welcome to Minnesota Legislative Report our region's longestr running public affairs program lawmakers from northeastern Minnesota are joining us today for a recap of the week's activities at the state capital this is your opportunity to call or email your legislative questions and have them answered live on the air minnesota Legislative Report starts now hello and welcome to the 54th season of the Minnesota Legislative Report i'm your host Tony Certich as we start our season the Minnesota State Legislative Session is at its halfway point this is the time of the year where things get real at the state capital especially as it relates to our budget tonight you can join the conversation email or call in with questions for the lawmakers that represent you to ask a question dial the phone number on your screen or you can also email your questions to askbnorth.org joining us in studio today is Representative Pete Johnson a DFLER from Duth representing District 8A and also with us tonight is Representative Natalie Lesnikar a Republican from Freedenberg Township representing district 3B welcome to both of you hi all right so this is our first uh first show of the season i just want to jump in right away uh and kind of set the table for folks uh and um the governor Governor Walls is a Dfeller in the Senate the Democrats have a one seat majority and for the first time since I was three years old the state house is tied 67 Democrats 67 Republicans and so what has it been like serving as both of you are in the state house serving in a divided government where you're evenly split and there's power sharing now so can can you talk a bit about that represent Lesnikar since you're a returning champion as a second term member you can go first i think you know I think it's been a good thing it took us longer to get started because we didn't have everybody there you know for the first five weeks of session so we're a little bit behind now trying to hurry to get everything through committee because we need to be done by I think it's May 19th so but I think the idea of working together is what Minnesota wants they want to see us it's going to make you know one person has to vote Democrat for a Republican bill or rep one Republican has to vote for a Democrat bill in order to pass anything off the House floor we need 68 v votes and with 67 in each chamber or each body we need to find bipartisan and I you know I look for the issues that 80% of the people are going to agree on you know where where is the people's voice on those topics and so I think it's a great thing and that's you know last year we had one party rule and so I entered at that and so I guess I've been in historic times and so now it's the second year of historic times now we're in a 6767 But that's exactly what's happening is working together to get a budget together so we can get out of session by May 19 19th great represent Johnson this is your first session so you know it no other way yeah but what does this power sharing agreement look like from your perspective yeah I a lot of the conversations I've had are kind of be around the history of what we've been doing and how for so many years everything has been unprecedented whether it be the trifecta that the DFL had the last two years whether we have the tie like we have now um and some folks have just said we'd just like to have a precedented session just one that it's just precedented not everything has to be unprecedented um but it's been it's been good i've learned a ton uh there's some great people down there supporting us and working with us um creating some of those relationships across the aisle like what Representative Lesnikar said anything that right now moves out of committee needs at least one Democrat or one Republican to support it from the other side and same thing with on the House floor so hopefully that means once we get down to that point people realize that reality and and things end smoother than they began all right and and structurally though uh you have co-chairs of committees then right and so every committee there's a DFL chair and a Republican chair and you rotate how how does that work out that's exactly how it works so the chair will will have their agenda for one of the days and then the next day the gavl will go to the other side and then the presentation will go forward with presentations either from the departments or um bills that we need to hear and hearings that we're going to have correspond then with the ga who has the gavl great wonderful well uh please uh call in and uh write in with your questions uh just one more personal question for both of you represent Lesnikar this is your second term your second goound you talked a bit about that what did you learn from your first legislative term that is helpful for you now entering your second legislative term you know I think it's important to remember that we're there for the people you know I represent 44,000 people and it's all about relationships it's the relationships of the people back home and then making sure we're representing that down in St paul and so right now it's the same thing you know the last year I was on the aging task force and the EMS task force which was bipartisan we went to Washington on the ambulance thing and we've been working on the aging services task force so we work I worked together across the aisle and I learned how important it is to get things done uh to actually get it to the finish line you have to work across the aisle and we needed to do it last year and then that's just continued into the situation we are now where we're 6767 it's forced but I think the the reality is we need to have common ground and find uh the things that 80% of the people in our districts are going to support and represent Johnson as we said your first term down there what has been the most surprising thing to you that you didn't know before you got down to the capital sure i there two two quick things first um you know taking all so many people I've never been more popular in my life like people want to meet with you they want to talk to you they want to see you they want to share their concerns or their uh issues that they're working on so the amount of need that's out there um but how that's paired with the amount of great work that's going on out there from all these different groups and all corners of our state that and the role the state plays in that um has been a little bit of a uh not necessarily a surprise but I wasn't quite ready for the amount of need that's out there or the amount of work that's