Baker, Lang talk about bipartisanship, education funding and the deficit (2025)

WILLMAR — Balancing the state budget, the Earned Sick and Safe Time law, educational funding and the 67-67 tie in the Minnesota House of Representatives and Republican minority in the Minnesota Senate were topics of interest during a Minnesota legislative update in Willmar on Saturday morning.

Sen. Andrew Lang, R-Olivia, and Rep. Dave Baker, R-Willmar, provided the update during an event hosted by the Kandiyohi County Farm Bureau Federation, Kandiyohi County Economic Development and the Willmar Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce . Rep. Scott Van Binsbergen , R-Montevideo, was unable to attend as he was attending a funeral in North Dakota.

“It's always good to come gripe and hand wring and, maybe, a little congratulations from time to time for what we're doing in St. Paul and let everybody know how everything is going,” Lang told the constituents.

He noted that the Senate had started this session with a tie for Republican and DFL members and it is now a two-seat minority for Republicans.

Jennifer Kotila / West Central Minnesota

“The whole time, we have a budget deficit that's looming that everybody doesn't want to talk — well, we want to talk about it realistically,” Lang continued, noting that when there was a tie the Republicans and DFL worked well together on bipartisanship, but that has changed. “ … It's gotten kind of worse and worse as the weeks have gone on … Truthfully, it's just kind of discouraging to see that, especially with all the years that I've been in, and that was probably the best both sides have worked together.”

Lang has been serving District 16 since 2017 and sits on the transportation committee; the environment, climate and legacy committee; the state and local government committee; and, the education finance committee.

Baker, who serves District 16B, has been a representative since 2015 and spoke about how the tie in the House means that any bill that is passed needs bipartisan support, something he said hasn’t happened for about 45 years or so, and is forcing Republican and DFL members to talk to each other and reach agreements.

“It's a big deal, and I'm committed to trying to make sure that we pass a budget on time,” he commented. “It'll be a challenge to get done on time, and if we go into special session, I don't want you to think that it's because we're not trying, we're not talking, because I'm talking to my cohort and my committee co-chair, Dave Pinto, every single day about things that we can actually agree on.”

Baker sits on the ways and means committee, the energy committee, and is a co-chair with Pinto, DFL-St. Paul, of the workforce labor and economic development committee.

One of the things Baker and Pinto can’t agree on is the Earned Sick and Safe Time law, according to Baker, who spent a significant amount of time on Saturday talking about the efforts he is taking to make some changes to the law in order to get exemptions for small businesses, as well as government entities or unions that already provide similar benefits, making the law redundant.

“I want to talk seriously about, ‘How can we roll out paid family medical leave so it doesn't crush small business?’” Baker said. “ … There's a lot of pieces to this good idea that has to be thought about. You don't just roll out big, massive programs with a one size fits all and all that. … I'm frustrated they're not serious about trying to figure out some modifications to this. I am not trying to repeal it.”

Both Lang and Baker also touched on the historic educational funding that was passed in the last couple of years, but how the state funding has now run out.

Lang noted that educational funding received a seven to nine percent increase during the last budgetary session, but that funding “came with a long list of to-dos” that cost a lot of money.

“The superintendents of districts were texting me saying, ‘This math is mathing,’” Lang said, noting the superintendents were thankful for the money, but asking the education finance committee to not do all the mandates because it is going to cause budgetary issues for school districts.

Lang agreed that many of the things school districts were using the money for are valuable, but forcing the school districts to continue with unfunded mandates would lead to firing teachers and schools should have a choice.

“It's pretty scary when political ideology matters more than the teachers that you're trying to represent, because that's really what's going on at this point,” Lang continued. “The agenda, the ideology, those long term, lofty goals that have been pursued … All I want to say is that if you can't afford to do them, don't fire a teacher.”

Also, with the state facing a $6 billion deficit, Lang and Baker shared what is being done to try to cut the budget in order to reduce the deficit.

Lang’s recommendation for tackling the budget issue, with which Baker agreed, is to attempt to reduce it by half the deficit, or about $3.2 billion, this year and “hope that the economy does so well that we don't have to do it again. They don't have to fix a $6 billion deficit today.”

“I've got to find ways to cut certain things out,” Baker added. “That's going to affect economic development offices. It's going to affect how much we can give some daycare centers or for new startups. Those are the things that we have to now face, the cuts, because the money is gone. $18 billion was in that account, that savings account, two years ago, and now we have a deficit.”

He said the DFL and the Republican leaders in the House have agreed on the target numbers for cutting the budget, which he noted was a big step allowing him and Pinto to begin working together on what to cut.