(whooshing) - "Almanac at the Capitol" is a production of Twin Cities PBS for the stations of Minnesota Public Television Association.

- A special edition of our show featuring retiring lawmakers and a dive into our archives, that's coming up on "Almanac at the Capitol."

(energetic instrumental music) - "Almanac at the Capitol" is made possible by members of this public television station.

Support is also provided by Manitoba Hydro, providing clean, renewable energy to Minnesota utilities for more than 50 years.

manitobahydropower.com.

Flint Hills Resources, a leading producer of the fuels Minnesotans rely on every day.

Minnesota Lottery, supporting projects that protect Minnesota's environment and natural resources.

Great River Energy, providing wholesale power to 1.7 million people through its member-owner cooperatives and customers.

The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, a sovereign tribal nation in Scott County.

More at shakopeedakota.org.

And the Iron Mining Association of Minnesota, educating Minnesotans on the iron ore industry and its role for American steel.

(energetic instrumental music) - Welcome to "Almanac at the Capitol".

I'm Mary Lahammer.

Dozens of lawmakers have announced their retirement.

We're gonna talk with some key members tonight before their last legislative session.

We begin with longtime tax committee chair whose service has spanned more than 40 years.

This is Senator Ann Rest.

- Ann Rest knows this territory well.

For 14 years, she's been the state representative for suburban District 46A.

- Hi.

- Hi.

- I'm Ann Rest, a state legislator, and I'm just visiting in the neighborhood and- - [Lahammer] Representative Rest acknowledges she did support the stadium question, but then changed her mind when the public overwhelmingly said no to tax dollars for a stadium.

- I didn't support any bill coming forward in the 1998 session.

My name is not on any legislation, and no bill was given a hearing in the committee that I chair, where that bill would have come.

- [Lahammer] Rest chairs the local government in Metropolitan Affairs Committee and has held powerful posts in the legislature.

Now she finds herself running to save her seat and help retain democratic control of the House.

- [Lahammer] We're still waiting for the Senate tax bill, but Chair Ann Rest is tough, and negotiations even with a fellow Democrat won't be easy.

- Fees are not taxes.

- Wouldn't you say a medical license fee of a million dollars, when those two came up, wasn't that a tax?

- The definition of a fee and a tax is very different.

What we're looking at here and in our jurisdiction is the sales tax.

There's no wealth photography, not in this committee.

Is that clear?

Is there an amendment to House File 28?

I will remind the members to address your comments to the president and not directly to other members.

Is there an amendment to House File 28?

- I would ask that you vote no on the A-7 amendment.

- I will remind members, even those who usually stand in this place, that you need to direct your remarks to the president and not to the members.

House File 28 is laid on the table.

Senator Dziedzic.

- Thank you, Madam President.

I move to recess- - Once again, I'm gonna ask people to stay at their desks and to refrain from conversation.

Senator Dziedzic.

- Thank you, Madam President, and I move to recess until the call of the president.

- Senator Dziedzic has moved that we recess till the call of the president.

- We asked about - Madam President.

- jury duty.

Go ahead, Senator Latz or Senator Dibble, sorry.

- Senator Pratt, - Madam President- - Senator Pratt and Senator Dibble, where are you standing, Senator Pratt?

- [Senator Pratt] At my desk.

- You're not standing up here, are you?

- No, Madam President.

- So you can't call on Senator Dibble.

Senator Dibble.

(energetic music) - You just saw her in action, all the way back to her time in the House, Senate Tax Chair presiding over the Senate, the legendary, - Whatever.

- tough, smart, and fair, right?

You call him out on both sides of the aisle, Senator Ann Rest retiring after more than 40 years in the legislature.

Wow.

Both sides.

This is fair.

Everybody who knows you say you don't pick favorites, do you?

- No.

- [Mary] Why is that?

Where does that come from?

- Well, it comes from a respect for the institution rather than playing favorites with individual members, and that is a core value of mine in terms of public service that is viewed by the public inside the chambers that we serve in, whether it's a Senate chamber or here in the House.

