Paul Gardner's blog

2010 Campaign Finance Report for MN House District 53A

2011-02-01T08:58:00.000-08:00

The Campaign Finance & Public Disclosure Board published its 2010 candidate campaign finance reports.

I have no axe to grind here, but I thought readers would be interested in seeing a comparison of the candidate reports for 53A. I started with a cash balance of over $5000 that is not included in the comparison. My opponent loaned herself $5,000 (the maximum allowed) and paid it back; both of her transactions are listed in the chart. The large "non-campaign" disbursements from my campaign mostly came from a session wrap-up mailing in the spring of 2010.

The one thing that differentiated the two campaigns is the heavy reliance on big donors by the GOP candidate. Sixty-three percent of my contributions came from donors who gave less than $200. My opponent collected 33% from this group and 67% from donors who contributed $200 or more.

I haven't checked yet, but the amount of "independent expenditures" made by outside groups and political parties was likely greater than $50,000 and perhaps as much as $100,000.

Receipts	Gardner	Runbeck
Individual contributions	21,931	24,701
contributions > $200	8,011	16,510
contributions < $200	13,920	8,191
Lobbyist & PAC contributions	-	850
Political party contributions	5,000	3,505
Public subsidy	6,412	5,634
Loans payable	-	5,000
	$ 33,343	$ 39,690

Disbursements
campaign	31,166	31,939
non-campaign	4,424	266
other	-	6,500
	$ 35,590	$ 38,705

Capitol Conversations Interview on Budget Guide

2011-01-12T14:06:00.000-08:00

Last night I appeared on Capitol Conversations with Marty Owings for about ten minutes to talk about the Plain English Guide the State Budget.

Here is the entire show, which featured Senators John Marty and Warren Limmer as well as IP candidate for Governor, Tom Horner.

Plain English Guide to the Minnesota State Budget!

2011-01-03T09:26:00.000-08:00

Well, readers, the election is over and I'm no longer in the state legislature. However, one of the things that I enjoyed doing the most at the Capitol was "de-mystifying" the legislative process, and I'd like to post some things regularly about how things get done (or don't get done) at the State Capitol. There are a lot of news sources out there, but they give very little insight into the nuts and bolts.

I thought I would start with the budget process, since Gov. Dayton and the legislature will be tackling a $6.2 billion deficit over the next few months. I must confess, there was no document like this available when I was in the legislature, at least not in one place! You just had to figure it out.

What's the timeline for approving a state budget?

Here are a set of deadlines by which certain budget tasks have to get done. (These dates are for the FY2012-2013 budget only.) There is more detail on these steps later in the post.

First week of December 2010: Minnesota Management & Budget (MMB) Commissioner presents forecast of revenues and expenditures and projects a surplus or deficit
February 15, 2011: Governor must send budget proposal to legislature
Last week of February 2011: MMB Commissioner presents revised forecast of revenues and expenditures; and Governor may issue a revised budget proposal in response
March through early April 2011: State agencies present detail of Governor's budget to the legislature
Date TBD by legislature 2011: Budget targets are set by Ways & Means Committee that define how much funding will be in each finance committee's budget
Mid-April 2011: Finance bills must be reported out of their respective finance committees
May 23, 2011: Constitutionally mandated adjournment for regular legislative session
July 1 2011: Fiscal year 2012 begins
December 2011, February 2012, December 2012 & February 2013: MMB gives additional forecasts that show if revenues and expenditures are in line with the approved budget
2012 legislative session & 2013 legislative session: Legislature approves supplemental budget(s) that keeps the budget biennium ending on 6/30/13 in balance based on forecasts

The state budget we are talking about is for a two-year period--or biennium--starting July 1, 2011 and ending June 30, 2013. (Hereinafter Fiscal Year or FY2012-2013.) The state constitution, Article IV, Section 12, requires that the legislature complete its work by the "first Monday following the third Saturday in May" (this year that would be May 23rd). So the legislature needs to submit a budget that can be signed by the Governor by May 23rd, unless the Governor calls a special session after that time. If a budget is not signed by June 30th, 2011, then the state government would shut down. This happened in 2005 and it was not pretty.