actually going on the second piece is uh you know my day job I'm a firefighter do a lot of work with our union um I have never had a job where I've had so much support built in whether it be my legislative aid faith prevette whether it be the partisan staff that help prepare us for like committees and things like that or the nonpartisan staff or if we have questions about bills or how these things relate um I I feel very much like I'm set up to be successful down there and can focus on you know what Representative Lesnakar said and that's advocating and working for your members and the rest of that machine keeps moving and and keeps us moving along all right well we're going to get to your questions in one second i just have one more to kick off here uh town halls have been very popular and I know both of you have hosted town halls recently uh back in in your districts and uh you all from greater Minnesota have to travel quite a way to get to the capital so you're a little bit insulated from seeing folks daytoday for the weeks that you go down and come home on weekends uh what are you hearing at your town halls these days represent Lesnic i know you had one in Two Harbors yesterday yeah two weeks ago I was at Proctor for coffee and conversation too so I think the questions are you know what happened to 18.5 billion dollars and we had a 10 you know billion dollar tax increase so why are why are we seeing so many more uh cuts happening why are the schools facing cuts when we had a historic investment it doesn't make sense people are concerned about their property taxes going up for Minnesota so that a lot of questions about that and I get a lot of questions about child care what are we doing to increase spots for child care child care housing making sure they can pay their property taxes seniors concerned about being forced out of their home because they can't afford it that seems to be the theme that uh people a lot of small businesses asking me what we're doing to make sure small businesses will will not just survive but thrive uh because they're a big piece of our economy in northern Minnesota so you know making sure we have a strong commercial tax base so it doesn't fall on our individual property owners uh and individuals is a big priority for me and you were at Denfeld High School what were you hearing yeah at at Denfold we were fortunate enough to have the attorney general come up and be part of that conversation with Representative Kazowski and myself um a lot of the concerns that we heard from folks was the impact to some of those federal cuts that we're seeing some of the uh elimination of jobs at the federal level and how that's trickling in and impacting folks all throughout our communities all throughout our districts and whether or not the state is ready to try and absorb some of that and is still able to deliver a lot of those um services and things that we're committed to uh additionally outside of uh uh town halls we were talking about a little bit before we came on air here uh we're very accessible whether it's through email phone calls social media um and with virtual meetings and things like that we're regularly meeting with folks back in the districts um so on that if people have questions or concerns and want to get a hold of me I'm going to respond to your emails and your phone calls um but there's a lot of concern about our schools and that funding and things like that uh making sure that when we are investing in our schools those things are getting in and making the impacts that they're supposed to have there's concerns about uh legislation being rolled back that was passed in the last couple years whether that's paid family medical leave whether it's earn sick and safe time whether it is those school lunches and breakfast for kids um so it's having those conversations but setting real expectations with the way the budget looks like going into the future and some of the uncertainty caused by you know concerns about inflation coming back up and decrease in GDP things like that and the impact that's going to have on our budgets going forward right and we're going to spend a lot of time talking about the state budget uh but first we're going to go uh to a couple of viewer questions uh the first question is from somebody who actually went to the town hall in Two Harbors but didn't get a chance to ask their questions and they get to ask today uh so the first one and it'll go to both of you represent Lesnikar if you want to go first how will the walls budget proposals affect local property taxes services for seniors and those with disabilities i think that's a big question mark that people have there's about 460 600 million $460 million that are being shifted to the counties and so the counties have said that's going to increase the the county side of the property taxes about 7% so two harbors you know St louis County Lake County they're going to have a big hit on the on the property tax side and then the school side they're in millions of dollars of cuts and so they're only opportunity is to do layoffs cuts or to try to go out and operational levy in the community which levies or oper uh referendums have not been passing because that increases the tax base for people and then you have uh the cities and so whatever we have set for mandates at the at the state government whether it's uh paid family leave or any of these other policies that are going to come even in 2026 that will increase the cost for the government too and so there is concern that we will see a significant property tax as far as seniors the biggest issue is there's about 400 million uh plus that is being uh cut from the nursing home so the nursing home I have is Two Harbors Nursing Home that'll be a million dollars in lost revenue over four years for them and Benedicting and Duth and Viewest they're all at about you know a million to$2 million of lost revenue so it's going to be significant the disability communities being cut uh in their in their budget so people are really concerned about the cuts in Minnesota when we had $18.5 billion and so I'm working hard on the health committee working hard on workforce and labor to do what we can to address these issues to be mindful of a looming $6 billion deficit but also we don't want to shift these costs down to the local level because people will just see an an increase in another place the state government budget's going to look great but if it's pushed down to the local level it means property taxes are going up and I don't get one email saying "Please do that."