- Somebody recently said you're the only one who hears bills on both sides of the aisle anymore.

- Absolutely.

Those bills are coming on behalf of a constituency, and we have to remove the R or the D after a bill.

And if it's worthy to be heard, then on behalf of a constituency, then it shouldn't matter.

And we have very vigorous conversations in the Senate tax committee and they're always, they're always respectful.

Sometimes they are very funny, by the way, and- - Yes.

We were laughing for the record through all of that, right?

You do, when you wield a gavel, it is with a twinkle in your eye, is it not?

- You mentioned Representative Torkelson talking about no shenanigans?

- [Lahammer] Yes.

- Well, I call people on that as well.

And what we end up doing is getting a laugh out of it.

- Yes.

- And I think that refocuses our discussions, no matter how serious the topic.

- Did you know that you went viral with how you were presiding over the chamber?

Were you aware when that happened?

- Yes.

Yes.

- As they say, yes.

And what did you think about that?

- My job was to keep decorum and to make sure that, because I was standing up there, that no one was going to take advantage of the traditions of the Senate, because I would remind them otherwise.

- How about how nonpartisan you are when you are presiding over the chamber?

Because it's become an assumption, whether it's the House, whether it's the Senate, whether it's Democrats, Republicans, that who's ever presiding is going to rule in favor of their own party.

- I think that there is a, there's a matter of trust that comes from, because you're in that position where, for me as a president pro tem as opposed to senator champion, that we have been entrusted by our caucuses to understand the perspective that we bring, our caucus brings, and not to let it be abused by others.

And sometimes that might look like you're playing favorites, but it's really trying to keep the playing field level.

- Why now, you are one of the smartest, most respected people in this entire building, why leave now?

- I planned to leave after the last election.

What I did not want to do was leave in the minority.

And so I ran in 2022.

And in discussions with my family, especially my daughter, that was going to be my last term if I prevailed, and I did.

- Was having your life threatened this past year, did that have an impact on it?

- No, it did not, and I don't like to talk about it.

- Okay, that's just fine.

What about what that did for these two chambers?

The bipartisanship, the coming together, the support.

While it was a very hard day, in some ways, it was a good day.

- Yes, because to me, what it signaled is we are going to return to normalcy, we are going to get back to our jobs, and after the reception, I went back to my office, and I worked the rest of the afternoon.

- Of course, you did.

Thank you so much for your service.

- Well, you're more than welcome.

- Your state is grateful.

- It's been an honor.

- Thank you, Senator Rest.

- You're welcome.

(gentle music) - Next up, he has chaired some of the most powerful and important committees, Ways and Means, currently Bonding.

He's also mentored many and closed some big deals behind closed doors.

Retiring Representative Paul Torkelson is someone who always wanted to make government work.

Take a look.

- Yeah, I have to go back in my own history a little bit here.

Redistricting changed my life dramatically.

I was forced to, well, not forced to, but I chose to move after redistricting because if I had stayed on my farm in my old district, I would've run head-to-head with a colleague, so I chose to move to a new district, which was really my old district, but a new home.

I think Minnesota's a good government state.

I think we all care about government, but when it comes to redistricting, it's a political process.

We've seen many states that have tried outside groups to impose districts on the legislature.

Often, it ends up in court anyway because it gets challenged by certain groups.

I don't think Minnesota's ready for open free, these primaries- - The wide-open primary.

- The wide-open primary.

I just- - Why not?

- It doesn't fit well with our history, I guess, would be my perspective.

- Well, gentlemen, our first representative will have you respond to the governor because he says it's time to get real, and he wants to know when he's going to see your bonding bill.

- Well, as many people have said, we need to eat our vegetables before we get our dessert, and bonding is really a dessert when it comes to the legislature.

- A larger group of leading lawmakers spent the week behind closed doors, hammering out the deal, and they said the tone was more productive, even congenial.

- We committed to work together on the budget to get the budget approved on a timely basis, out of Ways and Means in a no-shenanigans handshake.