How does the process get started?

The executive branch starts the process, which starts usually in the late fall and early winter, when state agencies begin to prepare estimates of their budget needs to fulfill program obligations set by previous legislatures. Everyone knows that cuts are going to happen this year, so agencies are likely preparing smaller budgets that take cuts into account. Governor Dayton's staff will review these draft agency budgets to see if they fit with his vision for the state. His staff will likely ask agencies to re-submit budget proposals based on the direction that the Governor wants to go, e.g., put more money in program A but reduce the amount in program B, cut program C and add a new program D, etc.

Minnesota Management and Budget (MMB, or the old Department of Finance) compiles all the budget proposals into one document and is responsible for making sure that everything adds up. In addition, Governor Dayton is likely to propose additional revenue and so his Department of Revenue will produce revenue estimates for how much new funding would be available for the budget under certain scenarios (e.g., increasing the income tax rates on the highest earners, as the Governor has proposed).

The Governor will submit a final budget proposal to the legislature by the third Tuesday in February (February 15th for 2011) as required by Minnesota Statute (M.S.) 16A.11. (If the Governor was not new, the deadline would be the fourth Tuesday in January.) The Governor and his MMB Director will likely make a public statement about the budget and how big it would be, where the cuts will be, how much revenue might be raised in taxes, and how the numbers add up. A flurry of press conferences and press releases by legislative leaders will ensue.

The State of Minnesota requires a balanced budget, but that requirement is not in the state constitution. It is in law in Minnesota Statutes (M.S.) 16A.11 subdivision 2; 16A.15 subdivision 1.

How do they figure out how big the budget and the deficit will be?

The state relies on accurate budget forecasts. In Minnesota, the state contracts with an economic forecasting firm called Global Insight to figure out how much tax revenue will come in and how great the state's spending obligations will be. These forecasts factor in all sorts of variables like the price of oil, home ownership trends, consumer data, and so on. By calculating what the state's economy will be like, the forecast tells you how much the state will receive in business, sales, and income taxes. This information will help with spending estimates too, since a lot of state spending relies on how many people are in need of services, like unemployment insurance, health care coverage, transportation, etc. when people are out of the workforce.

M.S. 16A.103 requires two forecasts each year. One is presented by the end of the first week of December and the other is presented by the end of February. The state's MMB commissioner, usually with the state's economist, presents the findings. The forecast must be presented to both the Governor's office and the legislature in the same day, presumably to keep anyone from altering it for political gain.

Eventually, each house of the legislature sets "targets." This is where House and Senate leadership determines how big the budget will be. For example, leaders might say that the budget will be $33 billion for FY2012-2013. Then they indicate how large the budget for each finance committee will be, e.g., K-12 education gets $11 billion, health and human services gets $9 billion, and so on. Then each finance committee drafts a budget in the process outlined below that meets that target. If leadership wants there to be an increase in revenue beyond what is forecast, then the tax committee in each house has to figure out how to raise that new revenue with its own target. The entire set of targets must be in balance, so proposed revenue and expenses need to be equal.

During committee and floor debate on budget bills, you may often hear the phrase, "Your proposal is going to 'blow' the targets." That just means that a proposed amendment or change to the finance or tax bills will put the budget out of balance. The House and Senate may set their own targets and they may differ from the Governor's proposal. Eventually all three entities need to agree on the same targets. Sometimes they work together ahead of time to do this (usually when they are all in the same party, which is rare), but usually they don't do this until the end. (More detail on why each entity might do this, see a fuller description below.)

One valid complaint about the budget target setting process is that it makes it harder for the legislature to set priorities across different parts of state government. Finance committees can set priorities within their budget target but if you look at the whole budget one could say that most programs in committee A's budget are a lot more important than programs in committee B's budget. Eventually you see some fur fly on the House and Senate floor when the minority says, "Why are we funding this less important program (arts and anything appearing to be "touchy-feely" are always a target) when nursing homes, veterans, and education are struggling?"

In recent years (at least in the House) the Ways & Means Committee approved the budget targets but there have been attempts to require the entire body to vote on them.

