A central aspect of the 2023 Minnesota legislative session was determining the state’s budget for the next two years, including what to do with a large surplus that began emerging in 2020.

Now that the session has wrapped, here is a look at some of the key issues tackled, including perspective from staff of the Minnesota Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the state’s bishops.

Abortion

Measures to codify abortion in Minnesota moved quickly as the 2023 legislative session opened.

Pro-life and pro-abortion advocates gathered at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul various times throughout the session as debates took place in the Legislature. In January, as bills made their way through House and Senate hearings, Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Williams of St. Paul and Minneapolis, along with Bishop Chad Zielinski of New Ulm and the state’s four other Catholic bishops, wrote a letter protesting the bills and had it hand-delivered to every lawmaker.

Archbishop Hebda also released a video and accompanying statement, urging people to reach their legislators to head off approval of abortion-related legislation. In the video, Archbishop Hebda called bill proposals “part of the most extreme abortion legislative agenda in Minnesota history.”

Bishop Zielinski — among those who testified against the legislation — said, in part, “The bill reflects a complete denial of the humanity of the unborn child, their right to live, and the state’s interest in protecting nascent human life.”

Ultimately, after it passed the House and Senate, Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, signed the Protect Reproductive Options, or PRO Act — a bill placing a right to abortion for any reason and without limit on viability — into state law on Jan. 31.

Additionally, the Legislature this session left few care requirements in place for infants who survive abortions. It repealed the Positive Alternatives Act grant program that helped support pregnancy resource centers and expanded taxpayer funding to include elective abortions. It eliminated the informed consent in writing requirement as well as a mandatory 24-hour waiting period prior to a woman undergoing an abortion.

Now that the session has ended, it’s time, suggested Jason Adkins, executive director and general counsel of MCC, for Catholics to “think about what it means to rebuild or build anew the pro-life movement here in Minnesota” and to consider the question: “How do we create a state where every child is welcomed in life and respected by law?”

Answering that question poses new challenges: “Now we have to change hearts and minds and laws going forward,” Adkins said, particularly with the possibility of “constitutional amendments in 2024 or 2026 that would further codify and strengthen abortion rights here in Minnesota.”

Adkins said, however, “regardless of whether the laws change, we can always work to decrease demand for abortion” by accompanying women in crisis pregnancies and walking with mothers in need.

Civic life

This session, as in prior years, MCC backed a particular piece of voting legislation.

The proposal — passed by the Legislature and signed into state law by Walz March 3 — restores the right to vote to those convicted of felonies upon their completion of any term of incarceration imposed and executed by a court for the offenses.

“When people have paid their debts, we find there are collateral consequences for crimes that inhibit them from getting housing, access to certain forms of employment, rebuilding their life,” Adkins said. “So, when you pay your debt to society, which you should … then, how do we find ways to reintegrate people into political participation? … Giving people the opportunity for positive civic participation to play a role in society. One of the hallmarks of Catholic social teaching is the call to participation; how can we expect people to model and exhibit good behavior when we isolate them from some of the most very basic things of civic life in society?”

Education

The Legislature took up a series of education proposals this session.

St. Paul-based advocacy organization Opportunity for All Kids, an MCC advocacy partner, backed legislation that would establish the creation of education savings accounts. The accounts would operate like Health Savings Accounts or Flexible Spending Accounts, to allow families to cover specifically education-related expenses, “including private-school tuition, tutoring, supplies, transportation, and extracurricular activities and individual classes at local public schools.” The provision was not included in the finalized K-12 spending bill that passed the Legislature May 17.

Relatedly, MCC and the Minnesota Nonpublic Education Partners coalition it co-leads voiced support of the Legislature continuing its support of alternate transportation options for nonpublic school students, established under the Safe Learning Plan during the COVID-19 pandemic. The provision passed the House and Senate and was included in the final legislation.

Nonpublic Education Partners also backed an expansion in nonpublic student counseling aid programs. MCC pushed for primary school inclusion “because mental health needs are increasing,” Adkins said. Ultimately, expanded funding was not included in the finalized bill.

Meanwhile, Walz recommended funding for a Building and Cyber Security Grant Program. The Legislature did allocate funding for the 2024 year, but it did not include nonpublic schools as MCC had asked.

Family life

MCC particularly advocated for direct economic relief to Minnesota families this session.

Adkins said he and MCC staff “were excited this session when legislators really sought to make Minnesota the best state to raise a family.”