Uh so I'm we're it's it's very concerning to me and so that'll be one of the top things I'm looking at that we're trying to make sure we're not doing is make sure we have local uh aid and that we're making sure we're supporting those infrastructures we put in place your first reaction to Governor Walls's proposal in these key areas yeah I I got a lot of feedback from folks in the district especially in that disability services area um and it's important to remind folks that the governor's recommendations are just that they are recommendations um the I know those committees are working hard to address some of those issues and making sure that these aren't balanced on the backs of the most vulnerable folks and trying to figure out how we do that going forward um there is concern about how different things impact local property taxes uh but ultimately we have to make a decision at the state level in order to serve the people that we're supposed to be serving um and making sure the people that are eligible are getting those services so Okay so So we're talking about the governor's budget proposal we should take a step back I think really and talk about uh how how we put the state budget together in Minnesota and so what happens is in uh December we have a November forecast which is already very weird but we get our first estimate on what they project spending and revenue of the state budget to look like moving forward and then the governor proposes their budget which we've been talking about right now and then there's a revi revision of that an update of that in February that you all base putting your budgets together in both the House and the Senate which then eventually come together with the governor and gets signed into law and that's the one piece of business that must get done this session is to put a budget together and if we don't by July June 30th the government shuts down and so this is the one bit of business that has to happen and it has to balance so um right now uh we're looking at a about a half billion dollar projected surplus in the current budget but then as Representative Lesnikar said about a $6 billion deficit potentially four years from now and so you all are looking at addressing both the short-term and the long term as they have impacts and so uh the House came out with their budget targets which is a way for you to kind of set in broad categories what you're hoping is spent in each of each of of the different uh committee areas and so can both of you react kind of broadly to where you see this this budget target in the House uh and where you see maybe some of the stumbling blocks blocks things you like about it and some challenges you're going to have and Represent Johnson we'll have you go first on this one um yeah I this is obviously all a lot of new process for me trying to figure out how this goes forward and what it looks like uh so mostly what we've been focused on is the committees that we serve on right now so I I serve on workforce and labor with Representative Selesnikar i'm also on public safety and education finance um it looks like our public safety budget is posted that we're going to start having discussions discussions on this week uh it seems like we've come together with our counterparts the Republicans on the other side and have agreed on what that shape looks like now obviously there'll be discussion on what that looks like going forward um but the leadership those co-chairs in those positions have been working hard to come to those agreements and my hope is that you know we have this bipartisan work happening right now at the committee level means that when we get it out of the committees it's going to have a lot uh stronger and and better likelihood of passing off the floor and ultimately gives us some strength going into those conference committees and getting that budget done in time okay now the House this proposal is proposing in this budget uh $1.2 2 billion in reductions in spending and so primarily in health and human services $300 million cut uh health related areas $50 million cut workforce $50 million cut in taxes $40 million cut now not cut to prop cut to taxes but cut to the funding that goes to fund kind of tax rebates and those sorts of things broad categories where where do you see there being challenges and opportunities within those cut areas i think it's going to be complicated you know I'm on the health committee i'm on workforce and labor with Representative Johnson and then I'm on children and families and so I think we're still working on all the committees I'm on we're we do not have it uh an agreement yet uh to get and and the goal is I believe tomorrow so I'll be leaving for the cities tonight but this is uh we have some serious issues to figure out how we're going to make sure you know we have ambulance services that are critical in greater Minnesota and we want to make sure the ambulance services work no matter what your zip code is that you're going to have an ambulance respond and the EMS team on the labor and workforce we've got challenges going on how to make sure that uh you know we have funding we're we're holding some of the things we can but then we need to have innovation we got to make sure we're we're dealing with the minors we've got 600 miners that have been laid off we need we all agree we're going to have the un unemployment extension but we really need more than that we need a bridge for the north to make sure we have sustainable jobs up here uh to have the economy be stabilized so that we have a a strong commercial tax base and and uh individuals so you know the things that that we have addressed that we can look at are things like you know we don't need the train to come from you know Minneapolis to Duth 194 million's allocated to that it's great if everything was stable and we had ambulance services and K through2 education was solid and you know public safety they've found a budget but you know these other items are not and so things like that or other uh bus lines expansion uh holding off on that for right now and then the other thing I think is what we're looking for is we want to see some cuts in government i mean government in St paul grew by 40% and so I want to see less cuts in the classroom less cuts to our local community i think some of that burden needs to be uh you know responsibly owned by reducing some of the FTEEs at the government positions in St paul representative Johnson your thoughts on where we're going to find uh 1.2 billion in cuts representative Flescar brought up a few examples yeah do do you have any ideas that you're either supporting or or you're hearing are gaining some bipartisan support in the House yeah I think they're uh it's it's tough right because when you say like we we need to make these cuts and people say "Well don't cut this thing this matters to me."

And then but that means you're going to cut it from somebody else who's going to say say the same thing this matters to me whether that's you know decreases in disability waiverss whether it is decreasing uh uh public dollars going to private schools whether it is decreasing things for our schools in general um you know the education the education finance committee that I'm on is responsible for the biggest chunk of standalone chunk of the budget at I think it's somewhere between 35 and 38% somewhere in there so little changes there make a huge difference down the line um so that's the tough part is trying to figure out how we do this because every cut that you make is going to have an impact on someone for example in workforce we have a $50 million cut target that means a lot of these organizations that have been doing phenomenal work throughout our communities whether that's you know uh greater Minnesota business development infrastructure block grants getting cut whether that is you know some of these workforce development programs in the metro getting cut like these programs are doing great work in our communities um but we're going to have to find those cuts somewhere and it's gonna have be having those hard conversations about what that looks like going forward whether we have uh access to some of those grants or not um so it's it's it's making those hard choices and trying to do it in a manner that still allows us to deliver the services we're committed to delivering so it's I there's no real good answers on what you know what we should be cutting because there's nothing that we can cut to meet that $1.2 2 billion mark without it having some significant impacts on the people that we're serving i mean one of the things we haven't talked about is raising revenue on you know some of the most wealthy folks in the state that could probably afford to pay a little bit more to help offset some of those costs but that conversation was taken off the table very early and and we're moving on with the cuts we're moving on with and and at least in the House many of these decisions uh at least initial proposals you're going to come to agreement with this week right that's your deadline is you have to figure out $1.2 2 billion cuts not just the two of you and not just on your committees but but the House itself is going to have all of that work done this week at the state capital so uh now we've talked a bit about represent Lesnikar you brought up kind of passing the buck where where the where the cuts come from and pushing it down uh a lot of estimates say that about a third of Minnesota state budget actually comes from Washington DC federal funding that flows through to Minnesota and with the cuts that are proposed in Washington uh potentially and they haven't identified specifics yet but we're seeing some of the specifics kind of rolling through Minnesota already how much of that uncertainty is playing a role in trying to put this budget together when it relies so much on what those federal decisions are that we don't know the details of yet well I would say we have the certainty of knowing where Minnesota's at so the Minnesota situation has been Minnesota made it has nothing to do with the federal government the fact that we had $18.5 billion and we raised taxes by 10 billion and we're still in a $6 billion cut that was all before the election so we have to deal with that right now as far as the federal thing I just talked to the commissioner of health this week and asked very specific questions you know what it my question was what funding is being cut they don't know that but I asked is it is it have anything to do with COVID money well yes it is it was always it was we were always expecting to have COVID money be temporary we just didn't know when it would end and it ended sooner than we thought and I said "Well it's 2025."