Where is the budget?

The Governor's office produces both paper and electronic copies of the budget. By February 15th of this year, legislators will get several three-ring binders of the budget, and the sections are divided by agency. MMB will make it available on its web site as well for the public.

As the legislature reviews the budget through committee hearings and input from state agencies and the public, the budget gets put in a different form. By late April or early May, each finance committee in the House (there are 11, I think) and Senate (roughly the same) will put the budget in a bill format. Usually a committee takes a bill that is "dead" in committee and amends it to replace the contents with the committee's budget so that a new bill does not have to be introduced. This is called a "vehicle" bill so you don't have to re-introduce a whole new bill. This leads to a lot of confusion for members of the public who are trying to track the budget. The committee's finance bill obviously has to be within its budget target.

The full House and Senate usually pass each committee finance budget separately on the floor, then it usually goes to a conference committee to work out differences, then each house votes on the conference committee report, and then the final bill goes to the governor. Then the bills become "session law" and go into effect. If the Governor vetoes the whole bill, the process has to start over back in committee, where another vehicle bill is created. At this point, the Governor and the legislature start negotiating the final details of the budget. The Governor can also sign a finance bill and make line-item vetoes of specific expenditure items. An official veto message comes back to the legislature in either case explaining the vetoes.

Any tax bill has to originate in the House, but there are ways to get the Senate to act first. For example, the House might pass a simple bill that might raise a small fee and send it to the Senate as a vehicle for a much bigger tax bill. The Senate votes on it and sends it back to the House.

How hard is it to track some of these budget bills? When I watch budget bill hearings, it all looks like stuff has been worked out behind the scenes.

The public will usually get frustrated by this process because when deadlines approach you can't figure out which finance bill moving through the committee process is the current draft of the budget. Usually the lobbyists and other interest groups who camp out at the Capitol are the only ones who can keep track of it in time.

For example, the House Environmental Finance Committee might take a dead or small finance bill sitting in committee (say, a hypothetical House file 1234 on fishing license fees) and create a vehicle bill that includes the committee's budget. Now HF1234 is the environmental finance bill. This is after the committee chair works with members of his/her own party in private meetings to figure out what programs will get funding and at what level. (Sometimes a chair will just have the finance bill drafted and just tell everyone else what is in it and not ask for input!) The minority party members on the committee usually get notification of the bill's contents a few hours or a day in advance should those members want to propose amendments in committee. Some committees have a "24-hour rule" so any bills or amendments to be considered have to be available a day ahead of time so members can review them. The committee chair works closely with a non-partisan fiscal analyst to make sure all the numbers add up.

The committee might take testimony over the course of a few meetings and then vote on the bill once members introduce and perhaps pass various amendments. This often happens late at night. Within a few days, the finance bill moves through other finance committees that might have to look at a specific section of the bill, and eventually it goes to the full Finance Committee and Ways & Means Committee. At each stop the bill has become a new draft (or "engrossment") because it has usually been amended in each committee. The legislative web site may not have the most up to date version available for the public until the next committee meeting, such as "HF1234, 4th engrossment." You really have to stay on top of it by talking to committee administrators to get the latest draft, as well as proposed amendments. Vehicle bills passed near the end of session from the floor are very hard to track as well.

Then the bill hits the House floor, where there is no opportunity for public comment or testimony. The people who usually testify in committee on finance bills are organizations who have a major stake in the outcome, such as state agencies, business organizations, and nonprofit advocacy groups. It is pretty rare to have testimony from the general public just because it is so hard to track the bills and interpret all the detail. Legislators do hear from constituents a lot when advocacy groups notify their members of pending votes, as in "Tell your legislator to vote YES on the Gardner amendment to the Environmental Finance bill!" Those phone calls, e-mails, letters, and visits make a difference, and the more personalized those communications are the better.

Once the budget passes, it is still in about a dozen pieces in many different finance bills. The explanatory information about each government program that you find in the agency budgets back in February does not show up in the law. There is no central and/or user-friendly place to find the approved budget along with an explanation of what each program does. I introduced legislation during my tenure that would require state government to use an Application Program Interface (API) so that the public could access budget data more easily and "mash up" the information for innovative analysis. Alas, the computer guys at the state said it couldn't be done in a timely way and it would cost too much. The federal government has accomplished this at the USASpending.gov web site.

