Photo by Deb Gau State Sen. Gary Dahms and Rep. Chris Swedzinski held a town hall meeting Monday morning at the MERIT Center in Marshall. The two legislators talked about this spring’s legislative session, and took questions from constituents.

MARSHALL — From Rep. Chris Swedzinski and Sen. Gary Dahms’ viewpoint, the chances of the Minnesota Legislature being called into special session this summer were looking rather slim.

“There’s probably a 60-day window,” when it might be more likely for Gov. Tim Walz to call a special session, Dahms said Wednesday. After that point, election season starts up and it will be hard to get state lawmakers together, he said.

The special session — and the fate of a bonding bill that could fund regional capital projects — was one of the topics of interest at a town hall meeting Dahms and Swedzinski held Wednesday morning. Swedzinski, R-Ghent, and Dahms, R-Redwood Falls, took questions from constituents at the MERIT Center in Marshall.

“It’s great to be back and doing these again,” Swedzinski said. The last time he and Dahms had been able to hold constituent meetings in the area was in 2019, before COVID put a temporary stop to gatherings.

This spring, the legislative session came to an end without passing a bonding bill to fund jobs and projects across the state. This year, area organizations including the MERIT Center and the Southwest West central Service Cooperative had requested bonding dollars to help fund capital projects. In SWWC’s case, the cooperative was proposing to convert part of a building on the campus of Southwest Minnesota State University into a regional special education facility.

“I think we were pretty darn close on a bonding bill,” Swedzinski told local residents. However, he said the bill did face some difficulties because of the number of single-community projects among the requests, as opposed to more regional projects.

Even if a special session is called to finish work on a bonding bill and omnibus tax bill, Swedzinski and Dahms said they would have some uncertainties about it.

“There has to be some trust gained between the governor’s office and the House and Senate,” Dahms said. He said he’d be hesitant to enter a special session if the governor was just going to walk away from the deal.

Looking at current economic conditions in the world, Minnesota also needed to be concerned about spending, Swedzinski said.

“We need to step carefully as a state government. We don’t have to spend every last dime,” Swedzinski said.

Legislators did accomplish some important things in the session, Swedzinski said. They approved $2.7 billion to replenish Minnesota’s unemployment insurance trust fund and pay back federal funding for unemployment benefits. Getting that done was important to keep taxes on businesses from going up to make up for the shortfall, he said.

“We’re very proud of that work,” Swedzinski said.

“We also got the ag bill done, and the ag bill includes rural broadband,” Dahms said. The bill included $210 million in federal funding to expand broadband internet access across the state, Dahms said. Broadband access has become even more important over the past couple of years, as schools and businesses turned to online tools during the COVID pandemic.

At Wednesday’s meeting, community members also voiced concerns about electrical demand and potential blackouts during summer heat.

“The governor has made some very poor moves” on energy policy, Swedzinski said. Swedzinski also thought Minnesota should not be taking base load coal power plants out of production, or taking farmland out of production for solar installations.

In response to an audience question, Dahms and Swedzinski also shared their positions on gun control.

Swedzinski said he thought there were some issues with proposals like “red flag laws,” or age restrictions on purchasing guns.

“Whether it’s free speech or the Second Amendment, those really should be protected,” Swedzinski said.

Both Swedzinski and Dahms said more needed to be done to support mental health care, and make sure people got the help they needed.

“There’s a lot involved in this issue,” Dahms said.