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Fluence Forum
Conversations on critical issues.
Fluence Forum
The Twin West Legislative Breakfast
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The latest Fluence Forum in partnership with the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce is a relaunch of the Twin West legislative breakfast. It included Sen. Nick Frentz (DFL) , Sen. Mark Johnson (R) Rep. Jamie Long (DFL) and Rep. Harry Niska (R) discussing key legislative issues.
Welcome to the Fluence Forum. I'm Bloy Solson, the founder and principal of Fluence Advisory and Fluence Media. Fluence Forums are critical conversations about issues in our community. And our latest Fluence Forum in partnership with the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce is the relaunch of the Twin West Chamber of Commerce Legislative Breakfast. For decades, the legislative breakfast served as a convening of legislative leaders discussing critical issues of the day, including governors, senators, members of Congress. We relaunched this in April of 2026, one month before the end of the legislative session, with four legislative leaders, including Senate DFL leader Nick Frentz, Senate Republican leader Mark Johnson, Representative Harry Niska, the Republican leader in the House, and Jamie Long, the Democratic leader in the House. Fluence Forums are designed to go deeper than just talk talking heads and sound bites, to have questions, follow-up questions, and offer insight to our listeners. All the fluence forums of the past, including the state of energy, the state of healthcare, many other issues, are available at Fluence Dash Advisory.com. Here's the Twin West legislative breakfast relaunch conversation. Have a great day. Great. And so one of my uh personal uh crusades has been that if city, county, and minoc could talk to each other about East-West construction, that'd be good. So uh if you have time to put that in the legislation this year, that'd be great. Um I'm gonna start with uh uh Senate uh Republican leader, minority leader Mark Johnson. Uh welcome, uh Mark Johnson. He once texted me from the Irish pub across the street to prove that he had been on this side of town. Um house DFL leader uh Jamie Long from Minneapolis. Uh house Republican leader Harry Niska and Senate DFL leader Nick Friends. Senator Friends, uh it's that 394 corridor where I call you from and know that sometimes when you're not short on words, I have plenty of time to um so uh I want to make the most out of this conversation. We'll probably have audience questions at the end, but uh we'll start with um Senator Friends who kind of come towards me. Um, you know, we're having a little flashback here, um, and we're not gonna spend a lot of time going backwards, but I thought we'd start with, you know, regrets. So I I have a question for DFLers and Republicans uh about regrets. For Democrats, is there anything from the 2023 trifecta that you regret that deserves to still be fixed in this legislative session?
SPEAKER_03Well, first of all, thanks, Boyce. Glad to see everybody here. Thanks for all you do. I'm Nick Frentz from the city of North Mankato, representing the Mankato area, and uh very glad to join you. A business owner of 30 years, member of the Greater Mancato Growth Chamber, carry the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce endorsement. And my answer, Boyce, is I still feel that paid family medical leave can be tweaked in a way that brings businesses to us and says that they're part of it, as opposed to what I see as a little more my words, not yours, confrontation between the employer and the employee. Your businesses are successful when you have the best working relationship between management and labor. And I think we could do that. I do not think that will be this session, and I agree that not everybody in my party sees it the same as I do, but hope to bring that forward if I was lucky enough to be re-elected, which is a different panel.
SPEAKER_02You're right. We're not covering that today. Uh for Republicans, the question is, is there anything you uh regret not bargaining harder on last session during the budget uh that maybe you had leverage and didn't use it for?
SPEAKER_01You know, I think um the the the one thing I would say uh we uh ran into a problem with late at late in the process. Um that there was bipartisan support in the center for the office of inspector general. I wish there had been uh bipartisan support in the House for that last year. We could have gotten that done across the finish line last year. I think what we're gonna end up with, I'm hopeful what we'll end up with is something that's very close to the framework that did pass the Senate uh last year. Um, and I think that's something that um it would have been better for the state of Minnesota if we had gotten that process uh rolling last year instead of waiting this year to finish that.
SPEAKER_02Representative Long, uh any regrets from the trifecta or things that still should maybe take a second look from that were passed that year. Nope.
SPEAKER_06I think 2023 was a great session.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_02Uh Mark Johnson, any regrets from last year? And um, I'm glad you could join us today. I know you weren't invited yesterday.
SPEAKER_05Well, we we did get in a nice game of baseball when they were uh they were meeting yesterday, so it was uh a good opportunity. You're always invited here. Thank you. Appreciate that. No, I think last year, you know, we were the only minority caucus in the legislature, and so at the very end of session, uh, we had a good opportunity to do a number of things. One of the things I'm most proud of is uh our work on the data center bills uh that allowed uh, even though the governor and and democrat leaders were really trying to uh exit the data centers from the state of Minnesota, we were able to use some leverage in a way that allowed us at least be competitive in the region to uh maintain data centers uh here in the state. And so that was one that that we're pretty proud of, uh, even though we had limited uh leverage last year.
SPEAKER_02There's um as we're in a non-budget session, it's quote a bonding session, there's a lot of issues that in and around a tax bill this year. Uh if is there gonna be a tax bill, yes or no? And what's really important to have in the tax bill. We'll start with you, Mark.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, the tax bill has a number of factors that I think uh we'd be looking at going forward. You know, we talked a little bit maybe some of the the nurse or the hospital issues that are gonna be in there. Uh there's a chance that we're gonna get that done this year, but at this point, what is happening over in the house just uh we we just don't have a good feel from the Senate side of things what's gonna actually be possible to get through the House and what's gonna be possible to get through the Senate at this point. Uh, you know, the tax shares have notoriously been a little bit uh at odds with each other, so that's gonna also put in a little bit of an issue of actually getting done with a tax bill at this point. Uh, but we'll see. I I'm optimistic.
