District 12A State Rep. Paul Anderson, R-Starbuck, has been named the Republican Co-Chair of the House Agriculture Finance and Policy Committee for the 2025-26 legislative biennium.
He is co-chairing the committee with Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party Rep. Rick Hansen of South St. Paul because, for the second time in state history, the 134-member House is evenly split 67-67 between Republicans and Democrats.
Anderson, who farms southeast of Starbuck in Pope County, was elected to his 9th term in the state House with 73.8% of the vote Nov. 5. During the last legislative session, when the DFL controlled the body, he served as the Republican lead on the Agriculture Finance and Policy Committee.
For the current members of the Minnesota House splitting power is entirely new. There isn’t a member in the body that was around the last time it happened in 1978. The Legislature Jan. 14 for the 2025 session at the Capitol in St. Paul.
“We’ve been given a tied House to provide balance in Minnesota, and make sure that our agriculture industry here in Minnesota does not suffer from the burdensome and unnecessary regulations passed over the last several years,” Anderson said in a prepared statement following the announcement of his leadership position. “Our state is an agriculture leader, and we need to support our farmers and give them the tools they need to continue their important work.”
It is somewhat ironic that the ag committee’s co-chair representing the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party is from South St. Paul. It shows the reality of a party that doesn’t have much to choose from in rural Minnesota. The Republican Party has captured nearly every House and Senate seat outside the Twin Cities seven county metropolitan area.
District 12A House includes all of Swift, Stevens, and Big Stone counties, all but the three northeast townships of Pope County, and 12 townships in western Stearns County.
With some issues, it may indicate a split along not just lines of the Republican and DFL parties, but also along urban and rural interests.
Hansen’s choice by the DFL as the co-chair of the ag committee could be challenging for Anderson and Republicans. During the 2023-2024 session, Hansen was chair of the Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee. However, he also served on the Agriculture Finance and Policy Committee.
“I’ll work with Rick but he is an environmentalist and so we are going to have to do some compromising to get things passed,” Anderson said in an interview with The Times co-publisher Reed Anfinson last Wednesday.
While it could be challenging to work with Hansen, Anderson said, “the fact that the whole setup here is so different with co-chairs and equal numbers of on each committee, I look for a lot fewer bills to get passed. Neither side is going to have what I would call ‘far out legislation’ passed because you have to have support from the other side of the aisle.
“In a way, that is good. But it remains to be seen how much compromise there is going to be,” he said. “This is the second time the Legislature has been tied 67 to 67 but we are really heading into some uncharted territory with co-chairs for committees,” Anderson said.
Committee chairs generally have a committee administrator who coordinates its activities but with two chairs for each committee, that means doubling the administrative committee staff.
And then, does one co-chair run the meeting one day and the other the next day? Are one kind of bills heard when he chairs the committee, and another kind heard when Hansen chairs it? Anderson asked. A lot of things have to be worked out on the logistics of how these committees are going to operate, he said.
Often bills will have to go through a couple committees or more before the language is approved. If the bill involves spending its appropriation is likely to be before another committee. And then to make it to the floor of the House, the bill has to go to the rules committee, which will have co-chairs and equal members.
Then, on the floor, the body is evenly divided. However, the good thing may be that to make it to the House floor, the legislation has already gone through a series of bipartisan support votes in committees.
Budget year
This is the first year of the two-year legislative biennium and that means it is a budget year.
“By far the number one priority is constructing a two-year budget. The latest forecast comes out next week and we get a pretty good handle on if we still have a small surplus or if we are going into a deficit. The key forecast comes out in early March when the budgets and targets are really put together,” Anderson said.
“We can’t afford to not have the state get a budget done because we do not want to have a shutdown,” he added.
One significant impact to the state’s budget could occur if President-elect Donald Trump carries through with his threat of 25% tariffs against Canada, China and Mexico. “My hope is that this is bluster. I read this morning the leaders and Mexico and Canada are trying to arrange meetings to negotiate.”
Trump has said he wants Canada and Mexico to cut down the border traffic and fentanyl coming into the United States, and if there are signs of cooperation, he might not implement the tariffs, Anderson said. “It is a real big question mark for sure.”
Unemployment pay for part-time school workers
Anderson has a considerable concern about legislation passed a couple years ago that gave schools for funding summer unemployment pay for part-time employees. “That cost has increased dramatically as people find out about it and as of right now there is no more funding…going forward to cover that cost. So, that is going to another cost put back on our schools to levy for if there is not state funding.”
While all taxpayers will see an impact in many rural Minnesota counties farmland makes up a significant portion of the taxable value.
Groundwater
Groundwater protection was a big deal in 2024’s legislative session when the federal Environmental Protection Agency came out and told the state to get moving on it, Anderson said. Some southern Minnesota counties were facing significant nitrate pollution issues in drinking water supplies for towns and rural homes.
This year’s very rains meant that a lot of fertilizer that had been applied to farmland was lost, which is not good. “There will be a continued emphasis on conserving fertilizer, best uses, only put on what you need, and that kind of thing,” he said.
Weather planning
In recent years, the state has been developing policies that address the changing climate in Minnesota. Those discussions are likely to continue.
Where the immediate impact is and where it hits people is in their billfolds as they see a dramatic increase in the cost of insurance, Anderson said. “We’ve all seen what has happened to our casualty insurance. Florida especially is being hit hard,” Anderson said. “That is a direct immediate impact of our dramatic weather.
The Biden Administration put a lot of money into sustainable agricultural practices and Anderson said he didn’t know if that would change.
Green fertilizer
In December, Anderson will be speaking in Morris on the development of green fertilizer, but he says while it shows promise a lot of the help is going to have to come from the federal government. “We’ll see if those things continue.”
“There is a great opportunity to manufacture some of that here and really lower our carbon score, which is a big deal. If we see ethanol demand decrease as electric cars become more common, then that market could be transferred to sustainable aviation fuel,” Anderson said. “It could be a huge demand for both soybeans and corn.”
Veterinarian shortage
A shortage of veterinarians in rural Minnesota is a continuing challenge that the Legislature has and will continue to address, Anderson said. Large animal veterinarians are particularly needed.
There are loan forgiveness programs to help veterinarians to move to rural areas. In some areas, vets are no longer taking call hours because they can’t handle the workload.
“That is a big issue that we need to address with some kind of incentives to encourage more large animal vets to come back to our part of the state,” he said.
There was legislation passed last year to allow veterinary techs to do a few more things without having to be directly supervised and we hope that helps take some of the backlog of work away, Anderson said.
Generational farm turnover
Passing farms on to the next generation continues to be a challenge, Anderson said. And, unfortunately, what seems to happen today is that when a smaller type of farmer retires that land is gobbled up by a bigger farmer and the result is fewer people on the land.
“I don’t know how we stop that trend because it just takes more acres and livestock because the profit margins are so small,” he said.
