NW Twin Cities

Republican and Democrat lawmakers disagree over whether a GOP bill package introduced in February is an effort to address crime in the Twin Cities, or just a partisan political game. 

The legislation, given the name "Safety in our Cities" by its sponsors, targets gang activity, drug related crime, the need for law enforcement at sporting and entertainment venues and public transit safety. 

Kurt Daudt, House Minority Leader, said at a Capitol news conference that GOP lawmakers hope the legislation will "jump-start a discussion and combat the recent spike in crime in parts of the Twin Cities and on light rail."

Daudt also said that Republican legislators created the package to protect Minnesotans who travel from suburban and rural areas to the Cities for sporting and entertainment events. 

In the press conference, Daudt said that "people's safety when they visit Minneapolis and St. Paul is not a partisan issue." 

The Democratic mayors of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, however, see the bill package as a blatantly partisan act. 

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said at the news conference that Republicans are "trying to make it one."

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter responded to Daudt as well, telling the Twin Cities Pioneer Press that “the future we deserve can neither be built on failed strategies from the ’80s nor on cheap and misleading political games.”

A primary complaint among the Minneapolis and St. Paul officials is that Republican lawmakers didn't contact them for feedback on the legislation. 

"While data shows that Saint Paul’s overall violent crime rates are at a 25-year low, we clearly have more work to do," said Mayor Carter in a February Facebook statement. "Particularly in light of a heartbreaking series of gun-related homicides last fall."

In November of last year, Carter introduced a public safety initiative worth nearly $3 million. His proposal was approved with the council, and aims to reduce violent crime in the St. Paul area.