So since 2020 it's now 2025 so at some time was it expected that you wouldn't have this and so my question is why would we make budgets with that temporary funds built into it and so uh when I asked the question was the base funding cut the answer was no there is no cuts to the base funding for the programs within health because I'm on the health committee and I wanted to know that and so I think that's important for people to know is that there was one-time money that was spent for Minnesota and that's what I'm looking at too with the grants was onetime money that we can't just uh deal with that in the ongoing budget or it's continually in the tales and so we're looking at where were those onetime money deals that we can make sure are taken off then and get back so we can have the core things uh funded as as we're building the budget so those are the questions that I asked but it was expected that the federal uh co money would end when I asked that question this week for department of health but there are also potential cuts in human services and education and others which is ongoing funding you know I'm just talking to the ones that I'm on the committees and so nobody has specific things but you know right now that that question of the federal thing we've had a new president for three months and we've had uh Tim Waltz has been our governor since 2019 I think so we know where we're at in the Minnesota budget and so we have to deal with the things we have right now in Minnesota as a state elected official like you know I can control that in the committees that I'm on and I think you know that's what you know representative Johnson will be doing too is looking at what things are within our purview we know where we have federal funding and state funding and it's just like the federal prison you know was set they got a notice with very little time saying "We're going to shut down the federal prison."

And I didn't hear anything you know on the media but I got letters from constituents saying "What are we going to do to keep the federal prison here in Duth?"

And so I started reaching out to and saying "What can we do to you know keep the federal prison here in Duth?"

And I'm still doing that but if a third a third of the funding is potentially coming from Washington and we're unsure of that do you foresee either of you where uh you all could put a budget together and then they make decisions in Washington later and you may have to come back and readress the state budget significantly yeah yeah absolutely i mean that is a huge huge piece of our budget is the pass through from the federal and we saw that with a lot of the folks that got laid off got laid off notices in the cities and got uh laid off what last week 170 workers down there the 75 workers at the EPA site here in Duth talking about losing their jobs um these while they are federal employees these are members of our communities and when they are not working that is going to have a huge impact on them as individuals their families the neighborhoods that they're in um and the reality is we don't know what is coming next and that's part of the struggle is the the chaotic nature of this of um we're going to cut off all this funding like the CO funding they clawed back billions of dollars that I think a lot of these organizations were planning on running out and spending and they just said "Nope that funding is over we're taking that back."

And that's why you're seeing the scrambling and the loss of jobs at the state level um the there is a possibility that if we have uh more of this the elimination of the Department of Education you know the uh attacks like the attacks on workers at the VA talking about 80,000 workers in the VA across the country losing their jobs these will have major ripple effects throughout all of our communities um and you know Senator Aaron McQuade had said this the other day as describing how a lot of this works and and the intention of this is it's like taking the batteries out of your kids's toy they still have the toy you know and in this case you still have the VA or you still have uh the department federal department of human services but when you take the batteries out of something like that and all the workers it stops working even though it's still there functionally it's not working because you removed the the batteries that make all that work and it is a very scary prospect for a lot of folks in our communities whether they're beneficiaries of those services or whether they are workers in those industries that have dedicated their lives to that and I think that's something that we can't just brush off as it's a federal thing it's nothing that we can deal with here at the state the scary part for me is that if we see a lot of this come to fruition there is nothing that we can do at the state level to absorb it absorb all of it we can make changes we can try to do things here and there we can tap into the reserves and that type of stuff but we can't overcome that if we lose all that funding anything else to add on this no I I think that it's just important that you know we're looking at we're looking at you know Minnesota being prepared to handle and it's just like in in the last uh 23 24 period we made changes in the legislation that stopped grants going out uh to that we had five-year grant cycles for the maternity homes and for pregnancy resource centers and in the legislative body they said "We're going to stop that."