- It helps to have more people in the room, but I'm so proud of our speaker to be and a majority leader because they held strong throughout these negotiations and negotiated in a respectable way.

I think that's so important.

We've talked a lot about the institution and the integrity of the institution.

There's some repair work to be done.

- Here with us now in person, retiring representative Republican Paul Torkelson, almost 20 years.

- Almost.

- We saw it there, you respect the institution.

Is that unusual these days?

- Well, I don't think it's unusual, but there is a little more robust activity these days, it seems.

You know, the extremes have a larger voice.

I think much of that's driven by social media, echo chambers that people get wrapped up in, but underneath that, I still think there's respect for the institution.

- [Lahammer] Where does that come from for you?

- Well, for me, it's, you know, a long history of community involvement, and then working from that, I got very active in Farm Bureau and got very active lobbying here in Minnesota and in Washington, DC, and seeing how challenging it is to move things forward.

And then so when you get here and are on the other side of the desk, you really understand how hard it is and how many balls are in the air at the same time.

You mentioned Farm Bureau.

Back in the day, early in my career, in my father's career up here, there used to be a lot of lawmakers who identified as farmer.

There's very few left.

What do you wanna say about that?

- Well, certainly, that's changed, but that's a reflection of society, you know?

We have a much smaller percentage of people that are farming.

That's just the nature of what's happened over time as farms have gotten larger and populations have grown in our metropolitan centers.

But the importance of agriculture for the state of Minnesota is still huge, and we wanna make sure that that voice is still heard.

- And you had to move.

You're a farmer who had to move to stay in the legislature.

That's no small feat.

- Well, I made a choice, you know?

I could have, you know, you remember Tony Cornish?

I could have run against him from my farm address.

Instead, we ended up buying a lake home in Southern Brown County, which is now our permanent home.

We still own our farm home, but it's standing empty, and we're in the process of looking to sell that, but it was a good move.

It's only 10 miles from the farm, so I was able to do both jobs pretty effectively.

- So what are you gonna do in retirement?

- I'm gonna be retired.

That's the main objective.

- Really?

Really?

- Well, I'll be 74 this summer, and my wife and I have some retirement plans.

- So I've been talking to your colleagues, most notably House Speaker Lisa Demuth, who wanted me to be reminded that she chose you, that your leadership position was not elected, but it was chosen, and that you have been a really key mentor to her, and she's not sure she would be where she is without you.

What do you think of that?

- Well, I think Lisa's a tremendously talented and gifted leader, but she was a little wet behind the ears when she was first elected leader of our caucus.

I was a little surprised when she turned to me and asked me to be her number two 'cause we weren't all that well acquainted.

But we found that we worked well together and that we were able to put a team together, the leadership team and the staff, necessary to run our caucus.

And I've watched her grow into the job, and I've, you know, I've tried to help her in every way and support her in every way I can.

And I've been able to mentor her.

I'm very happy about that.

And I think she has a very bright future.

- What's your secret sauce?

We just saw there, people admit, when you showed up behind closed doors, people started getting along and getting a deal.

You are known as a deal maker.

You get it done.

- Well, I think over time, you develop a reputation.

That's really all you have here is your reputation.

I think I've developed one of fairness and kindness, but still an understanding of how tough the work is and how you really have to, you gotta buckle down to get it done.

We do disagree.

Sometimes those agreements drive us apart, but they shouldn't drive us so far apart that we can't get back together and find solutions.

I honestly don't like the word compromise.

I like the word or the theory that we find solutions that we both can live with.

I'm not gonna compromise my values, the person on the other side of the table is not gonna compromise their values, but if we work hard, we can find paths that we can both agree with and use to get the work done.

- You're not done making news.

You are at the beginning of the show, responding to the governor and the changes with the DHS.

What I thought was funniest, honestly, when you said, "Why is the governor waiting till we're both leaving to reform the technology?"

This is something you still wanna do and think can be done?

- Oh yeah, I'm very confident.

You know, the first thing the governor and I ever did together in the state was MNLARS.

That freeform was a big deal, you know, getting the driver's license system operating and hiring a company to bring in software to do that.

