Rep. Paul Torkelson (L) and Sen. Gary Dahms

ST. PAUL — Tuesday marked the start of Minnesota’s 2023 Legislative session with the swearing-in of legislators.

This was the first time since the COVID pandemic that the public was able to attend the first day.

State Rep. Paul Torkelson (R-Hanksa) said the swearing-in ceremony went smoothly.

“It was nice to have everybody on the floor with their family and support,” Torkelson said. “It was a lot of excitement for the new members. For me, it was my eighth swearing in and it is still an exciting day.”

Starting off this session, Torkelson is serving as the Deputy Minority Leader. This means he is the number two guy in the party’s caucus.

“I will be working with all the members of my caucus,” he said.

The Republican caucus will face an uphill challenge this session. For the first time in eight years Democrats hit the trifecta of controlling both chambers of the Legislature as well as the governor’s office. The Democrats came out of the November elections with a one-vote majority in the Senate and a six-vote advantage in the House, which positions them to pass a long list of Democratic priorities that the former Senate Republican majority had blocked. The first hearing on abortion rights legislation is set for Thursday.

A 1995 Minnesota Supreme Court decision already protects the right to abortion. DFL leaders, mindful of how the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Roe v. Wade decision in June, want to codify protections into state statutes as a safeguard. As a sign of the issue’s importance, the abortion rights bills will be the first ones introduced in both the House and Senate.

Torkelson opposed codifying abortion rights but believed the Democrats would be successful it passing it.

“Many of us wish we would protect the unborn, but that’s going to be a challenge in this environment,” he said. With the trifecta in place, Torkelson believed the Republican main purpose of this session was limiting problems in DFL legislation.

“We really can’t stop them because we don’t have the votes, but we can point out deficiencies in these bills and try to tune them up so they don’t cause long-term problems,” he said.

State Sen. Gary Dahms (R-Redwood Falls) was more optimistic about Republican chances this session.

“I think we can get some stuff done,” he, said. “The big priority is going to be the budget,” and the projected surplus, Dahms said. “We’ve got to be responsible with this money … and be sure that we spend it in a balanced way.”

Minnesota has a projected tax surplus of $17.6 billion. One of the top aims of this session was how to spend it. Torkelson said the surplus is one-time money and he believed spending it on one-time things was the best option. His party would oppose establishing new programs that would require yearly payouts.

Gov. Tim Walz made clear in his inauguration speech that education will be his top priority for the money. Torkelson said there was bipartisan support for using surplus on education.

“We have this COVID hangup in education where kids got behind, we need to get them caught back up,” Torkelson said. “From that perspective, we certainly agree with the Governor.”

Walz also indicated he wanted to return some of the surpluses to taxpayers via rebates. Individuals would receive $1,000 rebate checks and families would receive $2,000.

Torkelson is uncertain if there is enough support among Democrats for these rebate checks and he personally would prefer to see the surplus returned through tax relief. He strongly favors removing the tax on social security benefits.

Torkelson believed there was bipartisan support for this change as both parties campaigned on removing it.

“I would hope this provision would make its way into law,” he said.