Minnesota legislator says more than $16 million needed for rural EMS funding

ST. PAUL — Sen. Andrew Lang, R-Olivia, sits down to talk about rural EMS funding, gun control bills and his "Isaac's Voice" bill, which would require that interested parties be informed when a protective order has been rescinded.

Lang has been vocal about Gov. Tim Walz's call for $16 million in new funding for emergency medical services in Minnesota despite legislative requests for more than $100 million to help fix the EMS health system.

Lang represents all of Kandiyohi, Chippewa and Renville counties and a part of Meeker County. He was first elected to the Minnesota Senate in 2016.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

You were recently critical of Gov. Walz's $16 million request for EMS funding. What do you see as a long-term solution for EMS funding challenges?

Well, the long-term solution is that we have to continue funding it. Where that comes from, if it's from the general fund, I don't really care. We had a substantial surplus last year — not even substantial, it was a generational surplus. And we didn't spend any money in EMS like we should have back then. So I was a little critical when the governor came out with $16 million, $6 million of which was for a pilot program that we don't know if it's gonna work or not.

It's an industry that I work in. It's an industry I'm passionate about. We've had bipartisan support as we've gone through with the EMS Task Force and we came to a pretty good solution. I think we're going to continue to keep looking at that as we go on but to be honest, we need a lot more than $16 million and I was going to be critical of that. The Democrats probably are a little more emboldened to stay quiet on it, but they should be asking for more money as well, and I think they probably will.

How do you feel about legislation to toughen penalties for gun straw purchases and other legislation involving firearms?

Well, other legislation involving firearms, I'm not supportive of. What we did last year with universal background checks and "red flag" law will not help anything. The straw purchases, on the other hand, will help the state of Minnesota to hopefully prevent deaths. That's really what we're talking about, it is keeping guns out of bad people's hands and keeping guns in good people's hands at the same time. It's simple when you think about it like that, but that's really what we're trying to do, or what I'm trying to do. The straw purchase bill, I think would make a real impact. If people know that it's not just a gross misdemeanor to buy a gun for a known prohibited person. That is a big issue, and it's going on all over the place throughout the state.

Also, when it comes to gun laws, I think the biggest thing we need to do is have some sort of a real awakening when it comes to prosecution and judges putting people in jail for felon in possession of a weapon in the state of Minnesota. Anytime you look in the paper, that's the first thing that gets dropped. I had a local incident just a couple of weeks ago, where they had an armed standoff with an individual that got a weapon. They didn't say how they got the weapon, but the police department came out and said, "This is a person that is a known felon." He's a known felon. He's not supposed to have weapons and he had weapons. And I'm waiting to see what the charges are on this guy. I'm hoping that they're charging that felon with felony possession of a weapon.

Tell me about your "Isaac's Voice" bill and why it's important.

Isaac Hoff was a 13-year-old boy who grew up in Olivia, Minnesota. Isaac had a little bit of a tough background, not himself personally, but his dad's in prison, his mom was in and out of jail and his grandma had sole custody of him since he was 2 years old. He was a friend of my kids. He played baseball with them and spent a lot of time with my boys. I have two boys that are now 13 and one almost 17. But two years ago, on Sunday it was, two years ago Sunday, his mom was home and his grandma said 'Yeah, go see your mom," and his mom had previously had an order for protection out against an abusive boyfriend. Two weeks before that day, the mom removed that order for protection. Grandma, I think, knowing that that order for protection wasn't there would not have allowed Isaac to go over there.

And what happened, he went over to visit his mom and there was a struggle or a fight. The abusive boyfriend grabbed the knife, and was gonna stab the mom, Isaac jumped in front of the mom and was stabbed in the chest and killed. Thirteen years old. All this bill does is say, hey, family members or any interested person could petition the sheriff or whoever is putting the order for protection out there and say I want to be notified. That's all it does. And I think in this case, it probably would have saved a life.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

I think overall, it's been a very interesting session. There's a supplemental budget of $200 million. That's why the $16 million is so small. I mean, we're asking for $120, $125 million up to $130 million for EMS. It's really interesting being part of a Legislature that spent the way we did last year and now we're struggling to find dollars to do the important things. I am a little disheartened when it comes to this session. I'm really looking forward to having a fresh budget to work with and hopefully, we have a little bit of common sense when it comes to the budget.