Walz criticized Republican lawmakers for unwilling to approve more money for Minneapolis amid the ongoing dispute over the future of policing in the city. He said “a number of small business owners” are involved in looting and arson and deserve help.
“Minnesotans are all together,” he said, be it relief from a tornado in Faribault, floods in the Red River Valley or riots in Minneapolis.
“If we go this route and start to balkanise the way we do everything, why should Minneapolis be backing money for a street in Roseau or whatever it is?” He said. “And that is a dangerous place for a state and a nation to be in.”
Walz said he did not know all of the details of his Capitol security proposal, which was prepared by an advisory committee led by Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan was from but stated that it contains metal detectors. He said the plan was in the works long before Floyd’s death or the Jan. 6 riot in the U.S. Capitol, when there was also a peaceful pro-Trump rally at the statehouse.
The governor said the purpose was “not to make a fortress out of the Capitol, but to make it safe for visitors and those who work there”.
Other highlights of the package include $ 100 million for affordable housing, $ 63 million and $ 57 million for treatment of delayed maintenance in the separate higher education system of the state of Minnesota and the University of Minnesota, and $ 10 million for Minnesotas Share of design and environmental work for a second. Daily Amtrak train between St. Paul, Milwaukee and Chicago with stops in Red Wing and Winona.
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