SPEAKER_02Jamie, what uh what do you want to see if there is a tax bill that makes sure it gets done?
SPEAKER_06Well, I I think there's been good ongoing conversation around HCMC, um, and there's a tax proposal out there that would um extend the the uh current sales tax that exists for uh Twin Stadium and expand it to uh help take care of uh HCMC. So I think I know that uh Chair Davids and Chair Gomez have been having good conversations uh around that proposal. Um that I think is a uh high priority as we've we've heard for uh for the state and the region. Um and then you know I'm sure there's gonna be ongoing conversations around uh other other tax provisions, but I'm hopeful that if we uh do any any real tax spending that we are are paying for it as well. We we know that there's ongoing fiscal challenges for the state. Representative Niska?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean obviously there are a lot of issues in the tax bill, but I would say uh my top priority is to lower and simplify taxes as much as possible for Minnesotans and Minnesota businesses, and that means that we should do as much tax conformity as we can. Um, and there's some tax conformity that wouldn't cost any money. That's really uh, you know, frankly, um pretty disappointing to me that we haven't already done. We haven't already done the I'm sure I don't have to tell everyone in this room the pass-through entity tax, which is a zero cost thing to the state of Minnesota, that just is a way for Minnesota job creators to not have to pay as much in federal tax. That should have happened before March 15th, it should have happened before April 15th. The reason it didn't is because uh Democrats weren't weren't willing to support it happening um at that point in time. I think because they wanted to negotiate you know something else um in exchange for something that's literally everyone should agree is a good idea uh for Minnesotans. There's a scholarship tax credit that would benefit Minnesota students, wouldn't cost Minnesota uh a dime to do that either. And then there are tax conformity things where we could lower taxes on Minnesotans that uh you know we we have to figure out how how they fit into the bigger picture. But lowering taxes as much as possible for Minnesotans, um, simplifying the taxes for Minnesotans and Minnesota businesses, uh that's the one of the big things we got to get done.
SPEAKER_03Sorry, friends. I think you'll see a tax bill. I want to echo some things my colleagues have said. HCMC is a very high priority for us, but it's not as simple as it sounds. I come from about 90 miles southwest of here. Two hospitals in my immediate area are going under. And so the ballpark tax was sold to greater Minnesota twin season ticket holders. We're gonna pay for the stadium, and then the tax will go off. Now we're hearing about a sales tax increase. And one thing that is bipartisan is we've got to fight a little harder for the Minnesotans that have a little less. A one percent sales tax is about the most regressive thing I've heard Minnesota talk about since I've been in the Senate, and by the way, that's nine years, three months, and ten days, not that I'm keeping track. Um, so let's be careful. And for my business owner brothers and sisters in my area, and for all of you, just keep in mind we need you to be a part of the conversation about economics. Tax cuts are considered spending at the Capitol. That's a good thing from a balanced budget. You want to spend money, it has to come from somewhere. But we've got to be careful that we lift up those who have a little less. And one thing voters have told both parties in terms it's not hard to understand is we are stressed over the cost of living, roof overhead, food on table, clothes on back. And both parties better be listening. I can't resist since we're talking a little bit about the stadium. We have to promote events in Minnesota. It's not just Target Field, it's U.S. Bank Stadium, it's our other stadiums. We want people to come to Minnesota to see Taylor Swift, to cheer for a Viking Super Bowl win, or the run towards a Viking Super Bowl win. And we have obligations to keep these stadiums functioning. I live downtown St. Paul when I'm up here. You're gonna hear about St. Paul and the arena there. Think of that as not a question of just what it costs, but what it pays.
SPEAKER_02Um, Representative Nesca, you you talked about the tax bill, we talked about HCMC, this kind of dynamic. Um health care as a whole is the top priority in most polls for Minnesotans. The cost of it, where we're at. Are there things that need to happen for hospitals before the federal cuts go into effect uh January of next year? Um because they're struggling now, and that's before the federal impact of the Big Beautiful Bill.
SPEAKER_01Um yeah, there, I mean, obviously, health care is a very complicated uh subject, and there's a lot of things that we're working on. Our health folks are working on bipartisan. There's a lot of good uh discussion happening, especially around how to make Medicaid conformity work, how to how to make sure that um our counties and and those who are who are administering those programs have the tools that they need so that all of that works better. Certainly, you know, we'd all uh like to make sure that um the programs where that where uh private payers are basically subsidizing uh public payers that that uh disparity um tightens up. Not sure that that we're gonna be able to make progress on that. Uh, but we we have to make the whole system work better. One uh key element of it is making sure that we do extend the reinsurance program so that our private uh health insurance market um doesn't collapse uh going forward. That's something Republicans have been trying to push hard on and haven't gotten a lot of support from uh Democrats on. But certainly uh there are a lot of uh items that that the health committee folks are working on on all those complicated pieces of the puzzle.
SPEAKER_02Jimmy, where are House Democrats on overall healthcare, not just HCMC right now?
SPEAKER_06Well, I think um we're seeing a real crisis in healthcare, and um it's uh in no small part due to the uh impacts of HR1, and we have one in four Minnesotans that are covered by Medicaid. 140,000 of those folks are gonna lose health care um once that blinks on, conveniently right after the election uh coming into next year, and that is putting a huge amount of stress on our hospitals across the state, including rural hospitals. Um we can't uh change that, uh, but we can do some things to help support our uh our hospital systems. And one bill that the Senate passed is uh uh 340B extension and enforcement, um, and this is a uh a way that rural hospitals have been able to help buy down the cost of prescription drugs and help support their their programming. Um the uh so far the House Republicans have uh, even though it was a House Republican bill, uh decided that they don't want to enforce that. Uh we've seen that pharmaceutical pharmaceutical companies had not been following the law, which is why we were trying to enforce it. So that's gotten stuck, but I'm hopeful that we can get that unstuck before the end of the session.