So they were scrambling too all across the state some of them closed because they couldn't they had to get private donations they had five-year commitments with the state and they clawed it back so these things have happened within legislative bodies and the school districts are dealing with that right now even though they had historic funding they're doing layoffs and teachers are getting notices and districts are cutting staff and they're cutting teachers and they're cutting paras and they're cutting all these people in our local school districts so we're we're seeing that and so we're going to have to just wait and see what happens on at the federal level but I do know what we're dealing with at the state level and and and that's the decisions that we have to work through too right now is the information that we have all right another question from a viewer uh what initiatives are being put forward in uh to increase child care spots and I know both of you serve on the workforce committee uh so we'll start with you Represent Lesnic Carr any uh initiatives bills proposals coming forward to increase childcare slots well one of the things that was really concerning to me at workforce committee this last week is we saw a uh Department of Education and economic development report that was just presented to us that showed the the real loss of family childare in greater Minnesota i mean it was astounding to me and we really haven't gained any centers either so we've seen centers closed in West Duth and we've seen them closed in various areas and so the biggest concern to me is we just have not had any uh ability to get any traction to gain spots so what I did is look at uh common sense laws that we could do we've had some regulations on square footage we have a facility in Hermantown that should have two more children in it they have two teachers they should have 14 kids and they have 12 and getting variances where the fire dip marshall can give a variance uh if their square footage is under a 100 square feet short so they can have the proper so we don't have kids waiting unnecessarily when the safety needs are being met and I also put together a bill to help family child care people that's family child care usually started because somebody wanted to stay home with their kids and so to have two children of a family child care provider uh exempt in the ratio while still honoring the ratios for infant and toddlers so you'd have three kids under the age of two the rest of them are you know three four year olds or they only come before and after school so working on methods that would increase the the availability because families are they can't find child care and there's just not enough they're waiting for a year and a half uh I've heard of two-year lists and I there's just been so many closures in this entire district and then in the ad adjacent district the Duth area that we are not making any traction and what was upsetting to me is to see $30 million be put in to create a new children and family department in St paul but we didn't add any spots for child care and so that's a big disconnect and so I'm challenging the department with clear initiatives to have it equate to more openings for families in centers and with family child care uh First Children's Finance just put out a report that said uh that only 77% capacity at childcare facilities they're only running at 77% because they can't find the workers as well to work at these facilities represent Johnson what are you hearing on the childare front both challenges but what what else is being addressed yeah there's I there's a number of bills uh moving through the legislature right now i don't know exactly where they're all at in the process um that address some of those regulatory issues uh to make sure that you know to the point of square footage or not enough counter space or things like that aren't inhibiting the abilities for some of these uh centers that could apply uh provide more spots are being blocked from doing so i think there's a couple different parts of this equation that we have to figure out one is making sure there's enough spots available so that families can decide to put their kids into a place where they know they're being safe they're being well taken care of um and those folks can then remain in the workforce and not have to make that decision to to open up their own home child care center because they don't have any other options uh the other thing that we have to do is figure out how to make this instead of just a short-term job for somebody into a long-term career and you have to find that balance of making uh these spaces available enough but also paying the folks who are working in those spaces a living wage so that they don't have to make decisions based on where they work and and how they uh if they decide to start a family if they can afford to have child care at that point if they you know want to buy a house or those types of things so it's trying to figure out how we uh pay those folks in those centers enough to make it a career and not just a short-term job that somebody has while they're in college or while they're finishing up college before they get you know their real job if you will there are some amazing dedicated folks in that careers field that are providing unbelievably fantastic care to these kids in our communities we need to figure out how to keep them in there how to grow folks like that but also make sure that um people can afford to send their kids to these these centers or child care places so that it doesn't bankrupt families and they have to make that decision either so anything else on this topic the other thing that we've looked at is really making sure that the the process for lensure and the process for surveying is fair and that we're really monitoring the things that lend itself to quality for kids and what parents want and families want when they're looking for child care that we're not overregulating but we're regulating to the right level that uh is is going to be conducive for kids to be safe and and to also have fun i mean we want children to learn and we want little kids that are you know infants to three four you know those little kids to be able to be nurtured in an a supportive environment and so being able to have free time and play and to have that socialization I think is really important and so we're talking about a lot of great things in the children families committee to move forward and move initiatives forward that will strengthen family and center-based child care well keep those questions coming in folks because I have another one right here from a caller from Renshaw and uh really appreciating the conversation that you two are having represent Johnson we're going to start with you you mentioned that revenue is off the table and uh this uh caller I think remarked that you know hearing these big cuts and not a lot of solutions yet at the table to get to that 1.2 or billion or maybe more with federal cuts why is revenue off the table uh we were it was made very clear that the Republicans would not pass any revenue increasers any tax increases on anyone and um instead of continuing to have a fight that uh they seem pretty entrenched in we decided to go the other route and not hopefully not risk shutting down the government and represent Lesnar I guess I'll ask it a different way to you just to make it interesting uh really hard to get to $1.2 billion in cuts it's sounding like especially in human services and workforce and all these challenging areas uh why should