GUN SAFETY

Steve has been named a Certified Gun Sense Candidate by Moms Demand Action and Orange Star candidate by Protect Minnesota and is a longtime supporter of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. He voted for the Minnesota Legacy Amendment, which enshrined the right to hunt and fish in the state constitution. However, he does not believe that there is any place in our society for private citizens to own or use military-style assault weapons, especially those equipped with large capacity magazines or bump stocks. He will support common sense gun safety laws which ban the sale of these types of weapons. Steve voted for universal background checks and Red Flag laws when the House passed its gun safety bill in 2019.

Equal Rights

Everyone should enjoy equal rights under the law regardless of their sex, race, sexual orientation or gender identity. Minnesota should pass the Equal Rights Amendment, address systemic racism in housing, policing and other institutions. Steve voted in favor of banning the abuse of LBGTQ+ youths under the guise of “conversion therapy”.

Reproductive Rights

The rights of women to make their own reproductive health choices under Minnesota law must be protected and the full range of reproductive health services must continue to be available to all women.

PUBLIC SAFETY AND POLICING REFORMS

Steve feels blessed to represent a city which has a professional, well-trained police department; where we can move about freely and feel safe in our homes and workplaces. Community policing is a local government function, and Bloomington’s police department in highly respected, statewide.

Steve is a 2022 graduate of Bloomington’s Citizens Police Academy, which has helped him better understand policing from a peace officer’s perspective.

Steve is proud of the fact that our Bloomington Police Department is an award-winning participant in the Joint Community Policing Partnership and is actively striving to establish effective lines of communications with our communities of color, as well as relationships based upon mutual respect and trust. In Bloomington, marches for racial justice receive a police escort.

Legislative Action

Steve supported the 2021 bi-partisan policing reform law, which was the product of hard-fought compromise. In some respects, this new law does not go far enough; however, it includes much needed reforms, such as:

• Arbitration reforms recommended by our Police Chiefs to help prevent “bad cops” from being returned to the streets.

• A ban on choke-holds.

• Additional training on dealing with people with autism or mental health issues.

• A ban on fear-based “warrior style” training.

• A duty to intercede in cases of excessive force.

• Strengthening of the Police Officers Standards and Training Board.

Steve voted for the House bill to ban the possession to detached catalytic converters to deter their theft.

Steve was asked to lend his information technology expertise to convene a working group of law enforcement officials to identify gaps in the collection of arrest data that contribute to the “catch and release” problem that has plagued local law enforcement. Gaps were identified in the collection of data related to juvenile arrests, resulting in the inclusion of a provision in the House Public Safety bill to convene a law enforcement task force to close these gaps.

The Department of Corrections reached out to Steve about a project to collect the data necessary to more accurately assess the risk of recidivism of prisoners who are up for parole, and Steve was able to refer DOC to the Department of Education’s comprehensive student database as a model and starting point.

Steve was one of the lead authors of the bipartisan bill that we passed in 2023 to improve safety on public transit by adding both sworn and non-sworn personnel to conduct fare enforcement and maintain decorum on trains and by improving video surveillance on trains and platforms.

Healthcare

Steve believes that everyone should have access to the health care they need at prices that they can afford, regardless of their age, place of employment or pre-existing conditions. As a Medicare participant, he appreciates the options that are available to him and, like many Americans on Medicare, he have chosen a plan that is offered by a private insurer, one that he is free to change each year. He would like to see everyone have such choices. 

In the meantime, he supports the continuation of MinnesotaCare and the MNSure marketplace to provide affordable health insurance options for individuals and small businesses. 

Ideally, we would all pay for our health care mostly from the taxes we pay, not from employer deductions from our paychecks.  Medicare for all, if you will, with all the various public and private options that are available to Medicare members, today, instead of being limited to the plan offered by your employer. This would require Federal reforms. 

However, there are a number of additional steps the State could take to reduce the cost of health to Minnesotans, and this has been a focus of his work in the Legislature as a member of the Commerce Committee. 

