Vice watch at the Minnesota Legislature

(Minnesota Historical Society)

Of the thousand-plus pieces of legislation offered in the Minnesota Legislature this year, the handful that deal with those perennial diversions of gambling, smoking and drinking are sure to draw inordinate interest.

Staunch opponents are coming together to lower the drinking age in Minnesota (HF 492). How often do Minnesotans see liberal Minneapolis Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL, and conservative Maple Grove Rep. Kurt Zellers, R, enthusiastic about the same issue? Or Republican Rep. Tom Hackbarth of Cedar and DFL Rep. Tom Rukavina of Virginia join the bipartisan push to lower the drinking age to 18 and to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to drink with their parents.

Reps. Loren Solberg, DFL-Grand Rapids, and John Ward, DFL-Brainerd, and Sen. Tom Saxhaug, DFL-Grand Rapids, offered a bill (SF 219, HF 97) to allow convention centers to sell alcohol.

Sens. Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, and Linda Scheid, DFL-Brooklyn Park, submitted a bill (SF 239) to allow liquor stores to sell “devices designed to ensure safe storage and monitoring of alcohol in the home to prevent access by underage drinkers.” Current Minnesota law prohibits liquor stores from selling anything other than liquor, ice, tobacco, magazines, mixers and books about booze. Stores that want to sell devices to keep youngsters out of the liquor cabinet cannot help conscientious parents.

Want to gamble before you get on board a plane? Kahn of Minneapolis and Larry Haws of St. Cloud want to fix some of Minnesota’s budget woes by offering a bill (HF 342) to create a state lottery-run casino at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. People who gamble at the airport must have a valid airline ticket as the casino would be inside the security zone.

Is all that pull-tab trash bugging you?  Anyone who’s played Minnesota’s pull-tabs knows a lot of paper gets thrown away. Rep. Robin Brown, DFL-Moscow Township, has offered a bill (HF 502) to allow video pull-tab machines to be installed around the state. The proceeds would still go to charities and civic groups in local communities.

A partial repeal of the smoking ban is being offered in the Senate (SF 270) and House (HF 257) with mostly Republican support, but also a few Iron Range DFLers. The bill would allow bars that make 51 percent of their profit from alcohol to allow smoking so long as their ventilation systems completely cycle in fresh air twice a day. Authors in both houses include Reps. Larry Howes, R-Walker; Tom Emmer, R-Delano; Tom Hackbarth, R-Cedar; and Iron Range DFLers Loren Solberg, DFL-Grand Rapids; and Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia; also Sens. Amy Koch, R-Buffalo; Dick Day, R-Owatonna; David Tomassoni, DFL-Chisolm; and Ray Vandeveer, R-Forest Lake.

Legislators want to make it illegal for adults to smoke cigarettes in a vehicle where children under 18 are present. A police officer can’t stop a driver for smoking with children present, but the House (HF 379) and the Senate (SF 359) would empower police officers who pull over drivers for speeding to issue tickets for those smoking with kids on board. A large slate of DFLers are sponsoring the bill, along with lone Republican Sen. Steve Dille of Dassel.

Correction: The original story identified Sen. David Tomassoni as a Republican. He is a DFLer.