Good morning. Good luck to the Artemis crew on today's splashdown!

Lawmakers are looking to put guardrails on prediction markets, citing concerns about them skirting Minnesota’s gambling laws. A pair of committees — one Senate and one House — took up proposals yesterday to make it a felony to host or advertise a prediction markets in Minnesota . The online markets offer opportunities to stake claims on countless future events — from when Iran will test nuclear weapons to who will win the Masters Tournament to when Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce will tie the knot. They’ve taken off in popularity and they generate billions of dollars in transactions. “By allowing anonymous bets on war policy in some cases, it creates an enormous ethics concern. It also makes these markets vulnerable to cheating and manipulation by anonymous insiders,” said bill sponsor Rep. Emma Greenman, DFL-Minneapolis. Some lawmakers raised questions about whether the state was the entity best positioned to put on new guardrails. Republican Rep. Nolan West, of Blaine, pointed to court cases challenging similar proposals. “All we're doing is engendering taxpayers to pay for litigation costs that we very likely will lose if any recent court case is determining it,” he said. Dana has more about the ongoing debate at the Capitol here.

House Republicans rolled out a budget plan that includes around $3.8 billion in tax cuts Thursday afternoon. The "North Star Comeback" budget plan includes $1 billion in property tax relief and would also match Minnesota’s tax code up to several federal changes made last year, including no tax on tips and overtime. The series of bills includes some issues that have bipartisan support, such as anti-fraud measures and IT modernization for county human services systems. The plan, which basically doubles as the GOP’s fall campaign platform, also has some non-financial elements. It includes measures to make school sports teams based on a person’s biological sex at birth and enact laws for “stopping sanctuary cities.” “Right now Minnesotans are feeling squeezed from every direction, groceries, child care, housing, insurance, energy. When you think about it, it's the basics, and they just keep getting more expensive,” said House Speaker Lisa Demuth, who is one of the leading GOP candidates for governor. “That's why this plan responds directly to the reality that so many of us are living today. We're putting real money back into people's pockets, by way of the largest tax cut proposal in state history.” The series of bills would have to bipartisan buy-in in the House, and get through the DFL-led Senate to pass.

The first week back from the legislative recess showed some of the same sparks as the leadup to break. Ethics complaints, tussles over taxes and hot-button issue debates. This week on Politics Friday we’ll discuss the state of the session with two House leaders: DFL Rep. Jamie Long and GOP Rep. Harry Niska. Then we’ll continue our conversations with the 2nd Congressional District candidates, with state Sen. Eric Pratt coming by. He’s one of two Republicans competing for the nomination in that open-seat race.

A bill that would ban municipal governments from entering into non-disclosure agreements with private entities failed to pass through a House committee yesterday. While the bill isn’t dead, it is a major speed bump in getting the bill to the House floor. The bipartisan bill had passed through the House Elections Finance and Government Operations without opposition, but was then sent back to the Judiciary Finance and Civil Law Committee, where it did not get through on a tied vote along party lines. House Floor Leader Harry Niska said the bill is coming in after the deadline, though it had passed through committee well before that deadline and was then re-referred. The bill has sponsors across the political spectrum, but business organizations spoke in opposition to the bill Thursday. One of the bill’s authors, Rep. Emma Greenman, DFL-Minneapolis, said, “There is no reason this bill shouldn’t have passed today. If we voted on banning NDAs on the House floor it would pass. We all saw a stark contrast in committee: everyday Minnesotans and local leaders on one side, big tech and the chamber on the other. Republicans on the committee picked the side of the CEOs.” 

A proposal to expand a ballpark sales tax to help fund HCMC and other health care providers was vetted in a House committee yesterday. Our colleague Erica Zurek reports that the bipartisan bill would repurpose the county’s existing 0.15-percent sales tax , which is currently used to pay off bonds for Target Field’s construction, into a 1 percent sales tax. The change could generate about $340 million dollars annually for HCMC. The remaining funds would be allocated for ballpark-related investments. Hennepin Healthcare operates HCMC, which is confronting a projected $100 million dollar loss in uncompensated care and a $1.7 billion dollar reduction in Medicaid revenue over the next 10 years due to rising uninsured rates in the state and changes in federal policy, including Medicaid cuts. HCMC announced in January it would cut five programs and about 100 full-time positions to address a $50 million budget shortfall. The safety-net hospital provides care to more low-income and uninsured patients than any other facility in Minnesota. The bill’s sponsors said the initial draft is a first step that would likely be updated in coming weeks. They also view the proposal as a top priority for the Legislature this session.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Angie Craig paid a visit to the Whipple Federal Building yesterday to check on conditions in the facility that has housed detainees of immigration authorities. Craig said she was exercising her authority as a member of Congress to perform unannounced oversight on detention facilities. After a wait, she was escorted to a nonpublic area by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official. Craig said there was one detainee, but she wasn't able to visit with the person. “At the end of the day, until the administration actually changes its behavior, members of Congress cannot let up on making sure that they are treating people in a humane way,” she said. While waiting in the lobby, she took reporter questions. The U.S. Senate candidate criticized a Republican running for the same office, Michele Tafoya, as a “rubber stamp for the Trump administration.” Craig added, “She was a pretty good NFL sideline reporter, and I would recommend she consider going back to her old profession because nothing that she has said out loud so far in her Senate campaign is going to attract Minnesota voters to her.” Craig has a tough path to the fall ballot, with Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan deemed by many to be in the driver’s seat for the DFL endorsement. An August primary will determine the nominee.