SPEAKER_02Senator Johnson, uh, you're from a rural area, you're familiar with rural health care. What does rural health care need?
SPEAKER_05Well, right now I we talked a little bit about HR1 and the impacts of that, but really our our rural hospitals uh aren't feeling the impacts of HR one. Those those things are in the future for the most part going forward. They've been in crisis for quite some time. Right now, the biggest problem is a cash flow that they're seeing uh within our rural hospitals, where the inflationary costs have been just incredible over the years. And yet the payments that our hospitals receive are sometimes 18 months, 24 months uh delayed. So all of a sudden you have these inflationary costs and you're being reimbursed for costs that were prior to the 20, 30% inflation that we've seen on some of the uh medical device products. Uh so it's very difficult for those uh hospitals to be in business. I've got one in my district that's borrowing money on a monthly basis to make sure that they can make payroll at this point. That's not a sustainable model that they have. And so we're gonna have to figure out something real fast uh for rural critical access care uh hospitals in this state. Completely different in many ways from the HCMC conversation, but one that a lot of our rural areas are facing.
SPEAKER_02Representative Long, there's been a uh big push for Center Friends. Oh, Center French, sorry. I I mean I don't try to skip you that often.
SPEAKER_03The the short version is the reason your businesses are successful is that you've been willing to make tough choices and take some risks. And the American people have asked us for about 25 years can you possibly stop the crisis in health care? And your leadership at the state and federal level has failed. We're either going to reduce the number of people that are insured, or reduce the essential benefits that are required, or reduce the reimbursement for those essential benefits, or it's a mathematical certainty the cost of health care is not coming down. I agree with much of what's been said here, and the problem in rural Minnesota is acute. Thank you, Mark, for flagging that. We're watching access close. Do you know what it means to a town of 5,000 to hear that they're no longer going to deliver babies at that hospital? We're up here in the metro now, and I love the metro. It's just vibrant, it's cool, it's got a lot of great stuff. Some people in those towns have been there for 150 years. It's not funny to them. And we do we continually fail to make the tough choices. Some countries have systems where they don't provide a lot more essential benefits. Try getting cancer treatment for a 78-year-old in Canada. Those are tough choices. And I ask you as business owners and leaders, where are the tough choices and where are we going to make them? The problem we're in is that we ask ordinary Minnesotans, most of those Minnesotans don't know the name of their state senator and they don't really care. What about health care? They stress over it. They're not necessarily sick, but they know they or their loved ones might be. And so I'm encouraging you, Twin West, I'm encouraging business owners everywhere, let's get ready to make some tough choices. And this is a federal matter. And I will say, I'm not the most partisan guy ever, ironic for a Democrat leader, I know, but I do fault HR 1, and I fault it in this way. At a time when your nation has $38 trillion of debt. $38 trillion. When my kids were five, they were just tickled when they discovered a trillion is a thousand billion. $38 trillion we owe. And what do we do? We pass a bill where the most costly item is a tax cut for the wealthiest Americans, and then we whack health care. I agree we have bigger structural problems than that, but just ask yourself: our nation gave a tax cut to the wealthiest American, and the same bill where they cut health care doesn't sound to me like a recipe for success.
SPEAKER_02See, this is old Twin West. We're gonna get spicy, aren't we? Feel free, because you know. Um Representative Long, I I'm gonna take a pivot here because I think that uh Senator Johnson and Senator Front brought up something that we see, and it's an election year, and we're gonna have this dialogue, which is this disconnect between Greater Minnesota and the Metro. That um that there is a real sense in Greater Minnesota that Metro Democrats don't understand what their quality of life is, what the priorities in their community are. Can you what do you take, what do you hear from your colleagues about that, and what do you try to let your caucus know about the needs of greater Minnesota so that we can have a statewide discussion rather than a noisy conversation uh obviously about just the metro. And by the way, that's not that's driven by media markets and all kinds of other things, not politics, but it it it's just it's symptomatic of our times.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Well, as the uh sole Twin West representative on the uh the panel up here, um the I I will say that a lot of this I think is uh you know intentionally fueled sometimes for partisan gain. Um but uh a lot of the problems we face across the state that you heard are are not unique to the Metro or Greater Minnesota. I um had the opportunity to go to Bemidji a couple of weeks ago and uh tour some child care centers. Um I was invited to go uh uh go take a take some tours, and it turns out uh the same thing I hear from constituents about access to affordable child care and uh the challenges that that poses from a workforce standpoint or what they're dealing with in Bemidji. Um healthcare challenges are you know uh present across the state, cost of living challenges are present wherever you are. So I think housing, for example, we've seen great work from both Representative IgO and uh Representative Howard, who represent you know the Metro in Greater Minnesota, but see some of the same challenges of having access to workforce and affordable housing across the state. So I think uh a lot of these issues are are blown up in the political arena and and the debate there, but when you get down to the work at the Capitol, we're seeing the same challenges and are able to, I think, work effectively across across region to try to solve this.
SPEAKER_02Senator Johnson, what what do your constituents think about the focus on sometimes the metro? And what what do you want metro legislators to know about your area?
