The 2023 Minnesota legislative session is over.
Democrats returned to St. Paul in January with a $17.5 billion surplus and total control of state government, which hinges on their one-seat majority in the Senate that was decided by just a few hundred votes.
One dissenting voice would have been enough to derail their entire agenda. Instead, swing-district senators were reliable green votes on every major piece of legislation.
In just four months, the DFL majority:
- Established a “fundamental right” to abortion through all nine months of pregnancy;
- Declared Minnesota a “refuge” for children seeking sex changes;
- Passed the “Take Pride Act,” which will prohibit nonprofits that serve minors from discriminating based on “gender identity” in hiring practices;
- Passed protections for women who travel to Minnesota for abortions;
- Repealed protections for babies who survive abortions;
- Stripped pregnancy resource centers of state funding;
- Gutted reporting requirements for abortion facilities;
- Expanded medical assistance to include abortion (taxpayer-funded abortion);
- Repealed an informed consent law for abortion;
- Legalized recreational marijuana use;
- Increased government spending by 40 percent;
- Raised the gas tax by indexing it to inflation;
- Created a new delivery fee on all retail orders over $100;
- Increased sales taxes and fees for vehicle purchases and registration;
- Passed a metro-wide sales tax increase;
- Enacted automatic voter registration;
- Passed pre-registration for 16- and 17-year-olds;
- Joined the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact;
- Funded a study on ranked-choice voting;
- Passed a bill to provide driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants;
- Passed a bill to provide health care to illegal immigrants;
- Restored the right to vote to violent felons who are on probation;
- Created a commission to design a new state flag;
- Replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous People’s Day;
- Declared Juneteenth a state holiday;
- Raised the threshold for a political party to attain or maintain “major party” status from 5 percent to 8 percent beginning in the 2024 general election;
- Passed a bill to require Minnesota’s electricity grid to be 100% carbon-free by 2040;
- Banned so-called “conversion therapy;”
- Passed two gun control bills, including a red-flag law and universal background checks;
- Provided free college at state institutions to students in families with income under $80,000;
- Passed a bill to provide free lunch and breakfast to all Minnesota students regardless of family income;
- Increased spending on K-12 education by 10.2 percent;
- Banned Native American mascots;
- Raised fees for boating;
- Created a hate speech database;
- Banned no-knock warrants;
- Created a program that will allow inmates who complete certain programming to serve just half of their prison sentences;
- Created a state-run paid leave program that will raise taxes on employers and employees;
- Established a new legal avenue for prosecutors to seek lower sentences;
- Funded a new Office of Restorative Practices that will propose alternatives to incarceration for juveniles who commit serious crimes;
- Commissioned a study on abolishing cash bail;
- Created a new public database that will assign climate scores to large businesses;
- Capped rebate checks at $260 per filer, with income limits, and down from the $1,000 initially proposed by Gov. Tim Walz.
Correction: A previous version of this story indicated that fees for fishing and visiting state parks were increased during the 2023 legislative session. While those fee increases were passed by the Minnesota House of Representatives during the 2023 legislative session, they were eventually removed when the House and Minnesota Senate agreed on the final terms of the environment and natural resources bill.
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
