Minnesota Rep. Chris Swedzinski was one of the guest speakers at Saturday's Lyon County Republican Convention in Ghent. Swedzinski and state Sen. Gary Dahms answered audience questions and talked about the ongoing legislative session.

GHENT — There’s been a lot going on in both the Minnesota state and the U.S. government, area legislators said. Minnesota’s budget forecast, the ongoing state legislative session, and more were part of the discussion at Saturday’s Lyon County Republican convention.

“Obviously there’s a few things going on in government,” state Rep. Chris Swedzinski said. “A lot of folks, I think, ultimately believe it’s something that’s been long overdue, especially at the federal level.”

Swedzinski, R-Ghent, and Sen. Gary Dahms, R-Redwood Falls, each gave legislative updates and answered questions during the convention. Legislators also talked about Minnesota’s budget forecast.

“We have a big problem, just as the federal government does, of overspending,” Swedzinski said. “We had probably either a neutral deficit or some sort of major deficit right now in Minnesota, depending on what the February forecast looks like.”

“The November forecast came out and it showed we had a $661 million surplus, but then two years down the road we’d have a $5 billion deficit,” Dahms said. “We base our budget on the February forecast, and the February forecast comes out either March 5 or March 6. The rumor is that it’s probably going to be a little worse than what it was in November.”

“I’m fully expecting a good share of the surplus to not probably be there. And I do think that the deficit for two years from now will probably be another billion or two higher,” Dahms said. “We have to make sure that our budget this year starts reflecting some of those issues.”

Dahms also said Gov. Tim Walz’s proposed budget would decrease spending by shifting costs down to local governments. “That has a stronger effect in rural Minnesota than it does in the metro area.”

This year’s state legislative session got off to an unusual start, Dahms said. The Minnesota Senate spent the first three weeks of the session under a power-sharing agreement until the seat of Sen. Kari Dziedzic could be filled. Dziedzic died in December.

“It was kind of a Kumbaya type three weeks,” Dahms said. “We did get a lot of stuff that we could agree on, as far as bills and stuff. We got a lot of that passed and got ready to go to the floor.”

Dahms said all of that changed as soon as Democrats had a 34-33 Senate majority again. “It’ll be back to the same way it was.”

Dahms said the delay caused by DFL legislators’ boycott in the Minnesota House got them off to a late start, and put pressure on the deadlines to hear bills and finalize a state budget. If Minnesota doesn’t have a budget and goes into a shutdown on July 1, “There will be no essential services,” Dahms said.

Swedzinski’s comments at the convention touched a little more on national politics, in addition to state politics.

The U.S. was having to make choices about spending at the national level, Swedzinski said, “I think we all understand that it’s time to hold elected politicians in Washington, D.C., accountable. And President Trump, I believe, is going to do that,” he said. “And that might mean it’s going to get a little tough, right? And what we’re going to do is realize that maybe our reliance on the federal government in our personal lives is a little too much.”

Convention attendees asked questions about ongoing issues at the state Legislature, as well as upcoming elections.

Audience members asked if Republican legislators would be able to change any of the provisions of Minnesota’s new paid family and medical leave law.

“We have about seven different bills that will change that,” Dahms said. “What’s going to happen is, I don’t think we’ll get a hearing on those bills. But I do think what will happen is we get into the final days (of the session), and that would be part of the negotiations, and we’ll see if we can get some of this stuff cleaned up.”

With federal funding freezes affecting green energy, audience members wanted to know if the coal-fired Sherco power plant in Sherburne County would get to keep operating.

Swedzinski said Minnesota would need to have reliable sources of energy to power data centers as the economy turns toward AI and digitization.

“That (Sherco) plant, if all three coal burners are going, is 2,400 megawatts. One of the data centers that is proposed to be built within the shadow of the Sherco plant will consume about 1,000 megawatts. They’re proposing 11 to 14 of those facilities just around the metro area,” Swedzinski said. “There are not the technologies, with the renewable energy standard, that can meet that type of demand, and so I don’t see how Minnesota can play a part in the future economy of the digital world and not have coal as a part of that.”

Swedzinski said the Minnesota House Energy Committee was also looking at getting rid of the state’s moratorium on nuclear energy.

One audience question was whether Minnesota Republicans had strong candidates for the Minnesota governor’s office and Tina Smith’s U.S. Senate seat.

“I don’t know if we’ve found that winner yet. I think there’s a few folks that are jumping into the race,” Swedzinski said. He emphasized that Republicans would need to put effort into supporting their candidates in the next election.

In the last election, “Democrats outspent Republicans six to one,” Swedzinski said. “So if we can’t outspend them, we need to outwork them.”