Legislative Action

In 2023, Steve passed a bill that requires hospital systems to publish their prices in a consistent format and you can now shop for medical services across hospital systems (and health plans) by both prices and quality at Turquoise Health. If you’re facing an expensive procedure like a CT Scan, an MRI or a joint replacement and will have to make a large deductible or co-insurance payment, it will pay you to use this tool to shop! The price differences between hospital will shock you!

Another of Steve’s 2023 bills now allows the Minnesota Department of Health to publish price comparison reports from actual claims data which MDH already receives. The prices of most of these services vary wildly among medical practices, without rhyme or reason.

What other service do we buy where we can only find out the cost after the service has been performed? 

We passed a bill, which Steve co-authored, to begin regulating Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) as insurance companies. PBMs are the companies which manage the drug plans that are included in your health insurance plans. Some of their business practices are controversial and may add to the cost of your drugs in some cases. 

Steve is now working on legislation that would lower the cost of brand name prescription drugs to patients at the pharmacy counter by requiring health plans and their PBMs to pass their large rebates from manufacturers on to patients. (On average, drug manufacturers only net about half of the price of their expensive drugs after discounts and rebates, but only a small part of these price concessions find their way to patients.)

Steve is also the author of a bill that would prevent your health plan from kicking you off of your drugs in the middle of the year and would also require the drug companies to publish the exorbitant prices of their prescription to the public.

Education

Most of us chose to live where we do because of the high quality of the schools in our neighborhoods and the educational opportunities that these schools would provide to our children. We stay here after our children are grown because the quality of these schools supports the value of our home equity, which can be our largest source of retirement wealth. We are heavily invested in the quality of our schools and we want them to succeed. 

Legislative Action

About half of the State’s General Fund budget is dedicated to Education and most of that is dedicated to support for local school districts. Steve will fight to maintain State funding for local school districts. When the State reduces its funding to local school districts, it forces local school districts to raise local property tax levies to compensate (or to increase class sizes). One of his bills now requires the State to include inflation in the baseline budget for education to prevent inflation from eroding our basic educational funding levels.

Steve has advocated strongly for the State to fully fund Special Education to remove the financial burden of this heretofore unfunded mandate from the backs of local property taxpayers and substantial progress was made this session.

Minnesota is a laggard in providing mental health care to its students and Steve also supported the increased funding for additional mental health counselors in our schools that is provided in the current state budget.

Transportation

Steve is a transportation economist by education and moved to Minnesota 35 years ago to set airfares for Republic Airlines. Upon leaving the airline industry in the early 1990’s, he started volunteering to serve on various transportation policy committees for the City of Bloomington and the Bloomington School Board, the Metropolitan Council and Leagues of Cities at the Regional, State and National level; serving as the Chair of the National League of Cities Transportation Policy Committee in 2010. He has served on several MNDOT policy advisory committees and as Chair of the Metropolitan Council Transportation Committee. He currently serves on the House Transportation Committee and worked extensively on the successful transition from MNLARS to the new MNDrive licensing and registration system. 

Steve supported the bill we passed in 2023 that indexes the gas tax to inflation to stabilize funding for road and bridge projects such as the improvements now under construction to I494 and I35W. Steve is also sponsoring a bill that would fairly tax electric vehicles based upon the number of miles they are driven. Steve supported the 2023 Transportation Finance bill that fully funds transit operations and capital investments to expand the region’s Bus Rapid Transit system. 

Starting when he was a Planning Commissioner in Bloomington over 20 years ago, Steve advocated for the now-operational Orange Line Bus Rapid Transit line on I35W as a way to revitalize what’s now the Penn-American redevelopment district in Bloomington, and improve transit options for Bloomington residents.

Steve continues to support the completion of the Southwest LRT line, but also voted for the audit of the causes of the current budget overruns. Both of our previous LRT projects were brought in on-time and under budget.