There are some time rules for how soon a bill can move through committee or be voted on on the floor. For example, a conference committee report usually has to be on members' desks or on the internet for a 12 hour period. Some legislators have tried to change the internal rules so that it takes longer to get bills through committee so people have a chance to give more input.

There are efforts to show what the impact of budget proposals will be. The Minnesota Budget Project is one of the better conduits of information. In many cases, the bill summaries they put together on finance bills, especially for health care and human services, are better than what legislative staff put together. In particular, the MBP gives some plain-English description of what each affected program does and what changes to their budget will mean in real terms.

How do legislators know how much an idea will cost?

Legislators introduce bills that can save or cost money, or raise or cut revenue. State agencies have staff who review these bills and create a "fiscal note" to determine the cost of the idea. Legislators with an ambitious idea often become downcast when a fiscal note appears on their desk that shows their idea would cost more than they thought, or that it wouldn't save as much as they thought. If your idea involves revenue, the Department of Revenue produces a "revenue estimate" instead of a fiscal note. The agencies show their math and assumptions in the note or estimate. Occasionally politics filters its way into fiscal notes. Democrats in the House often complained that the Republican administration was trying to kill an idea by overestimating the costs of a Democratic idea or by taking a long time to produce the fiscal note. Sometimes agencies will just simply not like a legislator's idea and do the same thing, which often has nothing to do with politics. My observation was that if an agency didn't want to do what the legislator was suggesting, the agency will say, "Oh, Representative Gardner, that will cost a lot" and produce a hefty fiscal note. If they really want to carry out the idea, they will say, "Rep. Gardner, we will absorb the cost of the program."

What about zero based budgeting?

Zero based budgeting is the concept that we shouldn't just look at what agencies received last year and then just add or cut some money from year to year. ZBB would require starting from scratch and have state agencies, the Governor's office, and the legislature justify each program again. This can sound pretty appealing to a legislator who doesn't like the idea of just "tweaking" the budget when it's not clear which programs are more effective than others. However, it would be a daunting project. The legislature has about five months to pass a budget, and as you can see from the timeline, the work does not get started in earnest until March. This kind of effort would have to be a multi-year effort. The House Public Information Office did a very good article on the opportunities and pitfalls of ZBB in 2009.

During hearings you will hear people talk about the "base budget." Most items in the state budget, unless there is specific language that something "is a one-time appropriation," are part of the "base budget." That means that agencies expect that the base budget level of funding will be the same in the future. When cuts are made they can be identified as one-time cuts or cuts to the base budget. This is often done to help agencies with planning and expectations, but the process pretty much conflicts with zero-based budgeting efforts!

How does politics get integrated into the budget process?

Many voters wonder why the legislature only solves a short term budget problem. The requirement is for a balanced two-year budget, and after going through the process above, you can see why that is all you can get sometimes! Legislators fight tooth-and-nail for their priorities. Republicans beat up Democrats for raising taxes and Democrats beat up Republicans for cutting spending. Sometimes it seems miraculous that a budget gets passed at all just for two years! The MMB does give information on revenues and expenditures for the next four years, but it isn't as accurate as the two-year forecast because economic conditions can change rapidly. So it's hard to nail down a budget for longer than that.

Of course, legislators always look toward the next election. Everyone is always envisioning what the attack postcards in your mailbox are going to look like ("John Doe wants to kick grandma out of the nursing home!" "Richard Roe wants to kill jobs with more taxes!") and that can affect how legislators behave. Do you want to take a principled stand, lose the next election, and let someone with the opposite viewpoint take the seat and swing the majority? Should you accept the risks of the job and do what needs to be done? It makes for short tempers and a lot of stress in April and May.

