Consider this upcoming weekend our kick-off to summer! Grand Old Day and Flint Hills Family Festival are back, stronger than ever. Grand Old Day, the largest free one-day festival in the Midwest, takes place this Sunday, June 2, 9am – 6pm.  Come for food, fun, music, and bring the family. Flint Hills Family Festival, Friday and Saturday, 5/31 – 6/1, is made possible in partnership with the Ordway, and this year celebrates its 24th year. 
 
Grand Old Day - Powered by the St. Paul Area Chamber! Come out to enjoy Grand Old Day on Sunday and chances are you'll see smiling faces from our Chamber team. We are grateful to have the opportunity to work with the Grand Avenue Business Association (GABA) through our WorkStream division and have helped boost the organization to bring back this beloved summer event for the second year. Check out the Grand Old Day map with details on stages, bands, and activities running from Dale - Snelling on this important commercial corridor! You can purchase beer garden wristbands ahead of time for a discount and elevate your experience with a VIP Pass, which gives great perks, including exclusive viewing access to the Grand Stage from the VIP Lounge, located in Brasa, right next to the Grand Stage where Charlie Parr, Your Smith, and Yam Hause will perform. Dozens of other great music acts on multiple stages. See more at GrandAve.com. 
 
Flint Hills Family Festival: on behalf of the Ordway and Flint Hills Resources, we hope to see you at the 24th annual event! The festival is the perfect place for kids and families to dance, discover and dream with free and low-cost activities. Highlights include:

• Free Friday fun – Friday, May 31, from 6-9 p.m.: Visit Rice Park for face painting, balloon artists, instrument making, drum circles, a petting zoo, a magician, DJ dance parties, crafts, and much more! Throughout the night, visitors will also enjoy free performances from Jack Brass Band and dance parties with a local DJ from 6-9 p.m.

 

• Sensational Saturday shows – Saturday, June 1, from 9 a.m.-4 p.m.: Create your own adventure through Rice Park with more free crafts, STEAM activities, henna artists, face painting, balloon artists, and so much more. Enjoy free stage performances all day including a concert by B2wins at noon and a closing show from Salsa del Soul at 3:15 p.m.

 

• World-class shows, affordable prices – Book your tickets now for low-cost indoor shows from Davina & the Vagabonds (May 31 at 7 p.m.), NOOMA, an opera for babies (June 1 at 9:15 a.m.), Cirque Kalabante (June 1 at 9:30 a.m. and 1 p.m.) and Grammy Award-winning 123 Andrés (June 1 at 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.)!

 
This festival is made possible through a partnership between the Ordway and Flint Hills Resources, which began in 2001 with the shared vision of making the performing arts accessible to all. You can book your tickets to the festival, share festival information with your organization, and engage with festival content on the Ordway’s Facebook and Instagram accounts.
 
Get out and enjoy! I know I'll be there - hope to see you.
 
See you in the trenches,

​B
 

There's very little good to say about the 2024 session, except for that it is over. It'd be nice if I could say I was happy to see important bonding projects like the Xcel Energy Center renovation design, Rice Creek Commons, or the Park at RiversEdge get funded, but no. None of that happened (in what was supposed to be a "bonding session").
 
What did happen over the past few weeks, and especially the final 24 hours of Session, was hyper-partisanship and a complete breakdown of legislative rules and process. Protracted floor debate with endless points of order. Moving bills from one conference committee to another and introducing all new provisions. A ten-hour recess on the final Saturday. Which cumulated Sunday night with piling nine bills into a conference committee report in the 11th hour and not having the 2,860-page bill available to members to read to know what was in it. And then using procedural motions to force votes on this gigantic piece of legislation. Obviously, members of the minority party were not happy and chaos erupted on the floor (of both House and Senate).
 
Beyond the process, there were a lot of concerning items that ended up being passed in the waning minutes (and likely more to be found as we continue to sift through the gargantuan omnibus!) From the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for product containers to extremely punitive measures for worker misclassification to "fixes" for the Paid Leave program passed in 2023. The Uber/Lyft issue also was resolved in a manner that should keep the rideshare companies in the state (which is good news for the state's economy), but the time and energy it took to make it happen definitely caused other items to fall by the wayside.
 
