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Capitol Comments by Peggy Bennett

Part of being a state legislator is making tough decisions. It’s my job to listen, to analyze issues and related legislation, and to examine those issues from varying perspectives. I must consider things like cost, whether the proposed solution will ultimately help or hurt people and look for unintended consequences of legislation.

Give-and-take and being able to find compromise — without invalidating one’s core principles — is also critical for legislators. It’s part of life. Everyone does this regularly at the workplace, on the playground, in marriages and partnerships, and more.

As a former elementary school teacher, I often compare life to one giant playground where there are lots of differing ideas on how the games and activities should be played.

Just like the children on the playground, we adults need to learn to “play” together in our state and find ways to get along.

Sometimes, both in life and the Legislature, we come upon impasses, and we have to figure out how to deal with them. Do we compromise, or do we stand firm?

There are two important “impasse issues” that have risen to prominence this legislative session. These issues have placed our schools and small businesses on a path for great harm and ultimate failure.

First is the Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) program, mandated into law by last biennium’s one-party controlled Legislature. It’s set to go into effect in 2026.

Without significant reform or repeal, this program will create impossible and dire situations for our schools and small businesses. These are not my words; it’s what every school administrator and small business employer throughout the state is telling me.

Even outside of the huge additional PFML costs to both employees, employers and taxpayers, schools are telling us they do not have a substitute pool that can even come close to supporting what this program will require. What should they do? Double up classrooms to cover for multiple staff being absent for up to 20 weeks a school year?

Equally concerning, our downtown storefronts and other local small employers do not have the employee base to sub a job for 12 to 20 weeks a year, especially for multiple employees. Who will fill these positions on a temporary basis like this? It’s difficult enough to find employees as it is. What will happen to these businesses and their working employees when they can’t find sub employees?

We can’t forget the impact this will have on local governments either. Local property taxpayers will have to pay for the extra costs.

The second issue is the recently passed state mandate requiring schools to provide unemployment insurance for hourly (school months only) workers over the summers. I wrote about this in my previous column. Schools are having to cut teachers and programs to pay staff to stay home over the summer. State funding for the program is running out.

With a looming $6 billion budget deficit, our state does not have the dollars to continue funding this program. Those pushing the program say that schools and local property taxpayers will just have to absorb the costs. The same goes for PFML. Both programs are unrealistic and unsustainable.

We are at a point where idealism and practical reality are ready to crash head on — and it’s not going to be pretty.

I understand the desire for the benefits being sought for both of these programs. But at what cost? I support our labor groups and workers. I also support our employers.

We need both to make things work. Balance is critical. Sadly, these one-size-fits-all state mandated programs have literally become the straw that will break the camel’s back. More workable choices have been offered by legislators and community members but not accepted.

I will not sit idly by and watch our schools be destroyed and our small businesses forced to close. No way! This is too important for our children who deserve an education, our local communities who count on schools and local businesses to be there, and for teachers and other employees who don’t want to lose their good jobs.

Sometimes one has to take a stand simply because it’s the right thing to do.

If this means I need to make tough votes, so be it. If some call me a hater or other names (they already do anyway, lol) then let them call me names. I’m going to stand up for what is right — and the right thing to do is to save our schools, our small businesses (and the jobs that come with them) and our local communities by repealing or significantly reforming both of these programs. It’s a stand I’m honored to take.

Peggy Bennett, R-Albert Lea, is the District 23A representative.