Sturdevant: Minnesota has a budget deal because DFLers were willing to lead

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes a mix of commentary online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

•••

Amid the distraction Monday of a potentially violent showdown on the streets of Los Angeles, many Minnesotans might have overlooked the far more orderly showdown that unfolded at their State Capitol.

So join me, please, in looking either anew or again at what the Minnesota Legislature did this week — or specifically, what a few honorable DFLers did in order to sustain a state government on which Minnesotans can rely.

This state has just witnessed a moving example of what leadership requires in a representative democracy, one that is as narrowly divided between two parties as it can get.

In the equally split Minnesota House, only one DFLer — Speaker Emeritus Melissa Hortman — voted with Republicans to strip MinnesotaCare health insurance eligibility from undocumented immigrant adults.

In the 34 DFL-33 GOP Senate, four DFLers, led by Majority Leader Erin Murphy, cast comparable votes. (The other three deserve to be named: Ann Rest, New Hope; Grant Hauschild, Hermantown; and Robert Kupec, Moorhead.)

There were 14 budget-related bills on Monday’s special session docket. But the session — and the fate of state government in the biennium that’s due to start in July — had come down to one big bone of partisan contention: Would MinnesotaCare still be available to all low-income Minnesota adults who care to (and can afford to) opt in, regardless of their immigration status?

Republican legislators were unanimous in saying no. Not just saying, but insisting. Kicking such people off of MinnesotaCare had become that party’s top priority.

That’s to the GOP’s discredit. Denying people health insurance is not good for anyone — including insured people whose premiums will rise to cover the cost of uncompensated care.

DFLers were as adamant that all Minnesotans, no matter how they got here, should have access to health insurance. But Hortman and Murphy — both seasoned veterans of such standoffs — understood that divided government means both parties get some of what they want.

Hortman and Murphy negotiated to keep MinnesotaCare available to undocumented children. It was the best they could do, they believed.

The alternative, they judged, was likely to be no new budget before July 1 and a state government shutdown after that date. Minnesotans who remember 2005 and 2011 know that such an outcome is indeed possible — and highly unpleasant. (Even beer stopped flowing in 2011.)

It could be worse in 2025. Minnesotans watching events in Los Angeles this week, ask yourselves: What power-grabbing moves might President Donald Trump make here if state government were shuttered?

Murphy and Hortman struck a hard bargain, then gave their word to support it when votes were cast in their respective chambers. Despite sharp criticism from their own members and sorrow great enough to provoke tears, they kept their word.

In other words, they were leaders — not of their faction or their party, but of this state. They will surely pay a price with those who hate this deal. But for averting a shutdown, they also deserve respect — and thanks.

I’ve lately been pondering the characteristics of good public-sector leadership as a personal milestone approaches. My first workday as a “summer replacement reporter” at the Minneapolis Tribune was June 23, 1975.

This anniversary has inspired me to mentally revisit some of the people I’ve known and covered who occupied positions of public responsibility. I’ve been freshly admiring the selflessness of Gov. Elmer L. Andersen as he ended the recount of the 1962 election while still 91 votes behind. And the courage of Gov. Al Quie, who agreed to a tax increase in January 1982, over his own party’s objections, to set the state budget right. And the decision of Secretary of State Joan Anderson Growe to end the pursuit of “higher” office and instead make sure Minnesota has the best-run elections in the country.

My list could go on. If it did, you might see what I do: These admirable ones were all driven by a strong sense of stewardship for Minnesota’s shared enterprise.

For them, leadership wasn’t about amassing and exercising power — at least, not as their ultimate goal. Rather, it was about being good stewards of the commons. Their work was about preserving, amending, enlarging and perfecting the shared structures and systems that give Minnesotans the opportunity for satisfying lives. They understood themselves as caretakers of something precious — and fragile.

This week, I can put two more names on my list of Minnesota’s good stewards: Melissa Hortman and Erin Murphy.

Lori Sturdevant is a retired Star Tribune editorial writer and the author or editor of 14 books about notable Minnesotans.