SPEAKER_05That's that's a really good question. So when Representative Long was talking here about how this is partly made up in politics and it's blown up that way, I completely disagree. What rural Minnesotans are feeling right now is a deafness to the needs and the situation of rural Minnesota. When you go to a child care facility and you say, well, you're gonna have to have a certain degree in early childhood education to be able to take care of you know three months up to a one-year-old. Good God, we're just trying to find people to be in those facilities to keep the doors open. It's not about creating more mandates, it's not about creating more rules and regulations, it's about actually having a facility with its doors open to make sure that it has good quality education for moms and dads for their kids so they can go to work. You know, when you talk about mandates on businesses, like we see with the paid family medical leave, you're talking about shutting down farms, you're talking about shutting down small businesses. This is the deafness that we're feeling. In the mini in the Minneapolis St. Paul area, you have people, you can do that. You can make these mandates, you'll find the people to actually to fill those positions. We don't have that luxury in rural Minnesota. We don't have that degree that you might need to get a certain job to fill that mandate. So it's irritating for rural Minnesotans to hear these sort of things and tell us, we're taking care of you, rural Minnesota. Just listen to us because we know how to work things. It's different now. It's different dynamics, it's different economics. Everything is different. And yet we continue to hear the same message: oh, we're just plain politics. It is not. It's reality of rural Minnesota.
SPEAKER_02So, yeah, it's an issue. Senator Friends, Minnesota has struggled to grow, both in population and economically. And part of that might be mandates. What do we need to get rid of? How do we help Minnesota grow? Like North Mankato, for instance, that you know, booming metropolis.
SPEAKER_03Well, actually, I think I agree with some of the ideology on the Republican side, just to this extent. We've got to grow businesses big and small. I was thrilled yesterday. I'm the kind that texts at five in the morning after I get done taking the text from Mac Klein, a Bobby Joe champion. Never mind that. Senator Klobishar, who I think is our best candidate on the DFL side for governor, and I think may be the next governor, said we've got to take care of businesses big and small. So the first thing we have to do is see businesses as a partner. People will move to our state if we have more jobs. People will move to our state if we have more of a team spirit. Ask yourselves at your companies, how would it go for you in your bottom line if half the company spent their time talking about how terrible the other half the company was and how they're cheering for the marketing department to lose, but they want the accounting department to win? You would go out of business in 10 minutes. Would you play for a football team where half the players are cheering for the other half to fail? Of course not. But we have that sometimes. We have to partner with our businesses. I love the entrepreneurial spirit. We have bagel shops. I had a car wholesaling license. I'm a partner in a law firm. You can text me your jokes when you're ready. And I think that's one of the biggest things, Boyce, is we have to be a welcoming and inclusive state for our businesses. And the irony is that's one of the things that already makes Minnesota great. We are a welcoming and inclusive people. For a hundred years, we've seen the value of bringing people to Minnesota. We did have an increase for the first time in years in domestic in migration, meaning people who move to Minnesota. That reverses a trend. And we better sandpaper down some of the rhetoric against businesses and billionaires. And I hope you're asking us about data centers because I think it's an example of where there's real benefit. Representative Long and I work on clean energy. I'm a big believer that climate is a crisis and it's costing us a fortune now. I don't even want to think about what it's going to be when my kids are older. Data centers build clean energy. The Pine Island data centers building 1,600 megawatts of clean energy and battery storage for free. They're paying for it. I think there's more opportunity for our businesses to help us achieve our goals and make it a better state to live in and make more people move here, weather notwithstanding.
SPEAKER_02We're going to get to energy issues, don't worry. But uh Representative Niska, I I I know the session has limited days, and I know there are issues that poll really well, but they're they're not necessarily um issues that move voters to vote one way or another. Um I'd re be remiss if I didn't think about um a debate about um transports and uh rules committee hearing about impeachment. Is that the most productive legislative time for the business community in Minnesota?
SPEAKER_01Well, I obviously you know there are a lot of issues facing our state, and there are a lot of uh things that folks uh in the in uh all of our districts want us to talk about. Um at the same time, you know, the more most fundamental problem, and I wish you know uh one of my Democrat colleagues would have acknowledged this in the their uh regrets about the 2023 session, our public sector is way out of whack with our private sector. And we've got to figure out how to fix that imbalance uh long term, or our state is not gonna be competitive. It's not gonna be competitive if we have uh too much of our uh uh of the money sucked out of the public sector or uh out of the private sector and into the public sector. We are not uh we might have a one-year blip in uh you know positive in migration, but the reality is the long-term trend for our state is we are lagging behind uh the rest of the country in terms of economic growth. And we can walk and chew gum at the same time, we can talk about contentious issues and try to figure out that um that uh fundamental imbalance. But that's the thing where if we are gonna thrive long term, uh we've got to fix that. We've got to cut taxes, cut mandates, less power in St. Paul, more power in our local communities and our small businesses and our large businesses, so that we can uh uh empower Minnesotans, hire Minnesotans. Um if we don't do that, uh the long-term future of our state uh is not good.
SPEAKER_02Senator Johnson, what's the growth feeling in northwestern Minnesota? And what what have you seen there that's working for growth? And what do you need for more growth in northwestern Minnesota?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, that's that's an interesting question because I live on a border community community of East Grand Forks, and so uh represent uh all of northwest Minnesota, but then also you know, a lot of my district has connections with places like uh the Fargo Moorhead area and down the line, but we are continually seeing uh businesses and individuals making that jump. You know, it's not much colder in North Dakota, so they say, well, the taxes are lower, the regulatory environment uh is uh quite a bit better. Let's make that jump over there. And so, you know, it it's that uh allure actually of taxation, of the of the mandates of those sorts of things on the other side of the river that has got people moving that way. We continue to try to uh maintain business. We got some great businesses in northwest Minnesota. You think of uh legendary ones like Marvin Windows, of uh Articat, Polaris, those sorts of things. They're up there, they're still thriving. But the thing that that is different nowadays is that when they make an expansion, they're not creating jobs up in my neck of the woods. What they're doing is they're going to Tennessee, they're moving to Florida. That's where they're expanding their production lines. Uh, you know, there's a number of reasons why, but you know, they're just making it so difficult to uh to have businesses grow and thrive in that neck of the woods. You know, and we talked a little bit about that with the mandates, with the taxes and things like that. But gosh, we just need to tell people across the nation that we want them here, we want to welcome them there. But when they turn on the TV and they see Minneapolis burning down, they see the protests that are constantly happening in this state, they see the conflict with the governor and the president, they see all this stuff going on. You know, uh Senator France talked about Minnesota being a great place to host an event for a Vikings game, but when you have people saying we don't want to go to this state because we're scared to be there, that's that's pretty difficult to really have businesses and individuals come here and want to thrive in the state when they're too scared to come. So we got to switch that around and make this a place that is welcoming.