it be cuts only wouldn't a balanced approach be uh more of a compromise that the legislature could look at i think when you grew government by 40% no company grew its revenue by 40% no individual family grew their revenue by 40% so absolutely no new taxes i mean we should be reducing the government uh and looking at that hard and looking at where the money is going making sure we we have created a fraud committee we had over $600 million in known fraud not just a shiny light over here saying it's a possibility it's federal investigated 250 million in fraud and then the office of legislative audit noted all the other fraud loopholes so we've tightened that and that that money $600 million should have been going to programs so we want that to be going not to fraudsters but to you know seniors and nursing homes and education and child care and so we've tightened that up and then we already are the highest taxed in the in the nation it's we have high the high in income taxes we have high uh taxes for all the levels and so when you look at it we have more motans that have been leaving the state of Minnesota than coming in and so you know seniors and and all of the the entire age bracket is important so right now I think we have to look at why did we grow government by 40% we've never grown the Minnesota state government and I don't know if it ever grew 40% when you were there but that's a monumental increase and so we have to look at what we're doing because government isn't a government is funded by taxpayers and so before we ask them to pay more we should be asking the government to make sure we're spending money on the core services first before we do these other things and add the trains to the caboose or the Yeah said that backwards yes yeah i I I think we should be considering revenue increases or uh tax increases on some of those ultra wealthy folks there's a bill out there to add a fifth tier so these are people that are are not in the they're not going to the grocery store and worrying about the price of eggs they're not worrying about the price of a new vehicle they're not worrying about whether or not they can make their mortgage payment or their rent payment um the reason that Minnesota ha is what it is is because we're able to provide a lot higher level of services than a lot of other places um I think if we keep doing that if we keep delivering and making this place a place where people want to expand their businesses this is where they want to move to because they feel like there is opportunity here we have to do that but if it's if we close the door on those options altogether then we do have to find those cuts and it's those aren't going to hurt somebody right another question from a viewer this one is a little more specific on teacher pension reform um and so uh the question from the viewer is can you explain your stance on the pension reform bills that have been proposed as it is teachers are required to work until 65 for a full pension without penalty why would a young person want to teach for 43 years to get a full pension when we fund most of it through our payroll deductions are you guys familiar with the pension reform bills and represent Slesnikar you want to start i I heard that over and over i mean the pension tier 2 issue has been going on since the 80s my dad was a middle school principal and so I heard about this for a long time but in the sense of what I I looked at is it wasn't on the priority list in uh 2023 when we had $18.5 uh billion dollar surplus it wasn't the governor's uh plan to have this pension issue be dealt with and so what we looked at is okay what can we do without it so I signed on to a bill uh in before now in the first my first term that was a pathway for tier 2 teachers to retire after 30 years without having any deductions because that's what they want to be able to do is at six years old retire at at at 30 and so we didn't get any traction on that we couldn't get hearings and so this year Representative Danny Nado has really led at the Republican party on initiatives with uh pension reform and so we've offered two more bills and he's been working diligently on that and we will be having I think I think we're really doing uh getting bipartisan support on having something happen and I hope it does because we need to make sure the teachers have security and know that we'll have uh this finds a solution they've been talking about it they're frustrated and they want to know that uh they're not going to be teaching at 65 or whatever they have to do to to make sure they're at their uh can have a full pension without taking deductions so it's a big priority but any proposal would be additional spending that would make the deficit bigger well that's where we're coming up with money and those are all part of the negotiations right now looking at what what the final thing will look like but um I think there are some pathways that would allow for a true uh revision to that tier 2 so that it would give people the opportunities that they're hoping for and that they want without any reduction in their pension and so I I think we're going to see some really great uh work this this year i've met with teachers with you know talking at the pensions in Two Harbors and Hermantown and Proctor and all the districts and it's a top priority to educators and so you know we need to figure out a way to do it uh we need to look at their pension funds that they put into and how the formulas are working and then look at some viable paths for solutions and I think there are some really good ideas out there right now johnson the the pension issue is a big one um we don't I I we just we can't have much like the fire service or the police forces you don't want 65year-old firefighters or police officers right it's you you don't want 65-year-old teachers either they that job is as demanding as anything else out there and they should be able to retire at a reasonable age with dignity without seeing massive penalties on that retirement um but to your point it it will take dollars to do that and we have to figure out how as a state we're going to invest in those things and if we want to invest in those without making cuts elsewhere we have to find that revenue somewhere um Minnesota is is one of the lowest states it's in the upper 40s in the in how much we invest in pensions in the state uh compared to other places and we have to do better on that um better on that for all of our folks for whether it be teachers whether it be other public employees those pensions are uh are critical in order to retain recruit and retain people to work in those professions and those careers where we need the best and the brightest to want to become teachers to want to become you know police officers to want to work for the communities that they live in um but it's going to it's a conversation around funding and I'm 100% supportive of of fixing that system but we have to have real conversations about how and where we get those dollars from and if revenue is off the table it makes those conversations a lot harder to come to a a reasonable conclusion well I know we get pension questions almost every week and so we will pass the answer on to the next legislators who are going to join us and we'll be tracking this issue through the whole legislative session so uh thanks viewer for your message keep them coming in uh so represents Lesnikar you've authored 42 bills this year so far 28 for you represent Johnson many of them actually are capital investment projects uh for your communities and to remind