Families First Project

As the session began, MCC introduced its Families First Project, an advocacy campaign MCC considered central to its efforts this session. The platform promotes policy that would help remove roadblocks Minnesotans confront in forming and raising their families.

The centerpiece of the Families First Project is the creation of a nation-leading state child tax credit, which was included in the tax bill. The legislation allocates $400 million per year in tax relief to lower-income families. Adkins said he considers it a major success of the session.

The Legislature passed the robust tax credit with “up to $1,750 per child and with no cap on the number of children who can benefit in a family,” Adkins said.

According to MCC, this per-child refundable tax credit was expected to reduce childhood poverty in the state by 25-30%. Its versions in the Legislature were targeted to assist low-income families and MCC encouraged its extension into Minnesota’s middle class.

“It’s a great thing to build on going forward,” Adkins said. He added he and the MCC staff “think it’s best to empower families directly with economic benefits and opportunity rather than having them go to a government program to benefit.”

“We are encouraged by the fact that what we proposed as the metric for how the budget should be measured — how it helps the family — was indeed embraced by Gov. Walz and legislators,” Adkins said. “Legislators are now asking what it means to make Minnesota the best state to raise a family. We may have disagreements about the particulars, but family economic security is now a key moral test of the budget.”

Additionally, Families First bill proposals would authorize the issuance of pregnancy-related disability parking certificates and exempt more baby products from sales tax. These provisions did not pass.

Another related proposal that passed the Legislature and garnered MCC support was earned sick and safe time legislation, which would provide workers the ability to earn one hour of time off for every 30 hours worked. MCC considers the legislation “vital” to supporting family life, especially as it would allow workers time to care for themselves when ill as well as care for sick family members.

MCC also pushed for a payday lending reform and noted Minnesotans who face financial difficulties are now better protected from debt traps by a 36% interest rate cap on payday loans, due to legislation passed this session.

‘Driver’s Licenses for All’

Walz signed into law March 7 legislation to allow undocumented people in Minnesota to apply for state driver’s licenses. The legislation — known as “Driver’s Licenses for All” — allows an individual to obtain a Minnesota driver’s license or state identification card without the need to show proof of citizenship or lawful presence in the United States. Proof of lawful presence in the U.S. became a requirement to obtain a Minnesota license or identification card following a rule change implemented in 2003.

Archbishop Hebda and MCC were among those backing the legislation. “Every Minnesota resident, especially those who have proven themselves as hardworking contributors to our communities, deserves to live with dignity, not in fear of being separated from their families every time they drive to meet basic needs,” Archbishop Hebda said at a news conference as the Legislature began its 2023 session.

Now signed into state law, applications will be accepted starting Oct. 1.

Adkins recognized the legislation “generates strong opinions.” But he said a primary consideration is how this legislation affects families. “It’s not to reward lawbreaking or some of these other claims. It’s to say, ‘We need to keep families together.’ Our undocumented brothers and sisters are here, they’re not going anywhere. Many of them have been here for many years; they’ve built lives; they’ve had children; they, sometimes, have children who are citizens; and no one should be separated from their families simply for going to the grocery store, going to work, taking their kids to school or church. It’s to say that we’re not going to get Immigration and Customs Enforcement involved for minor traffic violations.”

“Does the availability of a driver’s license allow an undocumented immigrant to vote? No,” Adkins said. “Does it grant all the privileges of other citizenship? No. It’s meant specifically for driving privileges only. And that’s the extent of what this driver’s license does.”

Gender ideology

The Legislature took up a series of proposals related to gender ideology this session — examples included a bill to prohibit counseling for minors who seek to address gender discordance, the so-called “conversion therapy ban”; a bill that would allow minors from other states to be brought to Minnesota to seek “gender-affirming health care” unavailable in other states due to law or custody orders; a Minnesota Constitution amendment that would countermand attempts for accommodations or exemptions for those who do not assent to gender theory; a bill proposing a new definition in the Minnesota Human Rights Act for gender identity; a “Gender-Affirming Rights Act” which asserts a person’s right to subjectively define gender existence; and a bill to require “gender-affirming care coverage,” including for medical and surgical interventions to manipulate the body.

In April, Walz signed into law the counseling ban and the “transgender refuge” legislation mentioned previously.

MCC spoke out against the pieces of legislation, arguing they cause harm and create confusion — particularly among young people — about the human experience and intrinsic identity.