SPEAKER_02Representative Long, um the data continues to show that there's a couple key areas, many key areas, but two in particular. One uh last week, state of hospitality. It's about 30 or 40 percent higher cost to run a restaurant in Minneapolis than the rest of the state or in St. Paul. Um, and it's about 50% higher uh than you know border towns. Housing is another place where it's about 25% more expensive to build the same house in Minnesota versus Wisconsin or the Dakotas. Are there things that Democrats can do in your caucus or the House that would lower the cost in those sectors? Um or do we just need to adapt? And I say that because I know we've talked about this for years, but now we've got years of data, and the data is just showing slow growth and and the actual costs and optimism is just sinking.
SPEAKER_06Well, I uh to the greater growth question. The challenge that we're seeing in the competition for in migration, outmigration is we're competing for college grads that are leaving the state and we're trying to get them back, right? And why we can't compete on mountains or oceans or 70-degree weather all the time. So we have to compete on quality of life. Uh, and that includes affordable housing, that includes having access to good health care and schools and childcare and outdoor recreation, and the things that appeal to Minnesotans about wanting to live here and not in a place that they might have better weather, better, better uh outdoor recreation activities. We um we know that housing is one of those key challenges where we we have some edge on housing affordability compared to other states, not our immediate neighbors, but some of the other states we're competing for for college graduates. Um, but we're losing that edge. We're seeing uh affordability on the housing side uh go in the wrong direction. And so that is something that I think we have the ability to work on on a bipartisan basis. There's been a lot of good work in the the housing uh committee this year, and I think there's more to do. I think we understand that as a state we have um a lack of affordable housing, and there are things that the state can do to help remove barriers to build additional affordable housing. Um but I think that you know we have to understand what it is that's attracting uh folks to the state versus other other parts of the country. And if we're we're talking about the uh impacts uh on our business community in the state, I think the the biggest negative impact that we've seen on the local business community in the past year has been the sending in of the largest immigration enforcement operation in U.S. history. And we've seen that that has impacted so many small businesses across the state, not just in the metro, um, and caused a lot of businesses to lay off people. We saw that reflected in the job numbers this past year. We're fine, you know, for one of the first times above the national average in terms of unemployment rate. Um so you know, don't blame it on the metro, right? This is actually the impact that we've seen from federal government enforcement in our communities.
SPEAKER_02I want to follow up just because I hear this a lot. And I think the governor has kind of led that cheer. But one event this year does not explain the last couple years. And and I this is the Twin West tradition. What about the bigger picture? Because we can say that first of all, we represent hospitality. First quarter is always hard. It was the worst ever this year. But that was a trend of years. It's not just about this year, it's now how do we build momentum going forward that allows people to want to invest here? Capital is mobile. And the reality is whether it's housing, restaurants, or commercial real estate, capital is not coming to Minnesota the way it is our pure cities. What do we need to do to get capital here from around the country?
SPEAKER_06Well, there's I think you could talk about a bunch of different sectors. We talked a little bit about data centers, and I'm happy to do that. We worked on a bill that would help attract extender capital when we saw that work this past year. But labor is mobile too. And we have to attract folks to want to live in the state. And I think the answer I gave previously is how we do that. We want we can't compete on a lot of other factors when people can live anywhere they want in the country and often do. And so we need to compete on quality of life.
SPEAKER_02Umiska, I think about your district and your part of the state as kind of in between, right? In between the metro and the north, and um, but it's an aging suburb, exurb area. What what's the mood in your district? What kind of businesses are doing well in the North Metro? What kind of uh businesses uh are not doing well up there?
SPEAKER_01Well, uh my my district is growing, but it's a mostly a small and medium-sized business uh kind of environment. And the problems that I hear about in my district, I think, are the problems that we're dealing with um overall, which is government is too costly, government is too uh not only is the public sector too big, it's too expensive, it's too wasteful. I mean, Minnesotans uh in in my district, uh I think are like Minnesotans all over this uh uh the state, they are embarrassed about the billions of dollars of fraud and uh that have happened um under you know Governor Walls' watch, Keith Ellison's watch, and uh Democrats. Um, and they are frustrated uh by the uh how they're supposed to run their you know 13 to 15 employee business when uh three of their uh employees are now trying to figure out some way to take advantage of uh the paid family medical leave program, and they don't have anyone that they can hire to bring in. So the the cost, the size of the public sector compared to the private sector, like I was talking about, and the inefficiency of the public sector, those are all big, huge blinking red lights. We can talk, you know, there's lots of stuff we can do around the edges. There's we know Minnesota is not going to become like South Dakota, it's not gonna become like Alabama, it's not gonna be a low-tax, low service state, but it cannot become California, it cannot become New York. Uh, you know, we have a lot of uh capital here, both in terms of the you know, business cluster, the educated workforce in the Twin Cities, the resources we have in other uh you know, in northern Minnesota, the beautiful uh lakes, uh, you know, we do have some some pretty cool uh you know draws for people to come live in Minnesota that's not just government. Um but uh if we don't fix that long-term problem that uh was ca I mean really, really exacerbated by a 40% increase in the size of the state budget and a massive increase in the size of state regulation in 2023 and 2024. Um my district and I think all of our districts are gonna be um really really struggling economically. Uh the business owners are not gonna be able to uh thrive and create jobs that will help us have a thriving uh future in our state.