the viewers back home uh every second year we're in the first year of a session but every second year is generally a year that folks focus on what we call a bonding bill or a capital investment bill where the state borrows some money at a low interest rate matches it with local money for local infrastructure projects um last year a bonding bill did not get done in the year they normally did and so got kicked down to this year now we have a state budget deficit and all this other stuff going on what is the likelihood of a capital investment bill being passed this year represent Johnson we'll start with you yeah I as far as I don't know the exact I'm not going to uh give you any betting odds on what that's going to look like um I think if you look at the number of projects that are in need out in our communities they're they're not just in blue districts they're not just in red districts they're these infrastructure needs are across the state um so I hope that means that there's going to be a strong bipartisan push to to see some of these projects to fruition um uh to your point about both of us carrying a significant number of bonding bills there's a when I talk about that need that's one of those needs in our community and not all these are the big shiny new building some of these are things like at the deck like fixing their you know heating system so that they can actually shut it down and zone it out um it's you know little things like that it's it's big things like the water treatment center that impacts my district it impacts Representative Slesnikar's district um there our communities aren't able to do these things on their own and this is where the state's got to step up and and help fill that need um so I know I'm going to keep pushing hard for a bonding bill to make sure that we can at least get some of those projects uh uh taken off the list if you will um but I've also you know been honest with folks when they've asked me to carry one of those bills and the reality of what we're facing uh but I encourage them that I will keep carrying those bills just to make sure that we keep showing that the need is there in our communities and don't let it if we don't ask we'll never get an answer so uh I've done the math there's 7 billion with a B dollars of requests for capital investment projects all over the state and thus far the House has 700 million with an M set aside and so there are gonna be a lot more uh losers than winners if I could say it that way and so how do you put together a bill and how do you advocate for your community's needs knowing that everybody needs something in the in a capital investment bill and what is the likelihood of this happening this year well I think you know for I have several projects regional ones the Duth uh air traffic tower at the airport there's several ones uh like Representative Pete Johnson mentioned but for the for the the extensions for water and and sewer and infrastructure things like that that's going to be a priority uh Proctor has a request for extensions so we can have housing which is critical so we need to have that and and that would be a great uh project and so and there's other ones we have the public safety you know training center for Rice Lake and that would be a emergency evacuation shelter for the entire uh aging or the community for in in the event that we have uh you know high winds and lightning and you know storms that uh people need a shelter so that would be a great training center and there's many things we have the highway 61 uh funding for that the project to get that project completed that's needed and so it's millions everywhere so the the part is going to be looking at you know what is the thing we can do this year you know maybe we're going to have to do something again next year because we're behind like you said I support bonding supported it last time too and you know I think we just have to make sure we're getting some of these infrastructure projects that are done and make sure we have water you know clean water for people to drink across the state and then do as many of them as we can but you know right now it's going to be a tighter leaner uh budget year it looks like for bonding and as a reminder it takes a super majority of the legislature to pass this which makes it even harder because you need enough projects to get support and even more legislators need to support it all right I'm going to take a little turn here right now and talk about uh what's not happening at the capital but uh we lost a longtime legislator since this show uh came on the air uh represent Mary Murphy passed away um and she was at this desk many times over the years i know both of you uh knew her represent Lesnar you ran against her and and replaced her uh can we just take a few minutes to talk about what Representative Mary Murphy's impact was to northeastern Minnesota as an elected official you know long before I did this I would meet with her because I was a nursing home administrator so she was very involved in several decades of her career working on issues that affected seniors very passionate about it i would say as equally passionate as she was with education and she was just a pillar in the community even when I was running for office I would have lunch with her at the fairgrounds and proctor or up in Two Harbors and just sit down and visit like we did and I think you know her legacy will be that she was very committed to the community very loyal to you know she lived in Hermantown her entire life uh since she was a young child uh she made us you know be able to get the the wellness center in Hermantown and which has been an incredible thing for decades to come and so she she will be remembered for a lifetime and it's an honor to to have known her and worked with her when I was running facilities and and caring for seniors and and then it was uh now I'm hopefully I can carry on some of the things that she did repres Johnson you never served with her but I know you knew Mary Murphy yeah I never had the the pleasure of serving with with Mary um been in a lot of rooms with her uh especially on pension issues and things like that um and you know my impression of her was she always talked very softly but when she talked everybody listened everybody it didn't matter what room you were in um when she had something to say people stopped what they were doing and paid attention and uh she was a special person that that could do that especially in in today's climate of you know the louder you are the more attention you get sometimes and that was not her style at all uh but she she was an absolute leader and and you know that saying of you know speak walk quietly and carry a big stick right and she did that for this community and she delivered over and over again and uh her her thumbrints are all over this district and all over the state and a lot of the great work that she did and um definitely uh uh set some pretty high goals for things to try and attain as a legislator down there great well keep those uh questions coming in and thank you both for for sharing about Representative Murphy um I'm going to talk now about kind of the end of session uh we're we're at the halfway point here now almost the funneling is happening you guys are going to have your budget put together and then you're going to go on uh Easter Passover break uh where you get to come back to your community and then it's a sprint to the end and uh you both talked about this power sharing and divided government time now the easiest easier question I could ask you