Sen. Ann Johnson Stewart

Week-in-Review Video

A message from your Senator

Constituents and friends,

On Tuesday, the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, I visited his memorial square in Minneapolis, a place of community, energy, hope, resilience, exhaustion, and grief. I was glad to be there, and glad that so many of my fellow legislators recognize that we owe it to Minnesotans to enact serious change – and that, as my colleague Senator Fateh recently wrote on Twitter, “there must not be any budget deal this year that doesn’t include police accountability measures. This should be non-negotiable.” I strongly agree with that statement, and am frustrated and disappointed, particularly as someone new to the Senate and its procedures, that the ongoing budget negotiations are occurring behind closed doors – not just out of view of the public, which is a deeply serious flaw, but also inaccessible to Senators and Representatives who are not members of the very small conference committees.

We’re facing a wide range of difficult budgetary decisions over which legislators have honest disagreements, and it’s simply wrong to exclude the public from these discussions – they play the most important role in democratic government, and their voices need to be the foundational piece of this process. Until we learn about them after the fact, even most Senators and Representatives don’t know which goals are being discarded in favor of others and which provisions are being negotiated into and out of budget bills on a daily basis, and that’s a travesty. This is especially problematic given the increasingly-extreme views of my Republican colleagues, who have in recent weeks publicly stated their opposition to many broadly-popular policies that Minnesotans want and need, including police accountability measures, Clean Cars rules, emergency leave for essential workers, and an equitable off-ramp for the eviction moratorium.

It’s easy for bad government to happen in the dark, and many of my colleagues and I will be publicly pushing back against this problem over the next few weeks before we return to the Capitol for our special session in mid-June. If you have any thoughts or input, I’d love to hear them – don’t hesitate to share.

Community News & Events

The city of Plymouth announced that their popular Bark in the Park event will take place next Saturday, June 5, from 10 am to 1 pm at the Hilde Performance Center (3500 Plymouth Blvd). Details can be found here. 

The Avenues Neighborhood Association is hosting a plant, garden tool, and garden art sale, also on Saturday, June 5, from 9-11 am in the parking lot of Alice Smith Elementary School (801 Minnetonka Mills Rd). They will accept cash and checks. Though the ANA’s Hopkins neighborhood lies just south of District 44, this is a great opportunity to pick up some plants and support the community!