SPEAKER_02Senator French, you kicked off. Maybe 2023 regret was maybe we have some tweaks to PFML. What are those tweaks and could they get done this session?
SPEAKER_03I don't think they get done this session. Some of you know I introduced a bill that would have turned the dials a little bit. I would have um thought the state would maybe be as well or better served by the federal definition of eligibility. Just my two cents on that. Um conformity is always a good thing if we can get it between the federal government and state government. My words, not yours. The benefits, um a little more generous than some places, and those are taxes, not just paid by the business owners, but by the employees in most of our workplaces. So I thought those would be some things worth talking about. Um I worked with our outstanding Senate author of that bill, uh, Senator Elise Mann. Um she and I couldn't come to an understanding. So I think we'll continue to ask, as we should, for all our state laws, can it do any better? If you don't mind, boys, a couple things to the previous comments. Another reason I bet your businesses are successful is you're not uh overlooking the good things. Your state is the number one state in the country for ACT scores. Our public education system is outstanding. You have two of the giants in public education in the state of Minnesota right in this room, and Representative Yuachem and Senator Swadzinski. Let's just keep in mind some of those tax dollars help promote those schools. And I have the funny feeling some of you went to some of those schools, and I wouldn't be shocked if some of your kids are in those schools. I think that is a key economic driver if you look at Minnesota in the last 50 years, and if there's anything Democrats are going to keep fighting for, it's the education of our kids. And I don't mind uh you know pointing out Mankato has integrated its Chamber of Commerce to include right on our board city council, county commissioner, the university leadership. Some chambers don't do it that way, that's fine. But the result is our economy's thriving. We have 2,000 family farms in my district, and I have never been a farmer, but I am so proud of that, to be able to bring those voices in. Where I live in North Mancato, it looks a lot like Bloomington or White Bear Lake, and obviously Mankato, big ass university, got some urban too. So we have to continue to say what do we do well, and please don't let anyone tell you that Minnesota does not do education well, and the implications for raising our kids here, all of us, are profound. Do they sometimes have prosperous, great careers and say I'm gonna retire in Palm Springs? They do. And I think we have to accept that we're not just competing for our business dollars and for capital, we're also competing to make them want to stay here. And to Representative Long's point, I hate to concede this, 60-year-old uh couple that wants to talk about where they want to spend their last 20 years. If sunshine's on their agenda, we're not gonna compete for them. And I think that's okay. We want them to be happy, but where they want to raise their children is right here in Minnesota. We have got to keep that for our economic prosperity as well as our quality of life.
SPEAKER_02So another twin west tradition is we're done by nine. So we're gonna go to audience questions after kind of this next round. But I kind of see I I think a deal is here. Senator Johnson. Not too big deal. Well, I'm just gonna propose that maybe there's a deal to be made. Senator Johnson. All right. What is it? Senator Frentz said he supports tweaks to PFML. Do you think your entire caucus would vote for Senator Frentz's suggested tweaks? Well, can I tell you a quick story? So uh on Wednesday.
SPEAKER_05It's a panel of four lawyers. Of course, we're gonna duck the questions. Um we're walking, I'm walking with Senator Murphy as we do uh every Wednesday morning uh on a bipartisan walk, and and we get through and we get done with that, and uh we're walking through the tunnel, and we run into Senator Frontz. And Senator Frentz you know does his nice greeting and all that stuff and says a few more things. And I leaned over to Senator Murphy after we walked away and I said, sometimes I just don't understand what he's saying. She leans over and says, Me too, Mark. So I know you said a lot of great things uh, you know, on that, Senator Frents, but uh we tried for two years to get those common sense things done for paid family medical leave. Look, there's some great ideas within that program, and I think there's ways that it can be done in a bipartisan way. I think there absolutely can. But we've tried that for two years, and I know that Senator Friends says he's put up an effort for that, but the reality is all it took was one vote from a Democrat to make sure that we had those changes done, and they refuse to do them. And so, yeah, I'd I'd love to make those changes. We have been proposing that for two years, and yet they refused to do that. I just don't see that gonna be happening this year.
SPEAKER_02So, thank you. You you did well to kind of call out what my final question before we go to the audience is. It seems to me that the culture of the legislature in both parties has become caucus first, district second, business last, or compromise gone, especially the last couple years. Senator Francis, you and I have had this conversation privately. I just demonstrated that he could probably put up 33 votes for your changes. But for some reason, the caucuses are more loyal to the members of the caucus now than they are to compromise. Can that change? How does it change? And for each one of you, what will you do to change it?
SPEAKER_03Is that for me?
SPEAKER_02You start.
SPEAKER_03Yes, we can, and if your district does not come first, you're going to be the ex-senator or representative pretty soon. Your district is who hired you at the ballot box, and they can fire you. So I agree with Senator Johnson, the caucuses rarely break. I served as a one-seat minority my freshman term. If Republicans ever broke from each other, I don't remember it, not one single time. That is a failing of ours. We formed a blue dog Senate coalition to try to push for a little more bipartisanship, and we made a little headway, but not much. I'm not sure why the caucus system has morphed into what it is now, but both parties are guilty. My district is a please be more bipartisan type district. I think that's a good thing. Like your businesses, working together produces a better result. I don't have the silver bullet for that unfortunate metaphor, I know. But I would like to see it. And we do occasionally in the Senate see some examples of bipartisanship. We have touched on the OIG bill. This is an independent bill that would, I think, be a bold statement to fight fraud by both parties. Pass the Senate 60 to 7. I consider that a pretty good sign of bipartisanship, and I'm hoping our House brothers and sisters will take a look at that if we bring forward a strong bipartisan message. On fraud. Maybe Bloist that'll send the legislature in the right direction. And maybe in future legislative sessions, for those of us lucky enough to come back in January, Lord help us, there'll be a little bit more bipartisanship. My favorite story of my first year was that I'm a tiny bit older than these gentlemen up here. I know you can't tell.