The Church needs to be at the center of conversations about identity, Adkins said, “because we have a particular perspective that we think promotes human flourishing. … we’re the Church that helps people live the way in which they were created.”

He went on to state that “what’s troubling about legislation that enables children to receive, in some cases, permanent, life-altering therapies, hormones, even surgeries to conform to their subjective sense of their self … what they do is they inhibit one’s ability to form family; we’re made for relationship, we’re made for each other, we’re made for life.”

The legislation also poses questions for the future regarding parental rights in the state as gender ideology enters certain public education spheres, Adkins said.

“What’s troubling and what we’re seeing is that parents are really confused about these issues; there’s such strong cultural headwinds pushing in one particular way to help them affirm their child because parents are scared about losing their child … Parents need to be really aware and need to get forms of counseling and support to help their child conform his or her psychological state to the objective reality of their body,” Adkins said. “Now what’s really sinister is also there was a ban on counseling that passed (this session), the so-called ‘conversion therapy ban.’ The real conversion therapy of allowing a child to alter his or herself physically and pharmacologically — that is supposedly acceptable — but a minor child seeking counseling to help align their psychological state with the objective reality of the way God made them, that’s not OK according to legislators. So, we’re really doing harm to our young people through these pieces of legislation here in Minnesota.”

Health

A finalized health bill that passed the Legislature would appropriate $9.34 billion during the 2024-2025 biennium, $1.78 billion of which is new spending.

Included in the finalized bill were provisions related to abortion (outlined earlier in this article) as well as emergency shelter (outlined in this article’s next section).

Also included in the finalized bill was a provision to provide access to health care insurance coverage for lawfully present noncitizens and undocumented noncitizens through MinnesotaCare. MCC supported the provision, arguing it encourages undocumented Minnesotans to access preventive care as to avoid unnecessary trips for costly emergency room services.

Housing

Walz signed into state law May 15 a $1 billion housing omnibus bill — according to the governor’s office, the largest of its kind in state history.

The investment would allocate funding to provide rental assistance, improve access to affordable housing, reduce housing and homeownership disparities, and prevent homelessness throughout Minnesota.

“Housing has been identified as an important way in which people climb the ladder out of poverty,” Adkins said. “It provides a measure of stability in one’s life.”

Catholic Charities Twin Cities urged the public this session to contact lawmakers regarding funding for emergency shelter services and operations, supportive housing programs, and programs that address housing inequities, among other priorities. “We’re asking the state to step up so that we can continue to show up for our neighbors in need,” the nonprofit organization stated on an action page it published online.

The push to support emergency shelter services and operations was one MCC and members of Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths in Minnesota also backed.

“Despite the fact that Minnesota has a very strong social safety net, where I think things fall through the cracks is in that distinction between poverty and destitution,” with more state resources for the former than the latter, Adkins said.

“We need emergency shelter capital but also emergency services and emergency shelter program funding, and that’s where Catholic Charities has really been leading the way … as they address those critical frontline needs in terms of the most destitute in our community so that they can live, in fact, with a measure of human dignity,” Adkins said.

To that end, the Legislature approved $100 million in new spending for emergency shelter grants.

MCC, through its advocacy partner the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition, also supported proposed coding for a new section of existing state law that would authorize the creation of micro-unit dwellings on religious properties for those experiencing homelessness. That proposal was ultimately not included in the final housing omnibus bill Walz signed into law May 16. However, the proposal was passed in a jobs, economic development, labor and industry omnibus bill, which Walz signed into state law May 24.

Marijuana

MCC strongly opposed a proposal that would legalize adult recreational use of marijuana.

The proposal bounced back and forth this session, ultimately passing the Legislature May 20; Walz signed the legislation into state law May 30. The legislation takes effect Aug. 1 and would include up to a 10% retail tax in addition to the state’s 6.875% sales tax and other locally imposed sales taxes.

In 2014, medical marijuana was legalized in Minnesota; last year, recreational marijuana edibles containing a maximum of 5 milligrams of THC derived only from hemp were legalized.

This latest legislation allows adults to possess up to 2 pounds of marijuana in their homes; no more than 2 ounces in public. It would be illegal to operate a motor vehicle while under the influence; give marijuana to a person under the age of 21; or smoke or vape marijuana in a multifamily housing complex, at child care or family or group care facilities.

MCC encouraged Minnesotans to advocate for safeguards, such as potency caps and childproof packaging, by contacting the newly forming Cannabis Advisory Council and the Office of Cannabis Management.