We need to do the similar things across state government, but it's gotten easier, honestly.

We did MNLARS; the database transfer was a big, scary deal.

Now the experts tell me, "Well, we can transfer those databases, no problem."

And that's gonna continue to get easier.

AI is gonna make this easier to do, but we've gotta be smart about it.

We've gotta put together what they call an airport system, where we have this basis that kind of communicates between all these different silos, so that we break the silos down and people can actually use the data.

You know, I often say if you're a 25-year-old and you go to work at your county taking care of people on these programs, and they sit you down in front of a green screen that takes, well, you have to enter the same address three or four times, you're not gonna stay on that job.

- Finally, advice.

You've been very effective here.

How do people do it?

- Well, it's a people business, and it's all about building relationships, building a reputation, keeping your nose to the grindstone, and doing the work.

You know, there's show horses, and there's workhorses.

I believe I'm a workhorse, and I'm proud of that because there's work to be done here.

People expect government to work for them, and that really should be our goal, and it's my goal.

- Well, thank you for your service.

You will be missed.

- Well, I've had a lot of tremendously kind words said to me over these last weeks, and that warms my heart.

- Thank you, Representative.

(bright music) Two former presidents of the Senate are hanging it up at the end of session.

Here's a look back at Republican Senator Jeremy Miller and DFL Senator Sandy Pappas, who served for 42 years.

- I think people, you know, do like to think that they're fair to everyone, but unfortunately, most of the time and historically, when leaders have said that I am colorblind, the end result has been white men are hired.

Voters do want us to get some things accomplished and perhaps saw that divided government wasn't the way to do it.

I've certainly learned to respect the minority, having spent the last two years in the minority.

- Madam- - Will majority leader yield?

I've actually been interested in being Senate President for a long time, but I am the first Jewish woman President.

- Point well taken.

- Senator Bach.

What you should do is make the minority so happy that they never wanna be the majority.

- [Lahammer] The Senate president can't wait to have some real work to do.

As presiding officer of the chamber, she's concerned about the logistics of finishing on time.

- You know, I'm especially worried about the Health and Human Services bill because that's like 400-500 pages, but at least we don't xerox copies for everyone anymore.

It's all electronic.

- That's a lot of bubble wrap.

- Yes.

- [Lahammer] Lawmakers and staffers are already packing up their offices.

They know, regardless of the outcome of budget talks, they have to make way for moving crews who arrive the second session ends midnight Monday.

So this is unlike anything you've seen before?

- It is, and I didn't wanna have bare walls, so here we are, the last couple days, and we're finally taking things off the wall.

I did notice the other day that she packed up my forks, so I wasn't able to have lunch.

- [Lahammer] Trying to find a super majority to borrow for a bonding bill for state construction projects.

- [Senator Pappas] Mr.

Chairman, Mr.

Chairman, Senator Draheim, - There is no funding in this bill- - I funded those projects.

I funded this program in 669.

That's the bill that you rejected, and I resent you accusing me of not funding projects.

I would love to fund those projects, but you have a vote for the damn bill.

- [Lahammer] A local humane society is the heart-wrenching stop in the final stretch for senators on the Capital Investment Committee.

- We've really covered the state, and it's kind of shocking the infrastructure need that's out there.

We have infrastructure systems built in the sixties, built after World War II, that have aged out.

- [Lahammer] With us now retiring DFL Senator, Sandy Pappas.

How was that little trip down memory lane?

- That was really fun.

Thanks for showing that, Mary.

- Of all the jobs, House, Senate, President, Bonding Chair, what's your favorite of all of them?

- Bonding chair.

- Really?

Why?

Why is it?

- Well, because I get to really do things to improve communities' lives and people's lives with it.

I get to spend a (beep) load of money, and it's just really fun traveling around the state, you know, seeing what the issues are and the problems are, and you know, hanging out with my colleagues on the bus for hours and hours and hours.

- So I never know if it's the worst job or the best job because is everyone your best friend or your worst enemy 'cause you have to build super majority?

- Right.

- And everybody wants in on your bill.

