Gov. Tim Walz unilaterally raised the payroll tax paid by every employer and employee in Minnesota this week from .7% of wages to .88%. The legislature gave Walz the power…
A bill working its way through the state House of Representatives would ban government-funded nonprofit corporations from spending that cash on election campaign work. HF 72 is authored by 2nd-term…
This week, the Minnesota House of Representatives’ Health Policy and Finance Committee passed legislation to roll back a new taxpayer-funded program to provide health insurance to illegal immigrants. Republican Rep.…
Several people sent me the notice of the introduction of Senate File 1140, which provides a $15 million state grant to the nonprofit We Win Institute of Minneapolis. The bill…
Groundhog Day was officially last week, but it continues at the state capitol, day after day, as the House of Representatives conducts its “do-over” session. You will recall that back…
Ken Martin, chair of the state Democratic party (styled in Minnesota as Democratic-Farmer-Labor, DFL) is moving up to chair the national Democratic party. Martin had served as head of the…
In the latest episode of the American Experiment Podcast, Grace and Kathryn host a very special guest — Senator Jordan Rasmusson! Senator Rasmusson pulls back the curtain on the post-power-sharing…
Part 2 of reporter Jay Kolls’ series looking into fraud in the state’s child care assistance program (CCAP) aired last night on KSTP-TV’s 10 o’clock news. Kolls interviews state Rep.…
DFL State Rep. Kristin Bahner of Maple Grove claimed in a constituent email this week that she essentially works for free at the legislature because of all the time she…
This afternoon, the state senate Energy committee took up two bills to repeal the ban on new nuclear power plants. Today’s meeting was only possible because, under the current Senate…
Minnesota’s House Democrats still refuse to show up for work, grinding the work of the entire government to a halt. Bill Walsh joins Grace and Kathryn to go over all the…
The shenanigans in the Minnesota House of Representatives have tended to obscure the fact that the legislature’s other house, the Senate, has been functioning smoothly. Until today. You may recall…
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Fix Our Forests Act on January 23. The bill, if passed by the Senate, would serve as a means of expediting review of…
A frequent question/comment I get from readers regarding Constitutional Crisis 2025TM (now in Day 14) concerns elections for Supreme Court justices. Under the Minnesota system, justices are appointed by the…
Minnesota House Democrats, with fresh permission from the Supreme Court, have put the state into a government shutdown. Government shutdowns usually happen at the end of session when the two…
Today the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that a quorum in the legislature “requires a majority of the total number of seats of each house. Vacancies do not reduce the number…
In 2018, Center of the American Experiment released a report evaluating how environmentally responsible mining would boost Minnesota’s economy. With the help of economist John Phelan and Debra Struhsacker, a…
As the temperature outside drops, the drama in the Capitol HEATS UP! Grace, Kathryn, and President of the American Experiment John Hinderaker break it all down for us in this…
The state House of Representatives held its fourth floor session of 2025 this afternoon. It was a pro-forma session conducted to satisfy the requirements of the state Constitution, Art. 4,…
The Minnesota House opened Tuesday as predicted with Democrats not showing up, Secretary Simon declaring “no quorum,” and House Republicans installing their own chair to conduct business. Nothing like this…
It was a busy pre-holiday-weekend, late-Friday-afternoon in the state’s ongoing Constitutional Crisis. Two important court decisions were issued on either end of the state that move in opposite directions, but,…
Let’s talk turkey! Golden Turkey, that is. In what turned out to be a two-project race, the new state flag and seal defeated Gov. Tim Walz’s DEI staff to win…
Welcome to Capitol Watch 2025 Happy New Year and welcome to Capitol Watch 2025! Hold onto your wallets because the Minnesota Legislature returns to St. Paul on Tuesday, January 14,…
Gun control advocates appear to be armed and ready to reintroduce several measures when the 2025 legislative session gets underway in January. Unlike the last two years, however, gung-ho anti-gun…