The amendment process says a lot about politics in the budget. The majority party has to assemble a budget and get it passed. The minority party will try to change the bills by introducing amendments that support its priorities. If you can get enough majority votes on your amendment to pass it, you can have an impact. The minority party is also trying to get their colleagues on record supporting a view that can be used in the next election. Committee mark-up sessions and floor sessions on finance bills end up taking a while for these two reasons. This year will be interesting because the DFL and GOP are only a few seats apart and the DFL could get some GOP members to join them on some selected amendments. During the last four years, the DFL had sizable majorities so the GOP introduced amendments mostly to make political hay.

Why do Governors and/or the Legislatures propose budget bills that they know won't pass or get signed into law? It seems like a waste of time.

There are a few reasons. First, one party will want to show public support for their idea even if they think it will not succeed. This is where the Governor and the legislature are appealing to their political bases. You can say that you tried and so the vote is "symbolic." Legislators in competitive districts hate symbolic votes! That's because you take the risk of an unpopular (if preferred) vote and get little benefit out of it. Second, you might present your proposal because it is based on your principles and you think it is the best idea. Third, since you might be negotiating later for something less, you should aim high and then negotiate downwards so you can get the best deal. Finally (and this was the case with Gov. Pawlenty during my tenure), you might not actually know what the other side will do until you put the proposal on their desk, which will get the other side to fish or cut bait!

Well, that's it from my perspective. If you are interested in other topics, let me know! Thanks to Alissa Harrington for helpful input.

Copyright 2011 Paul D. Gardner

Fact Check on CMB Mailer on Birds

2010-09-28T19:08:00.000-07:00

Campaign season is in full swing and the attack mailers are hitting mailboxes. Here's a fact check on the mailer that arrived on September 28th ("That blank check for migrating bird habitat..." with two ducks talking on the beach.)

The mailer is referring to a change to the non-game wildlife fund that is supported by a voluntary check-off (often called the "chickadee checkoff") on your income tax form. Revenue from the check-off goes to a dedicated fund at the DNR, which then protects habitat for non-game wildlife. Note: Ducks are not non-game wildlife! No blank check.

In 2010, The Pawlenty Administration and the DNR asked the legislature to specifically allow the use of this funding for protecting habitat in other countries. The reason was to protect habitat for migratory birds that live in MN during warmer months and then go south.

Here is the language that was passed with only 25 dissenting votes as part of the omnibus environment and natural resources policy bill. (The underlined language is what passed this year.) Governor Pawlenty also signed the bill.

2010 Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 361 (cited in mailing as House Journal, p. 12973, SF3275, May 12, 2010

Sec. 67. Minnesota Statutes 2008, section 290.431, is amended to read:
290.431 NONGAME WILDLIFE CHECKOFF.
Every individual who files an income tax return or property tax refund claim form may designate on their original return that $1 or more shall be added to the tax or deducted from the refund that would otherwise be payable by or to that individual and paid into an account to be established for the management of nongame wildlife. The commissioner of revenue shall, on the income tax return and the property tax refund claim form, notify filers of their right to designate that a portion of their tax or refund shall be paid into the nongame wildlife management account. The sum of the amounts so designated to be paid shall be credited to the nongame wildlife management account for use by the nongame program ~~of the section of wildlifeNone of the money provided in this section may be expended unless the commission has approved the work program.~~
The state pledges and agrees with all contributors to the nongame wildlife management account to use the funds contributed solely for the management of nongame wildlife projects and further agrees that it will not impose additional conditions or restrictions that will limit or otherwise restrict the ability of the commissioner of natural resources to use the available funds for the most efficient and effective management of nongame wildlife. The commissioner may use funds appropriated for nongame wildlife programs for the purpose of developing, preserving, restoring, and maintaining wintering habitat for neotropical migrant birds in Latin America and the Caribbean under agreement or contract with any nonprofit organization dedicated to the construction, maintenance, and repair of such projects that are acceptable to the governmental agency having jurisdiction over the land and water affected by the projects. Under this authority, the commissioner may execute agreements and contracts if the commissioner determines that the use of the funds will benefit neotropical migrant birds that breed in or migrate through the state. in the Department of Natural Resources. All interest earned on money accrued, gifts to the program, contributions to the program, and reimbursements of expenditures in the nongame wildlife management account shall be credited to the account by the commissioner of management and budget, except that gifts or contributions received directly by the commissioner of natural resources and directed by the contributor for use in specific nongame field projects or geographic areas shall be handled according to section 84.085, subdivision 1. The commissioner of natural resources shall submit a work program for each fiscal year and semiannual progress reports to the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources in the form determined by the commission.

