the amount that these Charities are able to uh Provide support in their communities so um in working with the Charities uh they felt that it would be important to have this discussion again th
is year because again they were very disappointed and very concerned about some of the changes that were made during the last legislative session so I will continue to support Charities I'm a strong advocate for our Charities and and um that will not change and we'll continue to support our Charities all across the state senator Jeremy Miller thank you thank you for having [Music] [Applause] [Music] me lawmakers and Advocates have held numerous press conferences to outline their priorities for t
he 2024 session our legislative initiative seek to provide work work force housing and educational support to families and individuals who are relocating to Minnesota we must ensure that gender affirming care is available to all who need it and free of institutional transphobia homophobia and other barriers to access we must do everything we can to make sure that our communities are free of bullying bullying harassment violence and discrimination at home at work at and at school and we must ensu
re that trans people are afforded a full and equal access to Protections in perpetuity which is why we must pass a fully inclusive Equal Rights Amendment this year we know that people are experiencing infertility and there are medical services available to them to treat it it is uh a disease for some people like anything else and health insurance should cover it plain and simple public and private and so you see behind us all of the support to pass this bill joining 21 other states who have pass
ed similar legislation so that Minnesota can truly become the best state to have and raise your family we know that infertility is a recognized medical condition like cancer we know it exists like diabetes we know how to treat it uh but unlike these diseases hardworking motans don't have access to the insurance that they need when they're diagnosed with infertility and so one in seven Minnesota couples have to struggle to get pregnant or sustain their pregnancy that's again about 186,000 motans
credit card debt to buy a television is one thing debt because you had a heart attack or were hit by a car or have an illness is an entirely different thing and the idea that we're charging massive interest on that that we're reporting it to the credit bureau and we're destroying lives over it makes absolutely no sense it does not help the Health Care System it certainly doesn't help motans as a registered nurse I interact with patients and their loved ones on a nearly a daily basis medical bill
s and debt should be the last thing on their minds as they try to heal but too often for too many people the thought of having their savings drained weighs heavily Northstar Act is both about our values as motans and is also a highly technical Bill designed to create Clarity and to ensure that we invest state and local resources toward the betterment of motans rather than wasting them and forcing are broken Federal immigration laws the Northstar act says that Minnesota does not terrorize its res
idents Minnesota does not waste precious public dollars enforcing broken Federal immigration laws Minnesota is a place where immigrants will have opportunity to contribute to our communities to our economy and to their families in terms of the technical aspects of the bill it prohibits collaboration and data sharing between state and local government entities and the federal government for the sole purpose purpose of civil immigration enforcement it explicitly permits other types of collaboratio
n for purposes of Public Safety and where Federal Law requires it Minnesota has a long history of welcoming new Americans to our communities and our state is better off because of it today non-citizen residents operate cherished local businesses contribute to every step of our food system from harvesting crops to processing meat cooking in restaurants to delivering meals they care for they care for our children the sick and elderly and they build houses and [Music] hospitals join us again next w
eek as we delve into more topics affecting motans I'm Shannon lury and on behalf of all of us at Senate Media Services thanks for [Music] watching you
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