Minnsights Blog

This week, the upcoming elections are at the forefront of our minds. We’re in the final weeks of the 2024 election cycle, and much attention is being directed toward Governor Walz, who is the vice-presidential candidate for the Democratic Party on the national stage. This is an exciting development for our state.

Two things that have informed my adult life are a couple events in my adolescent life. First, a good friend was in a car accident and became disabled from the waist down at age 17. Four years later, a virus attacked my dad’s spine while he slept leaving him unable to feel his legs the next morning. So I came to learn a thing or two about the challenges people who use wheelchairs face. Given that I was often called up to help them enter buildings and such, for a person not in a chair, I was a savant at sussing out whether or not a building was accessible. I also became excellent at tooling around my parent’s house in my dad’s wheelchair in the wheelie position (45 seconds through the dining room, around the living room and back!)

Lawmakers passed a new law that prohibits employers from meeting or communicating with their employees on public policy. The “captive audience” law stipulates that communications must be “wholly voluntary” and not be political or religious in nature. There is a federal preemption of these laws, and they have been litigated in other states. Minnesota’s law is effective on August 1, 2023.

Carbon-free 2040: Minnesota now has a standard to be 100% carbon-free by 2040. This requires utilities in Minnesota to get a percentage of their electricity from carbon-free sources, starting with 80% by 2030, 90% by 2035 and 100% by 2040. Minnesota businesses and utilities are already moving toward goals of sustainability. But this aggressive timeline will force utilities to move quickly. Although nuclear power is carbon-free, no provisions for new nuclear energy production were included this legislative session.

Legalization of recreational marijuana: Marijuana is now legal for adult recreational use. This means that cannabis is now considered a “lawful consumable product” in the state. The new law established a new Office of Cannabis Management, created an expungement process for maijuana-related offenses, established regulations and licensing structures for the new industry and provided guidelines for workplaces and employee cannabis use. The new law provides restrictions and guidelines and parameters for testing employees and job applicants for cannabis use. This bill takes effect August 1, 2023.