About 90 high school juniors from across Minnesota participated in the House of Representative's High School Page Program during the course of the 2023 legislative session. This highly regarded program was established in 1975. After a few years' hiatus during the pandemic, we were glad to see these students at the Capitol again!

Each week, the students' schedule is packed, ensuring they learn about every aspect of the legislative process. Students meet with legislators and other government officials, serve as pages on the House floor, conduct research in the Library, and hold a mock committee hearing.

Tom Holien, who has coordinated the program for the past few years, works tirelessly each week to create an enriching and informative experience for each group of pages who participate!  

People often ask the library about salaries of Minnesota legislators. Currently, legislator salaries are set at $48,250, but that will soon change. The latest issue of the Report of the Legislative Salary Council, new this month in the Library, sets legislators’ salaries at $52,750 beginning July 1, 2023. 

Prior to 2016, the Minnesota Constitution provided that legislators’ compensation was prescribed by law. A constitutional amendment regarding how legislators’ salaries are set was adopted by the voters in the 2016 election, which also happens to be our most recent constitutional amendment. The Legislative Salary Council’s first prescribed salary for legislators went into effect July 1, 2017. More details about legislator compensation are noted in the FAQ and our chart of Compensation of Minnesota Legislators, 1858 - present. 

Another new report this month is the Recommendations of the Minnesota State Compensation Council. This report, as indicated by the title, is not prescriptive but instead contains recommendations for compensation levels for the governor, other constitutional officers, judges, and several other officials. The Legislature can establish a new salary for the governor through an appropriation, or by passing a law that provides for a specific salary, or by providing for a percentage change in the salary. Under current law, if the Legislature does nothing, the salary does not change.

To see a chart of how these recommendations have related to the governor’s salary over time, see the library’s new Minnesota Governor’s Salary, 1983-Present page. Since their beginning in 1983, the Compensation Council has made recommendations nearly every odd-numbered year, but they did not meet in 2003, 2011, or in 2015. 

Contact us with questions, for research assistance, or to borrow these books and reports or any of the materials on this month's list: library@lrl.mn.gov or 651-296-8338.

Winning the lottery is an irresistible dream—despite its unlikeliness—for the 33 million Americans who try their luck each week. The modern era of state-operated lotteries began in 1964 in New Hampshire. In the last fifty-nine years, all but five states have established lotteries.   

For a Dollar and a Dream: State Lotteries in Modern America by Jonathan D. Cohen (Oxford University Press, 2022) is a comprehensive study of American lotteries. Cohen asserts that just as individuals pin their hopes and dreams on winning an enormous jackpot, policymakers gamble on lotteries, too, to generate a new source of revenue for sagging budgets without raising taxes. 

Minnesota was the 33rd state to establish a lottery. Minnesotans approved a constitutional amendment to allow a state-run lottery in 1988 with a 58 percent majority. The Minnesota State Lottery began selling tickets a year and a half later. 

The most recent Minnesota Lottery Annual Report states that Minnesota Lottery winners took home $470 million in prizes in fiscal year 2022 and generated $172.6 million for the state. The funds go toward programs dedicated to the protection and preservation of Minnesota’s environmental and natural resources and to responsible gambling programs. The Lottery annual reports provide basic financial figures for each year since it was established. 

Contact us with questions, for research assistance, or to borrow these books and reports: library@lrl.mn.gov or 651-296-8338. 

In the new book, Nature's Crossroads: The Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota, editors George Vrtis and Christopher Wells have compiled an extensive environmental history of the state of Minnesota, with a particular focus on the relationship between the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota.

Divided into three sections, the first part “The Dynamics of Environmental Change: Cities, Commodities, Hinterlands,” explores the early relationship of the Twin Cities to the “hinterlands” – the authors’ moniker for greater Minnesota. In the second part, “The Twin Cities and the Built Environment,” the authors focus on the Twin Cities’ “urban confines.”

And the last part, “Environmental Politics, Thought, and Justice,” looks at how the environmental movement has influenced various regions and at times created tension between different geographic areas of Minnesota.

For more environmental history, be sure and check out the March-April 2023 Minnesota Conservation Volunteer article, “Paddling Into the Past: Three canoeists retrace the path of Arthur Carhart, a key character in the Boundary Waters origin story.” Side-by-side photos from the 1921 and 2022 trips illustrate the beauty of this Minnesota treasure.

The Legislative Reference Library is pleased to have Star Tribune photographer Glen Stubbe's engaging photographs of the Senate and the Capitol on display in the Library's Senate location.  Come see them soon--or stop by during a reception for Glen's exhibit on Thursday, January 19 from 9:30-11.  Cookies will be served!

Glen's Star Tribune colleague, Briana Bierschbach, wrote words of introduction to Glen's exhibit: 

At the Minnesota Capitol, the state Senate is the stately upper chamber, where senators and reporters must follow a dress code and decorum tends to prevail over fiery passions. But it can also be a place of warmth, where political rivals share a prayer, freshly baked bars and pat on the back after a grueling debate.

As a staff photographer for the Star Tribune, Glen Stubbe is often in the room where it happens, capturing both the debates that shape state policy and the little moments that show the humanity of the institution. He taps into a deep understanding of his source material and relationships developed over many years to capture moments others don't.

These images pull back the curtain on government in a way no words could ever convey.

-Briana Bierschbach, Politics and Government Reporter at the Star Tribune