- Yeah.

Yeah, it's tough decisions because the bills are always limited.

You know, we got $5 billion of requests, and we're gonna do a billion, two if we're lucky.

And yeah, there's a lot of people that get disappointed for sure.

- And it's the last thing out.

And sometimes because it's the last thing, it falls through the cracks.

- I know.

I hate that.

- It doesn't make it.

- I hate that.

Last year didn't make it, but we had a special session, and we passed it then, but I don't like being the last bill.

I'd rather be early.

- If we can address violent crime, ensure that our kids are getting the quality education that they deserve, and return the money back to the people of state of Minnesota, the budget surplus, get that back in the pockets of Minnesotans.

This is the result of Democrats and Republicans working together in the House, in the Senate, together with the administration, to getting a positive outcome.

- Joining us now, former Senate president and Republican majority leader, Jeremy Miller.

Senator Miller, you're so young.

Why leave now?

- It's been a great ride, hasn't it, Mary?

It's hard to believe that I've been here for 16 years.

- [Lahammer] Wow.

- When I first won in 2010, I believe I was the second youngest Minnesotan ever elected to the state senate at 26 years old.

- [Lahammer] Oh my gosh.

- When I became Senate president, I was 35 years old, the youngest senator to be elected Senate President.

I think I was one of the youngest, the Senate majority leaders.

But my dad has always told me that keep two things in mind He said, "Jeremy," he said, "One, leave on your own terms," and I'm definitely leaving on my own terms.

And he said, "Leave when you're on top," and I've had so many opportunities, and I've built so many relationships here and have had the opportunity to work with people and get some really great things done for the people in Minnesota that I truly believe that I'm leaving when I'm on top.

- We'll talk about some of that, but we wanna roll some footage of when you made history when you were being sworn in as Senate President, and I wanna ask you what job, which leadership position honestly you liked better?

Is it Senate President or was it majority leader?

'Cause I have a feeling one was a bigger headache than the other.

What's the truth?

- [Senator Miller] I truly enjoyed being Senate President.

- [Lahammer] I had a feeling.

I had a feeling.

- It was awesome, but I also enjoyed being Senate Majority Leader, there's no doubt about it, but there's something about presiding over the Senate that is very special.

- [Lahamemr] Yeah, it's a really unique position, isn't it?

- Very unique.

Yes.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

And just the majesty of this building, did you appreciate just the architecture and the history in a really special way, being up there on the dais?

- Absolutely.

This is such a special place, and the last 16 years serving the people of southeastern Minnesota has truly been an honor of a lifetime.

Such a great privilege and so many fantastic memories here, but you know, Mary, more important than any role or position that I've held are the relationships that I've built here.

They're just so special.

And when you take the time to earn people's trust and when you take the time to build those relationships, it is absolutely amazing what you can get done around this place.

(gentle music) - We'll be back next time.

In the meantime, you can rewatch this show or any other shows by heading to our website.

That's tpt.org/aatc You can also follow us on social media like Facebook, and when the legislature is in session, you can watch House and Senate floor action, committee hearings, press conferences, and much more in the statewide Minnesota channel you are watching right now.

Make sure to tune into "Almanac" Friday night and come back again for "Almanac at the Capitol."

Thanks for watching.

Goodnight.

(energetic instrumental music) - "Almanac at the Capitol" is made possible by members of this public television station.

Support is also provided by Manitoba Hydro, providing clean, renewable energy to Minnesota utilities for more than 50 years.

manitobahydropower.com Flint Hills Resources, a leading producer of the fuels Minnesotans rely on every day.

Minnesota Lottery, supporting projects that protect Minnesota's environment and natural resources.

Great River Energy, providing wholesale power to 1.7 million people through its member-owner cooperatives and customers.

The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, a sovereign tribal nation in Scott County.

More at shakopeedakota.org And the Iron Mining Association of Minnesota, educating Minnesotans on the iron ore industry and its role for American steel.

"Almanac at the Capitol" is a production of Twin Cities PBS for the stations of Minnesota Public Television Association.