I actually chaired the Environment and Natural Resources Policy Committee on the day that the DNR presented this idea to the legislature. In fact, I asked pointed questions about how we would be able to determine how well this funding would be used. DNR reported that reputable non-profit organizations whose financial records could be audited by the state would administer the funding. You can watch the video of the March 4, 2010 committee meeting here, and the discussion about this program starts at 2 hours 16 minutes and ends at about 2 hours 20 minutes. The DNR refers to a group called Southern Wings that would administer the funds.

In short, the mailer gives people the misleading idea that as a legislator I was responsible for using your tax dollars for overseas bird habitat. The facts are that funds for overseas habitat come from voluntary contributions by taxpayers on their state income tax form and there is no "blank check" for this program.

Anoka County-Blaine Airport Update

2010-08-19T10:19:00.001-07:00

On August 18th, I attended a public meeting convened by the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC). The MAC was interested in having an annual meeting where they could answer questions about the airport, especially noise, from local residents. There were about 25 residents there, including some city council members from Blaine, Lexington, and Circle Pines.

The first issue raised by residents was that there was not a lot of advance notice about the meeting. I heard about it from a member of the airport's local community advisory council by e-mail on Monday, as did many of the attendees. There was a newspaper ad in one local paper but it was not very obvious. The MAC staff said that they would improve on communicating about the meeting in the future. (This all took about a half hour to discuss and people kept bringing it up, so I think they were sincere about improving communication next time!)

There was discussion about local perceptions of what the MAC, Anoka County, and/or Key Air (the operator of the airport) has or has not been trying to do regarding airport expansion. MAC staff said that there was no effort by the MAC to request extension of the east-west runway to 6,000 from 5,000 feet. The initiative last year came from Key Air and then Anoka County but then local residents began objecting. MAC staff also said that their planning document for the airport would have to show the need for an extension but there are no plans to do so. After some direct questioning, MAC staff responded that it was "not impossible but improbable" that any change would be made in the near future.

Here are some other informational highlights:

* Lifelink has a helicopter base at the airport for their air ambulance service in the north metro. This is new.
* Airport staff deliver a pilot guide for the airport to non-local pilots upon landing and re-fueling. The guide shows what steps pilots should take for takeoff and landing to minimize noise. (I asked about this since on any given day the airport may not know what out-of-state planes will be heading to Minnesota.)
* Federal law prohibits the airport from requiring the steps in the pilot guide, such as quiet times from 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. The guide is advisory.
* A 2005 study from Wilder reports a local economic impact of the airport of $35 million as well as 103 on-airport jobs and 350 jobs total. (We didn't have a copy to look at though.)
* About 80,000 "operations" (one takeoff or one landing = one operation) are expected in 2010.
* There are 437 aircraft based at Blaine.
* Recreational flights in the U.S. are expected to decline over time and corporate flights are expected to increase.
* Newer jet aircraft are usually quieter than older models so technology is trending toward quieter planes.

The MAC has a noise complaint phone line at 612-726-9411. It is staffed from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. You can leave a message at other times. We met the staff person who takes the calls. You can also make a complaint on-line. MAC staff said that complaints often involve one or two specific aircraft and they can follow up with the operator to give them to adhere to the pilot guide. Residents at the meeting discussed one particular type of plane that they have noticed making all lot of the noise--a Piaggio Avanti II--that looks like a "hammerhead shark."

Overall, I thought it was a good meeting. More like this one will take place in the future so that residents can discuss noise issues with the Metro Airports Commission. They DO want to hear from you.