While these next priorities were "stretch goals" in a non-budget year, I also was disappointed that this Session didn't yield the passage of a tax credit to convert vacant commercial buildings to support our downtown revitalization or a sustainable approach to funding emergency shelter operations.
 
There is one thing I would specifically like to call out as a "positive outcome" in the 2024 Session. The Education Conference Committee Report included $3.4 million for Emergency Services Program grants (with support homeless shelter operations) for shelter providers either serving increased populations or facing program closure. These are the realties facing emergency shelter operations in Ramsey County, so these funds are very much needed, and also very appreciated by the providers, local governments, and business community who advocated for these resources. Rep. Dave Pinto of Saint Paul serves as Chair of the House Children and Families Committee. He carried this funding in his budget and deserves a lot of thanks for supporting his community and getting this across the finish line.  
 
We're also happy to see that Ramsey-Washington Recycling and Energy received funding for their anaerobic digester to support the counties' innovative food scraps recycling program. This process will both produce clean fuel and reduce waste in our landfills.
 
We'll have to let these glimmers of positivity help us move past the "ick" of the Legislative Session. But, at least we can all be proud of the Timberwolves!
 
 
See you in the trenches,

​B

 
I had intended to take this time to highlight Fed Chair Neel Kashkari’s new essay explaining his current views on our economy and interest rates. This is a follow-up to a February 2024 essay and the latest in a series he’s shared since 2022. Bottom line: Our economy continues to send mixed signals, making it difficult to assess whether our policy stance is tight enough to bring down inflation. Kashkari thinks it’s possible that the “new normal” neutral interest rate—that which neither stimulates nor slows the economy—may be higher than it was pre-pandemic. The housing market continues to show surprising strength as well, despite the significant tightening over the past two years.  
 
But I can’t ignore a few issues in the policy space that have me flummoxed. First is the need for the legislature to act to ensure Uber and Lyft don’t leave Minneapolis – and Minnesota. I’ll simply refer you to a good Star Tribune op ed written by Jonathan Weinhagen. “The Minnesota Legislature is set to adjourn in about a week. If it does so without repairing the damage inflicted on our region's businesses and reputation by the Minneapolis City Council pushing out Uber and Lyft, the negative impact will be dramatic.” Absolutely. Stunning to me that it seems to be going in the wrong direction.
 
Second is the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation, HF 3577 / SF 3561, which continues to move forward and is close to passing. This bill would:

• Require manufacturers of paper and plastic packaging to be responsible for the cost of disposal of their products.
• Add an estimated $35-65 for a family of four per month to their grocery bill, due to increased packaging costs for everyday products.

The Minnesota Chamber has been in front of this and adds: Minnesota already ranks in the top 10 in recycling rates in the nation. Minnesota is unique and different from other states in the sense that there is already a solid waste tax in place in Minnesota dedicated to the disposal of products. This significant tax is 9.75% on residences and 17% on commercial industrial facilities and raises over $100 million per year. Costs matter. We already have a robust waste disposal program in place. We shouldn't be looking to raise more costs on employers and Minnesota families. CLICK HERE to contact your legislators and urge them to VOTE NO on EPR legislation. 
 
Finally, the Labor Policy omnibus bill (SF 3852) would hurt small businesses by removing the small business minimum wage designation from state law and doubling the annual automatic minimum wage inflator from 2.5% to 5%. 
 
In this tight labor market, most employers are paying well above minimum wage. And that's how it should be - market forces or deliberate policy discussions should determine minimum wage levels, not arbitrary annual inflators. This bill will stress small business budgets by requiring significant annual increases and removing the small business designation. This will make it harder for businesses to grow, negatively affect employee benefits, and increase prices for consumers. CLICK HERE to ask your legislators to support small businesses by voting NO this bill! 
 
 
See you in the trenches,
 
B​