It’s locals vs. the Legislature, round 2: The battle over pre-emption is back at the Minnesota Capitol
On the first day of the 2018 legislative session in Minnesota, lawmakers reinstated a committee, which included members of both the House and Senate, to discuss House File No. 600. It was a procedural motion that went mostly unnoticed, but in doing so, the most contentious debate of the last session was quietly renewed: whether to pre-empt local governments from setting their own wage and labor rules and other policies.
Pre-emption became a top priority in 2017 for Republican legislative majorities in Minnesota and in other states across the nation, as they moved to block more progressive city governments from increasing their own minimum wages and setting new paid leave policies that don’t match up with state regulations. Minnesota lawmakers also introduced proposals to pre-empt cities on a host of other policy issues, from trying to ban the use of plastic bags in retail stores to becoming sanctuary cities.
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Democrats expect pre-emption bills to make a comeback. “We are preparing for it to be a battle,” said Chris Conry, who works with TakeAction Minnesota, one of the groups that filled the Capitol last session to oppose pre-emption. “We are in a state of preparedness.”
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For his part, TakeAction Minnesota’s Conry is watching all of the pre-emption proposals at the Legislature this year, but he’s hopeful none will pass with Dayton in the governor’s office — and as more Minnesotans learned what those bills do. “It’s deeply unpopular,” he said. “When people understand that their own legislator is trying to undermine local democracy to try and prevent people from raising the minimum wage or getting sick time, no one is really excited about it.”
