Good morning and welcome to another Monday.
The population of Worthington has been changing rapidly but political representation hasn’t followed, reports MPR’s Hannah Yang. While people of color are the majority now in Worthington, politics in the city and across Nobles County remain nearly all white and male. That came into sharp focus in the last election cycle when three women of color ran for city, county and Minnesota House seats, and all lost. The reasons for that are more complex than racial or ethnic bias or the power of incumbency. But lack of representation is still a concern for those who need support from government leaders to fund projects and provide resources to fill in gaps for needed services. There are signs of change. Voters in 2019 backed a bond sale allowing Worthington to build a badly needed middle school for its growing student body, a measure that had failed for years before with some supporters feeling white Worthington didn’t want to pay for a school needed by nonwhite kids.
There’s another stadium debate brewing at the Minnesota Capitol, but as MPR’s Brian Bakst reports, it’s not over building a new one. It's about how to pay off one that’s already built. Under the law that financed U.S. Bank stadium where the Vikings play about half of the facility was to be publicly financed – $348 million from the state and $150 million from the city of Minneapolis. The state sold bonds to help get the stadium built. Those 30-year bonds reach a point next year where the state could try to pay the debt early without penalty. There is an appetite and the money to do that. A variety of revenue sources were used to back up the state's share, with the main piece being electronic pull tabs. They were slow to get off the ground but are now bringing in considerably more than necessary to pay annual debt. In fact, a stadium reserve account is bulging. There’s more than $200 million in the account now. The balance is expected to approach $600 million within a few years. And that’s what key lawmakers want to use for advance payments. Senate Finance Committee Chair Julie Rosen, a chief architect of the 2012 stadium bill, is sponsoring a bill to pay debt early. “We need to make sure that that money is not grabbed out of the stadium reserve fund. It's not for anything but the stadium – to pay it off,” said Rosen, R-Vernon Center. “Once we get it paid off, everybody can breathe. Then we can look at all sorts of other issues; what to do with the excess money.”
Minnesota public defenders said over the weekend they have reached a deal with the Minnesota Board of Public Defense, averting a walkout that could have brought the state's court system to a standstill. Gus Froemke, spokesperson for Teamsters Local 320, said more needed to be done to address long-term systemic issues, including "how we start to resolve the unequal and inequitable caseloads and caseload management. “But the biggest thing going forward is securing additional money from the state of Minnesota for public defense," Froemke said. Both sides have agreed to push the Minnesota Legislature to provide more funding for public defenders and reopen negotiations if that funding is approved. In a statement in response to the agreement, the Minnesota Board of Public Defense said it was pleased a tentative agreement had been reached. It also agreed with the union that public defenders are underpaid and that the board is understaffed.
MPR’s Matt Sepic reportsthe Minneapolis City Attorney's office served subpoenas Friday on three Twin Cities journalists who covered the protests and riots that followed the murder of George Floyd. The subpoenas are part of the city's defense of a lawsuit that freelance photographer Linda Tirado filed in 2020 after a police projectile partially blinded her. Minnesota Reformer reporter Max Nesterak and Andy Mannix of the Star Tribune received subpoenas along with Jared Goyette, who was a freelance journalist at the time and now works for Fox 9. The documents demand that all three journalists testify at a deposition and bring "videos, photographs, recordings, emails, texts and documents" related to the unrest. In a statement provided to MPR News, the city says the reporters served were "named by the plaintiff as persons with information. Therefore, they are being deposed to determine what information they have regarding her lawsuit.” In its own statement, the Minnesota Reformer vowed to “protect our newsgathering rights” from the city’s "ham-handed effort to intimidate journalists with burdensome legal action." In an email to MPR News, Star Tribune senior managing editor Suki Dardarian said that the newspaper also expects to challenge the subpoena that Mannix received.
Speaking of the Star Tribune, the paper featured a Sunday profile of Sen. Michelle Benson, R-Ham Lake, the only woman so far running for governor this year.From the story: Benson has laid out a series of "Day One" plans as governor that include pushing for a voter ID law, increasing law enforcement funds, giving parents more say in schools and ending the Social Security tax. Many of those goals would require legislative buy-in, Benson said. But she said she could act immediately to freeze state hires, propose a budget with lower tax rates, champion law enforcement and name an education commissioner "focused on fundamentals ... not activism." The story also notes she is behind the other GOP candidates in fundraising and finished behind “undecided” in a straw poll of Republican caucus goers. | 