SPEAKER_02I don't even want to be on time.
SPEAKER_03Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill, president of the United States, Republican, Speaker of the U.S. House, Democrat, used to have drinks together. And they would sometimes go back to their caucus and say, uh, yeah, you're going to vote for this. And it worked sometimes. And I think the people would celebrate that. The theory of the Blue Dogs is that you will see electoral success. In 1994, some congressmen and women chose to do that, and the ballot box rewarded them. To me, that says the people want a little more bipartisanship. Usually bipartisanship in the Senate means you ask the other representative if she'll vote against her caucus, but they don't seem to do as well voting against their own caucus. Just my two cents.
SPEAKER_02Reverend Senator Niska and Representative Long, I give you guys credit because you're in a tie, and uh, you know, as much fun as it was to predict it, it's not that much fun to watch it. Um how can we change that even yet this session? The the loyalty of the caucus over compromise. Because I know there's members in each caucus that would vote for compromise bills in the House.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think um, you know, we you are gonna see, I think, some some compromise, some some negotiation on a few of those high priority things as we get uh uh sometimes we need bedlines to get things done, and I think uh we prove we we showed in the Tide House last year um that uh we were able to work across the aisle. You know, I'm I've only been in this for two terms. My first term was in the uh minority in a trifecta where, like you noted, there wasn't a lot of uh compromise happening even with that the senators who might have been able to uh withhold that 34th vote to make sure that something, the most extreme agenda didn't um didn't pass without some uh compromise across the aisle. The reality is, you know, we have 201 uh individuals who can't be hired and fired by anyone in the building, right? And so uh but but we need to work together. There needs to be 68 votes in the House, 34 votes in the Senate. That requires people uh to find ways to cooperate with each other, and the easiest way to do it is within the caucus where you already share that. So I mean there is a lot of um understandable reasons why uh it it ends up the way it does. Um and uh there are uh lots of conversations uh back and forth. I think coming out of COVID and actually having legislators back uh working with you know in in person, seeing each other face to face, uh you know, I'm hopeful that there'll be some more improvement on that, um, like there has been um with the Tide House and the need for uh compromise there.
SPEAKER_06It was a long. Well, you asked uh four caucus leaders if having a cohesive caucus is a good or a bad thing. Um I would say that uh when you're in a tie or you know a one-vote majority in the Senate or a narrow you know majority in anybody, um you have politics is a team sport, right? And it's not a bad thing to have a team that's functional. Uh if you don't, you're not gonna be able to govern. Um but uh I do think that we are seeing a a lot of pressure um and it's not just inside the caucus, it's you know from voters, it's from uh folks who are going to face their uh endorsing conventions and are worried about uh you know what might happen in in those contexts uh for people to conform to um you know a broader party ideology rather than uh something that might represent their districts. And one example that might be uh persuasive to the Twin West Chamber is gun violence prevention. Uh it's an 80% issue in the western suburbs and Minneapolis. Um every single Republican who represents a suburban district ought to be voting for gun violence prevention, and not a single one of them would. And if you ask them why, it's you know, I would think because they are worried about what would happen for within their caucus. And uh if they go back to uh you know the uh Republican activists who show up in their endorsement conventions and the accountability that they might have in those instances rather than reflecting their constituents.
SPEAKER_02Uh are there things that you have to keep your caucus together on that we're not aware of?
SPEAKER_05Talking to me.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Uh yes. Uh I mean we've got a great caucus. I think we're we're very unified on on most of the issues. I will say, just structurally, if you if you look at the structure of how the legislature is made up, over the past 10 years it's changed so much. I and I think to the detriment of compromise. Uh, you know, go back 10 years ago and you look at the map, and it looks like a checkerboard of red and blues across the state. So you have rural Democrats and you have Metro Republicans within the caucus. So there's interests that are intertwined within the caucus that allows for a space for compromise within that. Now, what you see is a bifurcation of you know the the outstate uh conservative republican versus the uh you know metro liberal within uh just the the few county area. And it's hard to see eye to eye on that. So structurally, it that's a big problem that I see in the in the legislature. I don't have a fix for that, other than you know, maybe we win more uh seats in the metro as Republicans. I think that'd be you know uh so that would be part of it. The other thing that we've really seen an issue with is the governor himself to bringing a lot of DC politics to the state. I haven't talked to the governor since September. That's the last time that we met face to face. If I was govern, and I don't want that job, but if I was what fun would it be to be talking with legislators, bringing them in, trying to find compromise, working across the aisle. Like I think that'd be the greatest part of that job. And yet we see him just stonewalling people who are not necessary to him. Only bringing those couple few people into the room, talk to them, tell them how they're gonna vote. So that's been very detrimental, I think.
SPEAKER_02We're running out of time, but I promised audience questions. Um I think we're gonna have to steal the mic back from uh Representative Niska. We'll make sure he gets it back in the back.
SPEAKER_00Hi. Um my interest is more education, and I will argue with you about Minnesota being a grade in education. ACT scores means that your high school uh students going to college are doing great. 50% of Minnesota students are not reading at grade level. We have the READ Act, we're inching forward on it, but the students are being left behind. They're not the top priority. Our top priority is getting teachers uh trained and qualified in teaching literacy programs, but it's just not having their spite back. And I want to know what you're gonna do for the kids so that they're uh graduating from high school as functioning literate students.
