MARSHALL — The Minnesota state Legislature’s spring session starts today, and legislators from southern and southwest Minnesota said they’ll be working to get a lot done in 12 weeks.

“I think there’s enough stuff out there to be worked on, if we roll our sleeves up and get some movement, we can get a lot of things done,” said Sen. Gary Dahms, R-Redwood Falls. Dahms said legislative committees would be getting rolling pretty soon after the start of the session.

The first day of the 2026 session will be dedicated to memorializing former speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives Melissa Hortman, who was assassinated in June of last year, said Rep. Paul Torkelson, R-Hanska.

The House will be joined by the Senate in recognizing Hortman and her service, followed by a reception honoring her.

“This will take up the bulk of the first day, which is appropriate,” Torkelson said. “It is unusual circumstances and many of us in the Legislature have felt the pain of losing a colleague.”

Torkelson said with the recent turmoil following Hortman’s murder as well as the shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis he suspects there will be an effort to push gun control legislation, but doubted it would pass.

“The support is not there,” Torkelson said. He believed any law pushed during this session would be declared unconstitutional with the Second Amendment in place.

Dahms and Rep. Chris Swedzinski, R-Ghent, said passing a bonding bill is also a task facing state lawmakers this spring. Dahms said he had not seen a bonding bill proposal from Gov. Tim Walz’s office yet, but that would also likely come early on in the session.

Dahms said he thought items that would be part of a bonding bill this year would likely include “necessary” projects like maintenance to state-owned buildings and higher education facilities, as well as water and sewer infrastructure projects for Minnesota cities.

Swedzinski said he hopes sales tax relief would be part of the conversation for bonding bill projects, as well. Sales taxes can add to the cost of needed infrastructure projects that receive bonding dollars, he said.

Torkelson said spending this year would only happen if it did not increase the deficit.

“In talking with key Democrats, they are saying the same thing,” he said. “The bonding bill, which is popular, if passed we need to find the money.”

Finding the money could mean clawing back funds from other sources or funding new sources to fund the bill, he said.

Torkelson said if money is found for a bonding bill he would push to fund infrastructure projects in his district. New Ulm’s new lift station would be a top priority. He said it is something that has been under discussion for a long time.

Fraud would be another major topic of discussion this year, legislators said.

“I think the top issue we have to deal with is all the fraud and abuse” in Minnesota, Dahms said. Swedzinski said concern about fraud in the state “seems to be widespread.”

Torkelson said the House Fraud Committee was already in meetings about how to address the alleged fraud reported Minnesota departments. In addition, there are ongoing federal investigations.

Torkelson was not certain of any specific legislation coming out of the fraud investigations, but he believed something would come before the House before the end of the session.

In addition to curtailing fraud, other priority issues for legislators included finding ways to help struggling nursing homes and hospitals, Dahms said. Swedzinski said for him, some big issues for the upcoming session included looking at possible reforms in the energy sector to help rate-payers save money, whether that included metering reforms or examining nuclear energy. Swedzinski said “putting some common sense” into Minnesota’s Paid Family and Medical Leave law was also on legislators’ minds.

Swedzinski said one bill he was also trying to get passed would allow people to fish with two lines. He’s already gotten feedback from members of the public so far. “There’s been a lot of interest from people,” he said.

Clay Schuldt contributed to this story.