ST. PAUL, Minn. – State Senator Steve Drazkowski, a Republican elected from Mazeppa, expressed doubt at a committee hearing on the creation of Juneteenth as a state holiday. Draz, who is white, pressed the bill’s sponsor, Bobby Joe Champion, who is black, on the fiscal impact. The Senate’s fiscal analyst, Andrew Erickson, intervened and explained to Drazkowski that June 19 is a payday like any other and always has been. In other words, Erickson repeated, Juneteenth won’t add any costs. The committee approved Juneteenth on a voice vote, so there is record how Drazkowski voiced his position in the end or whether he remained silent. Draz, a Winona shoeshop owner. is a freshman in the Senate but he’s been in the Legislature on the House side since 2007. His reputation among colleagues is that often he doesn’t do his homework and that he’s no friend of labor and state employees.
Now wait a minute. Draz is a member of the Senate’s State and Local Government Committee but blank on state employee contract contents.