Legislative Action

Steve’s signature accomplishment during his first term in the House was passage of a pair of provisions in the House Omnibus Transportation bill which now allow cities to reduce speed limits in residential neighborhoods, a cause that he has championed since first being elected to the Bloomington City Council in 2001. It took him 17 years to accomplish this goal, but he stayed with it through serving for years on MNDOT street design policy committees and task forces to acquire the knowledge and respect required to secure the passage of this bill. This year, Bloomington acted on this legislation and lowered residential speed limits from 30 MPH to 25 MPH.

This year, Steve passed legislation that accelerates Minnesota’s adoption of new federal speed limit policy reforms that will enable local governments to more rationally set local speed limits.

Steve was one of the chief authors of the law that is reforming the law enforcement system governing regional transit operations to reduce fare evasion, crime and vagrancy on our regional transit system. 

Steve was instrumental in securing changes to vehicle registration and driver’s license statutes that streamlined the RealID drivers license process and reduced the implementation costs for the new MNDRIVE system that is now in operation. One of the problems with MNLARS was that its developers had to reconcile conflicting requirements in state law, which we eliminated. 

Steve is also working on legislation to ensure the privacy of our travel data, including the data that would be necessary to fairly charge electric vehicle owners for the number of miles that they travel, in lieu of the gas tax.

Minnesotans with Disabilities

One in five Minnesota families are touched by physical or mental disability. Steve has been a champion for increased pay for the direct care workers who provide personal services to the most vulnerable Minnesotans, including Nursing Home and Group Home workers, Personal Care Assistants for persons with disabilities who are living independently, and adult day care workers who provide respite care for families with a family member with disabilities living at home. Today, these jobs pay less than jobs in fast food, and the agencies which provide these service are unable to fill a third to half of their jobs, leaving many vulnerable clients unserved.

Steve has been recognized by the Minnesota Council on Disabilities for his work on Digital Accessibility. Persons with visual or tactile disabilities have the right to access information on state and local government websites, and Steve has used his background in information technology to help make this a reality.

Steve has used his experience in transportation planning and technology to promote improved mobility options for Minnesotans with disabilities, including increased pay for Metro Mobility drivers to achieve much-needed stability in this workforce.

ELECTION reforms

Steve and his wife, Judy, are long-time members of the Bloomington League of Women Voters and he believes strongly in free and fair elections with the broadest possible participation. Steve is proud of the fact that his House district has one of the highest rates of voter turnout in Minnesota.

Steve believes that Minnesota’s elections are already free, fair and accurately counted and will resist the efforts of “election deniers” to restrict our voting options. Bloomington’s volunteer election workers are to be applauded for their hard work and dedication.

Steve is strongly supportive of:

• The creation of an independent nonpartisan state redistricting commission.

• The elimination of “dark money” from campaign financing.

• The National Popular Vote Compact, which would award the Presidency to the candidate receiving the most votes, nationally, rendering the Electoral College moot.

• The universal adoption of Ranked Choice Voting at all levels of government.

With the possible exception of campaign finance reform, Steve believes that the statewide adoption of Ranked Choice Voting is probably the single most important reform that we could make to our election laws to promote civil campaigning and majority rule. Steve explains why he believes this way in these two editorials:

Bloomington Sun Current, Ranked Choice Voting has no downside

Minneapolis Star Tribune, Ranked-choice voting is successful. No wonder its use is expanding.

Steve strongly supported the adoption of the local option Ranked Choice Voting referendums in Bloomington (Charter Amendment 3) and is strongly opposed to the repeal of ranked-choice voting in Bloomington.

Legislative Action

Steve was the chief author of a bill which would allow all local governments in Minnesota (cities, counties and school districts) to adopt Ranked Choice Voting for their local elections. (At present, only charter cities have this option.) This session he co-authored a bill to adopt Ranked Choice Voting for State and Congressional elections, as well.

He was also a co-author of bills to establish a non-partisan redistricting commission.