The 2026 Minnesota Legislative Session will begin on February 17th. State Representative Dave Baker of Willmar says this is the shorter session of the biennium when lawmakers typically put together a bonding bill.
Baker says the bonding bill is usually around $1-billion to fund infrastructure and other projects. He says in his district, he’s hoping that some money can be secured this time around to complete the Glacial Lakes Trail to connect Sibley State Park to New London, and he’s hoping there will also be funds for water treatment projects for Kandiyohi, Atwater, Raymond and Lake Lillian.
Baker says the Minnesota Senate passed a bill in the last session to address fraud by establishing an independent office of an inspector general, but it did not make it to the House floor, so he’s hoping that will get accomplished in the next session to make sure the staggering fraud schemes such as Feeding Our Future never happen again – and another way to help accomplish that would be to get new leadership. He says he endorsed Kristin Robbins – his colleague in the House – for Governor – and he encourages people to get involved in the caucuses which will be held early in February.
Baker says he supports a lot of what President Trump does, but he did not appreciate him calling Somalians “garbage” and linking the whole race to Minnesota’s fraud problem as there are many hard-working Somali-Americans in his district. He says does support the work of ICE agents as we have been too soft on crime and if anyone is in our nation illegally, they need to go.
Baker says he’s concerned about the new paid family leave legislation which will hurt businesses and drive them out of our state. He says he is also continuing to work on overdose issues which continue to plague our society and which claimed the life of his son, Dan, 14 years ago, but he feels we are making progress.
