Staff photo by Clay Schuldt State Senator Gary Dahms (R-Redwood Falls) and State House Rep. Paul Torkelson (R-Hanska) attend a legislature town hall at the New Ulm Public Library. The state legislatures discuss the 2023 legislative session and the possible outcomes.

NEW ULM — State House Rep. Paul Torkelson (R-Hanska) and State Senator Gary Dahms (R-Redwood Falls) visited the New Ulm Public Library for a town hall meeting Wednesday.

Torkelson and Dahms were both re-elected in November, but the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) party won a majority of seats in the House and Senate and DFL Gov. Tim Walz was re-elected.

There are a couple of surprises for legislators this year, they said.

“The first big surprise is we ended up losing the majority,” Dahms said “but I would say it was a bigger surprise to the DFL that they got the majority.”

Torkelson and Dahms said the DFL majority next legislative session was unexpected and it left them uncertain of the agenda in 2023.

The other surprise was the $17.8 billion surplus. Minnesota has consistently had a surplus for the last several years. In the last session, the legislature was unable to reach an agreement on how to spend the surplus, which has continued to grow.

In light of the surplus, both legislatures supported tax reform.

“It really tells me we are overtaxing our constituents,” Dahms said of the surplus. He was fairly confident legislators could find bipartisan support on tax reform. Dahms said “It is going to be pretty hard to sell to the public when you have these large surpluses.”

The elimination of the Social Security tax was seen as the most likely area of tax reform. Dahms said both parties campaigned on removing it. 

Torkelson said a Social Security tax could potentially convince people to leave the state. Eliminating the tax could help convince residents to remain in Minnesota. 

There was discussion of Gov. Walz’s proposal of returning the surplus in the form of stimulus checks, but Torkelson preferred changing the tax formula to reduce how much people pay. 

Dahms said there was some surplus spending he could support, but he wanted one-time funding rather than programs that needed to be funded each year.

Specifically, he supported roads and bridges, and In health care, one-time funding to reduce inflation. 

“There is nothing wrong with keeping some of the money in the bottom line,” he said.

Torkelson said last session legislators tried to pass a bonding bill, but no agreement was reached. A capital investment bill that sells bonds requires a super-majority.

“I would hope that they would pick up that bill from last year, clean it up a little bit so it is acceptable to Republicans,” Torkelson said.

His hope was the state would invest in things that would support the economy.

Infrastructure is a strong investment, like roads and bridges but Torkelson said sewers and stormwater systems could use support. 

Dahms favored broadband expansion but also wanted to see funding to universities and colleges for building upkeep and maintenance.

Torkelson said any bonding projects must have regional significance. He believed the Hermann Monument could qualify. The actual Hermann statue is in fine shape, but the base it stands on needs restoration. He expected there would be local fundraising efforts and that could be paired with a state bonding bill, but this project was likely a few years away.

Torkelson said there was little doubt the state would see an increase in education funding. Gov. Walz was strongly supportive. Torkelson said he wanted the funds put to good use. He supported the funding for technical center education, similar to what happened with New Ulm’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) Center.

Dahms said the best education funding was to put money into the formula to ensure all the schools are treated the same for funding. It also allows the individual boards to spend the money as they need it. Dahms wanted local schools to decide how best to spend it rather than legislatures providing a cookie-cutter approach. 

The childcare shortage is a hot topic. Torkelson and Dahms saw the shortage hurting small communities. The two legislatures saw over-regulation as the problem. They believed childcare providers were quitting because of the regulations. 

Dahms said child safety was important but believed regulation has gone off the deep end. 

The hope is that by alleviating the childcare shortage, more parents can return to the workforce.

While the Republican legislators were uncertain about the DFL agenda for the next session, they believed Minnesota would likely see marijuana legalization in the next two years. 

Neither Dahms nor Torkelson supported marijuana legalization, but acknowledge it had strong public support.

“We will be monitoring closely and do everything we can to reign it in,” Torkelson said. 

Dahms felt marijuana legalization in Minnesota was still over a year away because even with support there were many questions about what legalization would look like. 

Dahms said a mechanism was needed for quick testing if a person was under the influence of marijuana. There were other questions about how businesses test employees and whether they can be fired for failing a marijuana test if it is legal in the state. 

Dahms was concerned there was no agency in place to regulate it. 

Torkelson said it was a complicated situation where it was illegal on the federal level but not in a certain state. Money from marijuana sales cannot go into federal banking institutes forcing other types of payment.

The legislators pointed to the recent legalization of edible THC in Minnesota and the regulatory problems it created problems. There is no regulatory agency to supervise the product. There is also no tax on it. 

“We can’t afford to do the same with marijuana,” Torkelson said. “We must be much more deliberate and cautious if we are going to legalize it.”

The legislature was asked why edible THC products became legalized last session in the first place if the regulatory checks were not in place.

Dahms said the 2018 federal agriculture bill put in regulations on hemp and other products, but not on edibles. This was challenged in the courts on the federal level. The court ruled edibles were uncontrolled and it could be sold.

“The medical and pharmaceutical industry came to legislators to put parameters on the edible products,” he said. However, once the guidelines were in place to make edibles harder to sell, it created a market by alerting people it could be sold. 

“I was surprised that it hadn’t been picked up on earlier,” Dahms said. 

The entire town hall hearing will be broadcast on New Ulm Community Access Television.

The next state legislative session begins on Jan. 3.