SPEAKER_05Start with you, Senator Johnson. Yeah, thank you so much for that question. That has been one of the biggest things I think Minnesota should be embarrassed about at this point, is our falling test scores uh relative to states like Mississippi. Uh, I know you've heard that talking point across, but our schools are so hamstrung right now with uh rules, regulations, the funding aspects that they have, how it's siloed in there, to be able to support our teachers and doing the things that they need to do within the schools. We are all for making sure that we're empowering our teachers to do that. READAC is part of that, but we also have to allow our schools to have the flexibility to address the needs of the different students within their community. This one size fits all has been very detrimental to our schools, to our teachers. We got to make sure that they have the funding, but they have the flexibility and the ability to teach the things that we know scientifically know uh help the performance of our students across the state. And we have been working with that uh for a number of years. We've also got a plan here from the Senate Republicans to do just that. Be happy to talk with you more after this. Representative Long.
SPEAKER_06I I really appreciate that comment, and um, you're exactly right. We have a lot of work left to do. I think we can be proud of what we've achieved and still acknowledge that we have uh an awful lot that we haven't, and I think the racial equity gaps that we have seen in our educational outcomes are embarrassing for the state. They are in comparison to Mississippi and some of the other states that we uh don't often want to compare ourselves to. I think the READ Act is a good example of a place where we've tried to help take an important step forward. We have now tried to have sustainable ongoing funding for our our schools, including now indexing to inflation so that our schools don't have to keep clawing back year after year uh for trying to help just keep treading water, and there's a lot more we can talk about. We'll don't have time.
SPEAKER_02One more question from the audience.
SPEAKER_07In all this conversation about health care, I uh am disappointed to not hear anything about the senior care industry, which is a big part of our health care industry. And furthermore, going back to 23, very disappointed to see when we had the budget and the opportunity. Our reimbursement rates in the state lag behind. You talk about operators who build these facilities. They'd rather go build them in other states, North Dakota, Iowa, where the reimbursement rate is more fair relative to their costs. When is the legislature going to get around to doing something about this? Because it's long overdue. Thank you.
SPEAKER_02We'll focus on Senator Frontson Representative NISCA on this final question. And um thanks for raising this question so that I don't have to always ask my client question.
SPEAKER_03Well, thank you for the question. We did put uh hundreds of millions of dollars into senior care in the 2023 budget, but we had an $18 billion surplus. I'm very open to continued resources and also looking at efficiency. But keep in mind, one of the things that we do at the state level that they don't have to do at the federal level is the budget must balance. So if we have $100 million for senior care nursing homes, which was part of a Republican Senate initiative. So I liked it and I voted for it. Where I live, that was a higher priority. That's $100 million that isn't going to roads, bridges, K-12, or whatever. And I'm fine uh looking at more resources. I also wonder whether we could do more with the staffing and some of the questions that owners um are telling us about. And we have panels where we work with the leaders in that industry and they want us to do some stuff, and I think we should.
SPEAKER_02Representative.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, uh nursing home funding has been a uh a huge priority of the Republican caucus. It's one of the biggest. I guess things we fought. Maybe I should take that other mic. It it was one of the uh maybe this works for fine. Uh it it was one of the biggest things we we fought for uh last year in the in the 2020 uh 2025 uh tied budget negotiation. It's uh it was kind of confusing to us that it was a so much of a partisan issue that the governor was trying to cut uh nursing home funding. Uh I did want to go back to the the previous question, though, about um education, because this is so so important to the future of our state. Uh we have done way too much in this uh state of uh focusing on funding and not focusing enough on how we empower uh teachers, students, parents, school administrators, instead of uh bureaucrats in St. Paul to dictate what's going on. Um the reality is we need to make sure every parent has the ability and the resources to choose the best um educational uh situation for their uh kid. We need to make sure that every single kid uh learns how they are going to succeed in life and not how they're and not excuses on why they might be failing in life. Um you know, I'll just call it out. We have way too much ideological capture in a lot of the teaching in our classrooms. And I speak to you as the father of two boys who are white and a girl, uh, an adopted daughter who is uh half uh of African descent. I don't want my boys to be taught that they should feel guilty about something that they can't control, and I don't want my daughter to be taught that she can't succeed because of something that she can't control. We should be teaching every single one of our kids that they can succeed and how they're going to succeed and giving them the tools that they're gonna need uh to succeed. And that's different for every family, it's different for every uh kid, and we need to make it recognize that, focus on empowering uh students and empowering parents and not how much money we are spending. Look at results, don't look at funding. We fully funded education supposedly in 2023, but we made it so expensive for our schools that they are not that we have schools that have to lay off teachers and uh and staff because of uh uh the the mandates, the restrictions that we at the state level uh put on them. So uh there's a lot more that we need uh can do and that we frankly need to do in order to make Minnesota continue to compete. We have a very proud tradition of both uh great public education, uh a great school choice tradition. We're the first charter school state. Um, but you know, we're at risk of losing that. Um falling behind Mississippi and reading is not a great place to be.
SPEAKER_02I want to thank everybody. We do like to really stop at nine. But the first person I saw when I came in today was uh uh former Twin West leader Kay Raykow. So I just wanted to do a call out because she said thank you. And I want to say thank you to our panelists, thank you to all of you. Uh based on attendance, uh I think we'll do this again uh and make it a little more frequent rather than wait six or seven years in between uh Twin West events. Um but I want to thank you and obviously robust discussion. This will also be podcasted. Uh, and so if you want to share it and share the discussion, it'll be um on the Fluence Forum website, and then um your best comments will be highlighted on CCO radio on Sunday morning. So being smart. Thank you. Thank you, guys.