Wintry mix spreads across Minnesota

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Lawmakers have just six weeks left to try to reach compromises on transportation, taxes and other elusive issues. But on Monday, the House will focus its attention on fireworks and fantasy sports. 

Full coverage of the 2016 MN legislative session


The Minnesota House is set to vote Monday on a 

bill that would expand legal fireworks sales


The legislation would add "aerial and audible devices" to the list of legal consumer fireworks, although the sale of those fireworks would be limited to between June 1 and July 10, and local officials could choose to enact their own prohibition.

 
Minnesota currently allows only novelty devices. Rep. Jason Rarick, R-Pine City, the bill's sponsor, said an expansion makes sense.
 

"Most people in Minnesota that want to use fireworks are using them. They're going to Wisconsin or North or South Dakota to buy them. So, we're missing out on roughly about $5 million in sales tax," he said. "If we're going to be using them, the state should be collecting the sales tax."


DFL Gov. Mark Dayton vetoed a similar fireworks measure in 2012, and said last week that he remains opposed to an expansion.


The Minnesota House is set to vote Monday on legislation that would legalize the rapidly growing recreational activity known as fantasy sports.


Those are competitions based on the performances of real-life athletes. Rep. Tim Sanders, R-Blaine, said his bill would clarify that the games are legal. He insists that fantasy sports are not gambling. 
 

"It continues to be a game of skill and risk-taking and decision-making, versus chance, because it's not a roll of the dice. Your win is not based on a computer-generated number," he said. "It actually is based off of results that happen on an actual field."


The bill moved quickly through the committee process with little opposition. The group Citizens Against Gambling Expansion has spoken against the legislation, arguing that daily fantasy sports games are a form of illegal online wagering. 
 


Democrats in the Minnesota Senate will release a blueprint this week for spending the state's 


The plan is expected to contrast sharply with the one House Republicans 

 and that could make for a rocky conclusion to the 2016 session.


"We have a $900 million surplus. I expect that we're going to spend that among our spending divisions, and some cash in the bonding bill," Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk said last week.


Bakk, DFL-Cook, said the Senate plan will include some one-time spending to limit the impact on future budgets.


House Republicans rolled out a supplemental budget blueprint Thursday that proposes no net increase in state spending. 


The plan would divide the state's $900 million budget surplus between the two leftover items from last session: transportation funding and tax cuts.

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Lawmakers have just six weeks left to try to reach compromises on transportation, taxes and other elusive issues. But on Monday, the House will focus its attention on fireworks and fantasy sports.

Democrats in the Minnesota Senate will release a blueprint this week for spending the state's $900 million budget surplus.  The plan is expected to contrast sharply with the one House Republicans announced last week, and that could make for a rocky conclusion to the 2016 session.

3 things to watch this week at the Minnesota Legislature

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