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By Allison Kite

Julia Demaree Nikhinson/The Associated Press

Good morning Dishers, and happy Friday! It's looking awfully dreary the next few days, which is really cramping my summer style. 

But while you wait for the rain to pass, we've got a couple of dispatches from Gov. Tim Walz's trip to Washington to answer questions on immigration policies. He was asked, along with Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York and JB Pritzker of Illinois, to testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. 

My colleague Sydney Kashiwagi has a minute-by-minute account here. While Walz was asked to answer questions before the committee, he and other governors were often interrupted and berated when they tried to speak.

The Minnesota Star Tribune's Ryan Faircloth reported the governor's testimony overall looked like he was trying to thread the needle on immigration — saying the system is broken while condemning President Donald Trump's high-profile raids and attempts to deport immigrants without due process.

Walz did not back away from his comments comparing immigration authorities to the Gestapo of Nazi Germany, despite repeated criticism from Republicans on the committee.

Speaking at the University of Minnesota last month, Walz said, “Donald Trump’s modern-day Gestapo is scooping folks up off the streets. They’re in unmarked vans wearing masks” and shipping people off to “foreign torture dungeons."

On Thursday, he said: “I said President Trump was using them as his modern-day Gestapo. Not identifying who you are, coming up in unmarked vans, taking people away. The Constitution is not an inconvenience. It’s not an either/or.”

Read more. 

Minnesotans with disabilities feared Medicaid cuts. Lawmakers didn't go as far as some thought they might.

Across Minnesota, residents who rely on Medicaid waivers for disability services and support worried the Legislature would slash their benefits and balance the state's budget "on the backs of the most vulnerable,” my colleague Jessie Van Berkel reports. The $66 billion two-year budget lawmakers passed earlier this week doesn't go as far as advocates feared, but still significantly reduces spending on care for seniors and people with disabilities.

Walz had recommended capping at 2% annual inflationary increases in payments for providers of waiver services and forcing counties to take on some of the costs, but disability advocates and county officials sharply condemned those ideas.

The budget ended up capping increases at 4% and creating an advisory council to recommend other cost-saving measures. 

Read more.

State budget increases annual EV charge. Electric vehicle owners will have to pay at least $150 a year to register their cars starting in January, my colleague Kristoffer Tigue reports. 

A provision in the state's transportation budget doubles the annual surcharge on EVs and imposes a $75 annual surcharge on plug-in hybrids. Fees will scale up to $200 for more expensive vehicles. 

The reason? They don't pay gas tax (or in the case of plug-in-hybrid owners, they pay less). Lawmakers have been debating for years how to deal with declining gas tax revenues, which are used to maintain roadways, from the growth of EVs. 

Registration fees for EVs will fall in 2027 when a public charging station tax takes effect, charging 5 cents per kilowatt hour. 

Read more.

Walz has no public events scheduled today.

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Democratic party officials will host a "People's Town Hall" this afternoon featuring former Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough, along with U.S. Rep. Kelly Morrison and Minnesota DFL Chair Richard Carlbom.

The event will focus on cuts to veterans services. In a release, the party criticized Trump's $45 million military parade planned for this weekend.