Matthew Blake

Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis

State Government Reporter at MinnPost

Print Reporter at Freelance

Articles

Why Minnesota may punt on creating IG office

2 days ago | minnpost.com | Matthew Blake

On Thursday Sens. Heather Gustafson, DFL-Vadnais Heights, and Michael Kreun, R-Blaine, trumpeted that a bill to create an inspector general for the state of Minnesota cleared the Senate on a convincing 60-7 vote. “We have already made significant strides in fighting fraud in Minnesota, but today filled the gap that was desperately missing,” Gustafson told reporters at a press conference after the vote.
Minnesota's Medicaid history

6 days ago | minnpost.com | Matthew Blake

Back in 1991, when the Twins were storming their way to the World Series and “The Silence of the Lambs” ruled the box office, rookie state representative Becky Lourey got to know Erin Murphy, a nurse just starting advocacy work for the National Nurses Association. “I was a baby organizer,” said Murphy, speaking from her capacious office as the current Minnesota Senate Majority Leader.
tiny state budget piece, big talking point

1 week ago | minnpost.com | Matthew Blake

Understanding how Minnesota subsidizes health care for some of its residents is super hard to wrap my head around. Even lawmakers who have worked on health care budgets for decades admit this. “This is an extremely complicated area and an extremely sensitive area,” said Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, on the Senate floor Wednesday as the legislative chamber debated a bill to fund the Department of Human Services (DHS). “It is an agonizing process.”But one element of DHS spending is not very complicated.
Is the Minnesota House's power-sharing agreement unraveling?

1 week ago | eplocalnews.org | Matthew Blake

So much for bipartisan harmony. On Wednesday, the House Rules and Legislative Administration Committee met to advance the biennial education spending bill to the House floor. The $26 billion bill had already cleared the Education Finance and Ways and Means committees by voice votes. Getting through Rules is almost always a procedural formality. But committee co-chair Jamie Long, DFL-Minneapolis, had other ideas.
Schools funding vexes, divides Minnesota state lawmakers

2 weeks ago | cadillacnews.com | Matthew Blake

Minneapolis, MN (MinnPost)MinnPost's reporting is always free, every single day. We rely on voluntary, tax-deductible donations from readers to support our work. Will you join them with a gift to support our nonprofit newsroom today? In the late innings of a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Tuesday, Senate President Bobby Joe Champion, DFL-Minneapolis, began to incessantly tap his watch with his index finger. Champion's message was clear.
Is the Minnesota House’s power-sharing agreement unraveling?

2 weeks ago | minnpost.com | Matthew Blake

So much for bipartisan harmony. On Wednesday, the House Rules and Legislative Administration Committee met to advance the biennial education spending bill to the House floor. The $26 billion bill had already cleared the Education Finance and Ways and Means committees by voice votes. Getting through Rules is almost always a procedural formality. But committee co-chair Jamie Long, DFL-Minneapolis, had other ideas.
Schools funding vexes, divides Minnesota state lawmakers

2 weeks ago | minnpost.com | Matthew Blake

In the late innings of a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Tuesday, Senate President Bobby Joe Champion, DFL-Minneapolis, began to incessantly tap his watch with his index finger. Champion’s message was clear. The committee needed to advance a scheduled $25.7 billion two-year education spending bill to the Senate floor before it recessed at 11 in the morning. Finance Chair John Marty, DFL-Roseville, heeded the call, and the bill cleared committee by a party-line vote seconds before 11.
The Minnesota Legislature has 99 problems. The split House might not be one

2 weeks ago | eplocalnews.org | Matthew Blake

When Nolan West rose this year to co-chair the Minnesota House Children and Families Finance and Policy Committee, his first edict was a seating chart. Typically, West explained in his Capitol office adorned by statuettes of Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan and an elephant, Republicans sit by Republicans and DFLers perch by DFLers. But on a committee with seven DFLers and seven Republicans, the Blaine Republican decided that each DFLer would sit between two Republicans and vice versa.
Trump is 'small, petty' and destroying government

2 weeks ago | minnpost.com | Matthew Blake

In the midst of a brisk State of the State speech in the Minnesota House chamber Wednesday night, Gov. Tim Walz said something that was probably meant to inspire but instead revealed the dilemma the governor finds himself in. “This current administration in Washington is not forever. These small, petty men will disappear into the dustbin of history. And when they do, we’ll have both an opportunity and an obligation to rebuild our government so it actually works for working people.”Great.
100 Days: Matthew Blake on Minnesota's state government

2 weeks ago | minnpost.com | Matthew Blake

Editors’ note: We asked our reporters to summarize the impact of the Trump administration’s first 100 days on their coverage areas. Potential steep cuts in Medicaid that Congress may enact (upon President Donald Trump’s recommendation) have state government officials worried. Before Minnesota’s fiscal year ends on June 30, the state is expected to receive around $16 billion from the federal government to pay for Medical Assistance, the state’s Medicaid program.