Current:Home > MyWalz takes his State of the State speech on the road to the southern Minnesota city of Owatonna-Angel Dreamer Wealth Society D1 Reviews & Insights
Walz takes his State of the State speech on the road to the southern Minnesota city of Owatonna
View Date:2024-12-23 23:37:21
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Gov. Tim Walz is taking his 2024 State of the State address on the road to the southern Minnesota city of Owatonna.
“Minnesota’s made a lot of progress in the last year, and I’m excited to talk about what’s next in our fight to make Minnesota the best place to live, work, and raise a family,” the Democratic governor said last week in a social media post previewing his Tuesday night speech.
Some of the themes Walz has said he will address include how Democrats have used their full control of the statehouse to try to make people’s lives easier, improving education, implementing gun safety laws and protecting abortion and other reproductive rights. He picked Owatonna High School as the setting to highlight how the community has made big investments in the relatively new school and in workforce development.
This will be Walz’s sixth State of the State speech since becoming governor in 2019. Governors traditionally deliver them at the Capitol to large audiences of lawmakers, but he gave his 2020 address by himself via livestream from his official residence to stay socially distanced during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. He faced another online-only audience in 2021 when he spoke from Mankato West High School, where he was once a geography teacher and football coach.
Walz returned to the Capitol for his 2022 address and again for last year’s address, which he used to draw stark contrasts between Minnesota and Republican-led states. He highlighted how Democrats used their new control over state government to enact an ambitious liberal agenda, bucking the backlash seen in red states against abortion rights, trans rights, pushes for racial equity and other cultural flashpoints.
The governor and his fellow Democrats are pursuing a much more modest agenda this legislative session, given that the two-year state budget was set in 2023. While the state’s budget surplus inched up to $3.7 billion in a forecast released last month, Walz and legislative leaders agreed last week to spend only about $541 million of the extra money and bank the rest to stave off a potential shortfall in the next budget.
So the main task this session is still a public infrastructure borrowing package known as a bonding bill. The governor proposed a combination of $982 million in borrowing and cash in January. Even after lawmakers weigh in, the final package is still expected to have an unglamorous focus on maintaining existing infrastructure, like roads, bridges and water treatment facilities.
veryGood! (882)
Related
- Florida education officials report hundreds of books pulled from school libraries
- Ex-California mom charged with hosting parties with alcohol for teens and encouraging sexual assault
- Ivanka Trump testimony delayed to Nov. 8, will follow dad Donald Trump on stand at civil fraud trial
- Man pleads not guilty to hate crime in fatal stabbing of 6-year-old Muslim boy
- Video ‘bares’ all: Insurers say bear that damaged luxury cars was actually a person in a costume
- Germany’s highest court overturns a reform that allowed for new trials after acquittals
- 'Heavily armed man' found dead at Colorado amusement park with multiple guns and explosives
- UN peacekeepers have departed a rebel stronghold in northern Mali early as violence increases
- She's a trans actress and 'a warrior.' Now, this 'Emilia Pérez' star could make history.
- Abortion is on the ballot in Ohio. The results could signal what's ahead for 2024
Ranking
- Trump on Day 1: Begin deportation push, pardon Jan. 6 rioters and make his criminal cases vanish
- 'Bun in the oven' is an ancient pregnancy metaphor. This historian says it has to go
- Tennessee officials to pay $125K to settle claim they arrested a man for meme about fallen officer
- 'Alan Wake 2' and the year's best horror games, reviewed
- Secret Service Agent Allegedly Took Ex to Barack Obama’s Beach House
- Dorit Kemsley Grills Kyle Richards About Her Marriage Issues in Tense RHOBH Preview
- Charged Lemonade at Panera Bread gets warning label after death of college student
- Google CEO defends paying Apple and others to make Google the default search engine on devices
Recommendation
-
Only 8 monkeys remain free after more than a week outside a South Carolina compound
-
'Alan Wake 2' and the year's best horror games, reviewed
-
Española man receives 35-year sentence for 5-year-old stepdaughter’s beating death
-
Travis Barker talks past feelings for Kim Kardashian, how Kourtney 'healed' fear of flying
-
Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin to kick off fundraising effort for Ohio women’s suffrage monument
-
Colorado continues freefall in NCAA Re-Rank 1-133 after another loss
-
Prosecutor takes aim at Sam Bankman-Fried’s credibility at trial of FTX founder
-
Colorado continues freefall in NCAA Re-Rank 1-133 after another loss