Minnesota Legislature
State Fair poll: Support grows for marijuana legalization, sports gambling
By HPIS Staff
Support for the legalization of recreational marijuana and sports gambling appears to be on the rise, at least among attendees of the 2022 Minnesota State Fair.
A majority of those (61.4%) who responded to the annual House of Representatives State Fair Opinion Poll indicated they support allowing the recreational use of marijuana by those age 21 and over, while 30.2% oppose legalization and 8.4% are undecided or have no opinion on the issue.
That is a slight bump in support among fairgoers as, when the same question was asked in 2021, 58.3% said they favor legalization and 34.1% were against it.
Conducted by the nonpartisan House Public Information Services Office, the poll is an informal, unscientific survey of issues discussed in prior legislative sessions and that may again be topics of discussion in 2023. This year’s poll was taken by 7,110 fairgoers, a significant increase from 2021, when 5,231 people took the poll, reflecting the overall increase in attendance at this year’s fair.
Recent Dailies
$259 million omnibus health finance and policy bill gets committee approval
By Tim Walker With a sizable budget surplus at hand, now is the right time to make expansive investments to improve health care for all Minnesotans, says the sponsor of the omnibus health finance and policy bill.House human services committee approves wide-ranging omnibus package
By Margaret Stevens
Addressing deep poverty, homelessness, mental health issues, community living and, especially, workforce shortages in caring professions are part of a wide-ranging omnibus bill ...
Transportation panel OKs omnibus bill proposing funding boost for state's roads, transit and smaller cities
By Margaret Stevens
With billions of dollars going to the states through the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, it is historic times for transportation.
“We’ve seen nothing like th...
Divided committee approves amended omnibus public safety package
By Tim Walker
Despite disagreements over individual provisions in the omnibus public safety policy and finance bill, the House Public Safety and Criminal Justice Reform Finance and Policy Com...
Tax bill focused on targeted cuts advances in House
By Rob Hubbard
Should tax cuts be simple and sweeping? Or should they be numerous and targeted?
That will be the tax policy debate going forward at the Capitol this year. On the day that o...
Omnibus environment and natural resources bill advances on party-line vote
By Brian Hall
A House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee that’s been divided all session stayed that way Thursday as it approved its omnibus environment and natura...
House passes $1 million measure to combat avian influenza outbreak
By Brian Hall
With two days remaining before the Legislature’s annual Easter/Passover Break, the House moved quickly to pass funding to address the breakout of highly pathogenic avian influen...
Move to renewables could accelerate under approved climate and energy omnibus
By Rob Hubbard
Rising energy prices and the increasingly daunting challenges of climate change framed much of the discussion in this session’s meetings of the House Climate and Energy Finance ...
House panel OKs bill to expand affordable child care, provide learning opportunities for infants
By Pratik Joshi
A proposal to make child care more affordable, help child care providers and provide learning opportunities to the youngest Minnesotans, cleared its first hurdle Thursday.
F...
Divided panel approves omnibus state government bill that DFLers deem critical, GOP pillories as pork
By Mike Cook
DFLers say changes are necessary to better operate state government, but Republicans say a bill to do so is also laden with pork.
And to the surprise of no one, Thursday’s 8...
Session Daily Home
Search Session Daily
Advanced Search OptionsPriority Dailies
Lawmakers and omnibus bills: A love-hate relationship
By Tim Walker
Finally, spring is in the air, heralded by early blooming flowers popping out of the ground to bring relief to winter-weary souls.
Springtime at the Capitol is also the seas...
State’s projected budget surplus swells to $9.25 billion
By Rob Hubbard
What was expected in November to be a $7.7 billion General Fund surplus is now up to $9.253 billion for the current biennium, according to an updated budget forecast.