“For a Legislature that supposedly spent a lot of time putting people over profits, this is one of the worst instances of putting profits over people,” Adkins said about the decisions made regarding marijuana this session. “Fortunately, MCC was able to get in the bill an impact study” to monitor the effects recreational use of marijuana might have on the Minnesota population.

A series The Catholic Spirit produced on this issue can be found online: thecatholicspirit.com/marijuana.

Public safety

This session, a variety of proposals regarding public safety were debated in the Legislature.

MCC voiced support of the Clean Slate Act, which would provide processes for the automatic expungement of certain convictions. The legislation ultimately passed this session.

Adkins said the legislation helps Minnesotans with overcoming certain barriers to reintegration into the community after a conviction, and thus facilitates “access to employment, access to housing, and other things.”

“(T)he Catholic Church in Minnesota has consistently advocated for responses to crime that do not simply punish, but that also rehabilitate and restore,” Adkins wrote in a letter to members of the Public Safety Omnibus Conference Committee on behalf of MCC. “Expungements for certain offenses can help reintegrate them into the community and make it easier for them to rebuild their lives. Expunging certain convictions will also have the positive collateral effect of also rebuilding their family life, which promotes the well-being of any minor children that they may have.”

Another proposal MCC encouraged was to expand criminal background checks for certain types of gun purchases. Such regulations “come with little cost and might save hundreds of lives per year,” Adkins wrote in the letter. At the same time, MCC pushed for lawmakers to support “a renewed commitment to enforcing laws related to illegal gun possession that are already on the books.”

“With rights comes responsibility; that has been a hallmark of our discussion around guns and gun safety,” Adkins said. “Making sure that people who possess certain forms of guns are able to do so responsibly is consistent with promoting the common good.”

Walz, meanwhile, previously voiced his support of “red flag laws” — allowing law enforcement to intervene when people are at risk of injuring themselves or others with a firearm — Adkins said although MCC has supported similar proposals in the past, there was concern regarding this legislation’s wording and its constitutionality, concern echoed by groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union.

Walz ultimately signed the red flag law and universal background checks into state law May 19, among other measures outlined in this session’s public safety bill.

A third proposal receiving MCC support was one that would appropriate money for supplemental nonprofit security grants, to protect those praying and worshipping at religious institutions against acts of violence; this was included in the public safety omnibus bill the Legislature passed.

“Many houses of worship are being targeted,” as are certain nonprofits such as pregnancy resource centers, Adkins said. This legislation allows entities that might not qualify for federal funding to qualify for security funding from state grants.

Technology

An ongoing experience for many Minnesotans is the effect of social media — particularly its use among young Minnesotans. This session, the state’s bishops advocated for prohibiting social media algorithms on minors, using their pastoral experience to speak to the difficulties families face navigating the psychological strain social media has on young people.

Maggee Hangge, policy and public relations associate with MCC, wrote to members of the Legislature that “The goal for these algorithms is to keep users engaged in the platform for as long as possible, which in turn gives a false fabrication of connectedness and reality.”

The Minnesota Legislature proposed the creation of the “Minnesota Age-Appropriate Design Act” to prevent social media companies’ use of algorithms on minors in its omnibus commerce finance and policy bill, which passed at the end of April.

What’s ahead

Conversations about legislative efforts for next year are already underway.

“Catholics need to be already engaged about what those issues might be … the work for 2024 begins now. … we need to inform ourselves about the issues, form our consciences in the right principles of Catholic social teaching, so that we can then transform our state,” Adkins said.

“You might not be interested in politics, but politics is interested in you,” Adkins said, adding legislative decisions affect every Minnesotan in some way.

There are ongoing opportunities for “faithful citizenship,” Adkins said — members of the Catholic community sharing “what serves human dignity and the common good” with their representatives.

Catholics across Minnesota can join MCC’s Catholic Advocacy Network by visiting mncatholic.org, which provides the tools needed to contact legislators about key issues.

The 2024 legislative session is scheduled to begin Feb. 12, 2024.

Editor’s Note: The Catholic Spirit will continue in-depth coverage of these issues in its upcoming editions.

Update: This article has been updated to reflect that though a proposal authorizing the creation of micro-unit dwellings on religious properties was not included in the final housing omnibus bill signed into state law, it was included in a jobs, economic development, labor and industry omnibus bill signed into state law.