each is what should the other side give up in order to get to a compromise and solution but I really want to kind of stick the screws to both of you here and I'm going to ask this of every legislator coming in so if they're not watching spoiler alert here uh and we're going to start with you first-term legislator Representative Johnson what does your side of the aisle you think have to give up or compromise on to get to an agreement uh overall kind of philosophically I think they the things that we've been you know in those discussions is how do we focus on the core services that our committees are responsible for and some of those things that are that don't necessarily fall within that circle those core responsibilities um are probably going to have to wait or or not see funding like they have in the past Lesnikar what is your side uh going to have to uh give on or compromise to get closer to an agreement with folks that philosophically have a different viewpoint than you well clearly we're not going to get all the bonding projects that I would like to see for northeastern Minnesota right now and I think you know I'm going to be working on the ambulance services that is a bipartisan topic but the issues facing greater Minnesota are probably more significant because of the uh just the the the logistics of greater Minnesota and so the call volume's different and so you have reimbursement you have to you have to pay to have people waiting to respond to emergencies and so that's just the gist of what it is and so finding ways to do that and then figuring out you know what what are what can we give up in the sense of if it's a give up it it needs to be looking at some of the things that are are grants and some of the one-time funding but looking at the core services like I said with K through 12 and and actual making it improve that we have more child care spots open and making sure the nursing homes don't get cut so looking at how can we move that around so that the services the people are expecting are there are first and that's and some of the things we would like uh can't always happen and especially not when we have a $6 billion uh deficit coming so uh next week uh we're going to have a bunch of Iron Rangers uh up on this panel uh and Representative Lesnar you talked a bit about the announced layoffs uh that are happening from Cliff's Resources at two facilities up on the uh Iron Range now both of you are playing roles in the unemployment insurance discussion um and uh want to talk a bit about that as a primer we're going to get the core Iron Range perspective next week but want to talk to both of you represent Johnson you are authoring a bill to extend those unemployment insuranceances a duthian offering a bill to help the steel workers in the Iron Range why is that happening uh the the reason that I'm carrying the bill the way that I am is that the original bill that uh Representative Igo introduced had some environmental uh rollbacks or changes or however you want to describe that tied to it uh I don't think that that in following that path it didn't have an opportunity i don't think that had an opportunity to see it all the way through to the finish line and ultimately putting that unemployment extension in jeopardy for those workers um I did offer that as a an amendment to strip out the environmental piece and have that go on its own path um through the environmental committee and do all those types of things ultimately that was rejected and that's why I introduced a standalone bill with just the uh unemployment extension for those workers up there on the range repar you're supporting the joint bill and you represent Lake County through one of one of the tachinite facilities are can you uh talk about your perspective i actually supported both bills uh I supported the bill uh that Representative Johnson supported because all of us at the table uh when the first bill was introduced by Representative Igo we all knew we all agreed on unemployment extension for the 600 miners that wasn't even an issue but the issue was for 15 years the union has said it's clear we've been coming down here and we've been talking and there's been a lot of listening but that we need a bridge to an actual secure future and without that uh the unemployment benefits end and then the reality is people will move and that's the impact that happened in duth in the 80s and we want to avoid that because we have uh people working at the hospitals and we have spin-off businesses and it affects everybody it's not just mining of 600 jobs it's closer to probably 1,200500 uh employees that are affected when you look at the the level and the tears of of other uh jobs related to mining and so people's livelihoods are changing and then they're not going to wait around before they decide if they're moving selling the house and once that happens if there's not a replacement job these are $100,000 a year jobs so we need a highinccome business coming in that's going to replace that and so that's what this was all about is we can't we need to actually lead and make it happen and so that's what I'm looking forward to and so the unemployment benefit extension is is absolutely a no-brainer and that will be happening and we will be talking more about this as I said next week with uh some Iron Range uh legislators from both the Senate and the House uh we only have about a minute or so left uh we uh want to just really take 30 seconds each you know you can't get everything you want when you go down to the capital but if you could pick one thing that you hope gets accomplished Representative Johnson this year uh what is your hope that we get a budget done by May 19th represents less innoc I agree with him and I want to make sure nursing homes are not cut that we have nursing homes existing in greater Minnesota el has one grand marray has one and two harbors has one so making sure we don't cut 700 million or whatever that number is going to be in Minnesota uh after we just gave 300 million after they're recovering from a pandemic so I want to make sure the people that built this state aren't forgotten and we've talked about town halls and emails and texts and all the like represent for your constituents that are watching today what's the best way to get a hold of you they can email me at the state uh at rep.natalie.zlesnicar@house.gov.mmin or they can call me on my cell phone and I give them that it's 21849-6822 great what's the best way to get a hold of you Representative Johnson same thing email uh it's on the state website rep.peete johnson@house.mn.gov uh that I been getting back to a lot of those emails spending some late nights responding to folks um you can call the office uh I'll be in the community be backing on doors probably in a few months just chatting with folks and uh going from there and are both of you going to be home over the Easter Passover break as well i will be home yep partially i'm going to see my parents uh that I will love to see for a little bit of time wonderful so uh want to thank you both uh for being on the show and uh we are out of time i'd like to thank uh Representative Pete Johnson and Representative Natalie Slesnikar uh for joining us uh tonight and uh please uh uh thank you for the viewers at home for uh calling in and uh writing in your thoughts and questions uh thank you for watching and to the viewers at home for calling and writing with your questions as I said you are playing a vital part in our representative government uh for the team here at PBS North I'm Tony Certich have a great evening