ST. PAUL — The Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities is pushing lawmakers to not lose sight of “the basics” during the upcoming legislative session.

The coalition of over 110 cities outside of the Twin Cities is asking for Local Government Aid, investments in water and wastewater infrastructure — including lead service line removal and replacement, and no “one-size-fits-all housing mandates.”

“There is a lot going on in our state that has put us in the national spotlight recently, with several highly contested elections coming up this year as well,” CGMC President Keri Johnson said in a virtual press conference Thursday, Feb. 5. “The upcoming legislative session is sure to be a busy one. That being said, the CGM’s attention will be centered on ensuring the Legislature focuses on what they can do to help cities thrive.”

The Legislature isn’t in a budget year, but tools like supplemental budgets are available to lawmakers. In the 2025 session, lawmakers made billions of dollars in cuts, trimming the state budget from $72 billion to roughly $67 billion. The last budget forecast showed a previously projected $6 billion budget deficit for 2028, now cut in half at roughly $3 billion.

Many of the CGMC’s asks also involve funding that would usually be tucked into a bonding bill, which lawmakers are hoping to pass in the upcoming session. Gov. Tim Walz released his bonding proposal on Jan. 15, which amounted to $907 million and featured some of the CGMC asks, such as prioritizing water and wastewater infrastructure.

The “one-size-fits-all” housing mandates would be a matter of policy that the Legislature could take on this year. Last year, a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers called “Yes to Homes” pushed multifamily housing and zoning reform that came up short, largely due to pushback from local government.

The big topics ahead of the session — ICE, fraud and gun control — are driven by unprecedented events that have shaken the state over the past year.

The assassination of Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman, the Annuciation Catholic School shooting, estimates of up to $9 billion in Medicaid fraud, and the surge in immigration enforcement activity that has resulted in the fatal shootings of two Minnesotans — Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

Bradley Peterson, executive director of CGMC, echoed Johnson on Thursday, saying there are “going to be a lot of issues at the Legislature competing for legislators’ attention.”

The attention to those big issues, Peterson said, is not the problem; the coalition is just asking lawmakers to think beyond them.

“I think there will be legislative interest in responding to the federal surge in immigration enforcement. I think there will be a lot of talk about fraud. I think that there will be a lot of discussion around gun control. Those are all big issues. Those are all important issues. But we’re also going to be trying to make sure that legislators are thinking about the issues that are important to communities in Greater Minnesota,” he said.

While fraud is bipartisan and something state lawmakers can address and have addressed through state law, there is a less clear path for state lawmakers on ICE. Federal immigration enforcement is largely protected by federal law and can tie state lawmakers’ hands.

Lawmakers are looking at barring masking or using unmarked vans for federal agents operating in the state, but even so, Democrats have said they aren’t sure ICE would follow these laws. The conduct of ICE agents is also an issue that’s already tied up in several ongoing federal lawsuits.

As for gun control, while advocates and Democrats have every intention to push it in session, an impasse in the fall on negotiations with Gov. Tim Walz and state leaders displayed the steep climb a tied House faces for new gun control.

The legislative session starts Feb. 17.

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