The Minnesota Senate Republican Caucus reports…

Minnesota Senate Republicans on Tuesday morning sharply criticized a sweeping transportation, housing, and labor supplemental budget bill from Democrats, slamming it as an “incredibly disappointing” proposal loaded with expensive mandates, regulations, and controversial provisions that will drive up costs for Minnesota families. This legislation passed out of the Senate on a vote of 36-31.

Here’s what they said about broadband aspects of the bill…

Additionally, the labor section of this bill includes one-size-fits-all policies that ignore the unique needs of different types of employers and employees. This includes proposals that jeopardize important broadband projects, make concerning changes to Minnesota’s earned sick and safe time law, and threaten the availability and cost of low-income housing.

“This legislation takes no meaningful steps to increase employment opportunities for Minnesotans or make our state a more competitive place to grow a business,” Senator Gene Dornink (R-Brownsdale), Republican lead of the Senate Labor Committee, said. “While government doesn’t directly create jobs, its policies can either encourage or deter business expansion. That is why we should be passing policies in partnership with both labor and industry. Instead, this bill threatens to shut down pending broadband projects and fails to address the housing crisis.”

• Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program: The most concerning part of the labor section are changes that will slow or stop broadband development. This restricts who can work on broadband construction through licensure restrictions, threatens all broadband projects, and ultimately increases project costs.

• Republicans offered key amendments to improve broadband service, including a proposal to take the $9 million from Tending the Soil appropriation and focus these dollars on broadband improvement. Democrats refused to accept these changes.