Capitol View for March 4

Good morning and happy Friday. 🎧 Tune into MPR News today at noon for our first Politics Friday broadcast of the year. We’re talking about public safety proposals and reviewing the week at the Minnesota Capitol.

The Minnesota House voted Thursday to require the Office of the Legislative Auditor to do an in-depth review of the Southwest Light Rail project. The line is now expected to cost $2.7 billion and is nearly three years behind schedule. Rep. Frank Hornstein, DFL-Minneapolis, said the audit will be very thorough. “What this audit does is gets at all the issues, whether it is change orders, we understand there have been issues with change orders, contractors, the whole thing,” Hornstein said. “We have a cost/benefit analysis. We have safety issues. All will be examined.” Republicans supported the audit, but said the project should be shut down before more money goes to waste. Rep. John Heinrich, R-Anoka, argued that funding for the project should stop at least during the audit. "We must find out which mistakes have been made, what we've done wrong and what we've done right,” Heinrich said. “We want to make sure that as we spend taxpayer dollars the process is transparent, everything is on the up and up, and we keep the project on the rails." The bill passed 129-1.

The Minnesota Senate passed legislation Thursday aimed at ensuring parents can review school curriculum. MPR’s Tim Pugmire reports the bill adjusts an existing statute by stating parents can look at curriculum “immediately upon request” and “without cost.” The measure also requires school districts to notify parents of the policy at the beginning of each school year. Bill author Sen. Paul Gazelka, R-East Gull Lake, who is a Republican candidate for governor, said his bill would provide the transparency that parents are asking for. “I think with the closing of schools and distance learning, the silver lining of the whole thing is many parents got more involved with their kids’ education, and that’s a good thing,” Gazelka said. “But as they began to hear some of what was being taught in classrooms, they were frustrated because they didn’t feel like they had a voice.” Senate Democrats criticized the bill as unnecessary. They argued parents are already involved in their children’s education because the existing statue ensures that. They also warned the change could lead to expensive data requests.

The Star Tribune reports that three community college presidents who were under fire for their behavior left their jobs, but not the state college and university system. Instead they got high-paying administrative jobs in the central office . The paper reports the practice has raised questions about whether the state college system takes allegations of presidential misconduct seriously. "I think it's a process that absolutely needs to end and end today," said state Rep. Marion O'Neill, the Republican lead on the Minnesota House Higher Education Committee. Minnesota State Chancellor Devinder Malhotra declined an interview but said in a statement that "under the terms of contracts for presidents in the Minnesota State system, if a president's appointment is terminated prior to the end of an employment agreement, the former president is entitled to a lump sum payment equal to four months of the president's current salary." The chancellor also can choose to reassign former presidents to other duties at their same salaries, Malhotra said. A reassignment may be extended for up to a year.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is asking a judge to oversee the dissolution of a Twin Cities nonprofit that's the focus of a major federal fraud investigation. MPR’s Matt Sepic reports that in search warrants unsealed in January, the FBI alleges that Feeding our Future and a group of people connected to its partner organizations stole tens of millions of dollars meant to pay for children's meals. Federal prosecutors have not charged anyone with a crime, and the nonprofit's executive director Aimee Bock denies any wrongdoing. In a statement last week, Bock said Feeding our Future's board voted to dissolve "in light of negative media reports and frozen assets." In a court filing, Ellison says a judge should supervise the breakup because the Attorney General's office "has reasonable grounds to believe" that the group violated state nonprofit laws and "failed to properly administer" charitable assets.

North Dakota’s 12-member State Investment Board signaled it would cut all investments in Russia in the wake of that country’s invasion of Ukraine. MinnPost reports:Gov. Tim Walz said this week that Minnesota is exploring whether the State Board of Investment should sell off holdings in Russian-tied companies. Walz said the investment board, which manages primarily pension and savings funds for public workers, has a “fiduciary responsibility” to manage that money wisely. But he said “hiding behind a fiduciary responsibility” shouldn’t get in the way of “taking the actions necessary” that might help force change. There is precedent for such actions. State law has limits for investing in companies that operate in Iran and Sudan, and the board also has restrictions on investments tied to tobacco and coal production.