My Legislation for 2010

2010-05-18T12:51:00.000-07:00

Every year I post the results of my legislation with links to where you can find the actual bill language. These are my bills that passed. When the House and Senate each pass a similar bill but with different numbers, eventually only one bill number is used (or “substituted”) for conference committees, final passage, and action by the Governor. The bill number that is underlined is the substituted bill. An “omnibus” bill incorporates smaller bills on a similar topic to facilitate passage. Chapter numbers refer to 2010 Session Laws. Session laws are compilations of legislation passed by the legislature and acted upon by the Governor each year. Each chapter is one bill.

Public Safety

HF2864/SF2636: Electronic monitoring of domestic abuse offenders. Inserted into an omnibus domestic violence bill (HF2608) and then substituted by SF2437, Chapter 299, Section 12. Self-initiated with assistance from the MN Coalition for Battered Women. House Public Information Services has a summary of the bill. I authored this bill as a response to the two domestic violence murders in Circle Pines and Lino Lakes in 2009.

HF1217/SF1568: Safe Drug Disposal Act. Chapter 223 and initiated by me. This bill makes it easier for law enforcement and county solid/hazardous waste staff to collect old prescription drugs and destroy them. I initiated the legislation as a way to keep people from flushing old drugs down the toilet, which leads to endocrine disrupting compounds that harm aquatic life getting into our rivers and streams. However, I discovered that law enforcement is very concerned about prescription drug abuse and they were very supportive. This bill didn’t go as far as I would have liked in terms of industry funding for drug collections, but it’s a good step forward.

Transportation

HF3779/SF3360: Metro transit bonding. Inserted in omnibus tax bill (HF3729), Chapter 389, Article 7, Section 8 and awaiting signature. Initiated by the Metropolitan Council. This bill allows the Met Council to sell bonds for transit and paratransit assets like bus shelters, new buses, park-and-ride facilities, etc. They have been retiring their old debt at about the same rate that they are incurring new debt, and they require statutory authority to borrow.

HF1373/SF1226: Transportation access council. Inserted into Omnibus Transportation Policy Bill (SF2540/HF2807), Chapter 351, Section 51, initiated by Sen. Scott Dibble and me. A previous version of this bill was in the vetoed 2009 Omnibus Transportation Policy Bill. The purpose of the bill is to strengthen the Interagency Committee on Transportation Coordination (ICTC). We stand to save some serious money because we have lots of overlapping paratransit programs at the federal and state level for paratransit. Paratransit includes thing like dial-a-ride and other vans and buses that serve seniors and the disabled. Paratransit is about five times more expensive than mass transit.

Public Health & Health Care

HF1372/SF1323: Safe sharps management. Chapter 286, and initiated by UltiMed, a St. Paul company. Taxpayers, employers, and health care policyholders pay more than a billion dollars a year nationwide to pay for injuries from needle sticks, especially to workers in waste management and the hospitality sector. The legislation requires manufacturers of “sharps” such as syringes, lancets, etc. and the pharmaceutical companies that make injectable medications to post information on safe sharps disposal on their web sites. I ended up brokering this legislation among pharmaceutical companies, sharps manufacturers, waste haulers, and home users of sharps. It was very complicated!

HF2614A108 amendment to HF2614: Pharmaceutical waste reduction, initiated by me. HF2614 was vetoed but this language was adopted in the final budget balancing bill, HF1, 1^st 2010 Special Session Chapter 1, Article 19, Section 21, and awaiting signature (search for "prescription drug waste"). Nationwide, it is estimated that we are wasting up to $10 billion a year in taxpayer money on prescription drugs that are paid for but never used in long-term care facilities. This is due to inefficient dispensing and prescription techniques and a lack of appropriate technology. The federal health care reform law includes legislation that will help avoid $5.5 billion of this waste over the next decade. This amendment (as eventually adopted by the conference committee) asks the MN Board of Pharmacy to recommend better techniques and technology to save money in the state’s Medicaid program, prisons, and veterans’ homes.

Elections

HF2510/SF2226: Fair Race bill, initiated by Senator Sandy Rummel, Chapter 291, vetoed by the Governor. The bill clarifies our election statutes so that someone who threatens a candidate for public office to make them drop out of the race is committing coercion. The Governor vetoed the bill, arguing that our coercion statute is sufficient. This is technically correct, but local elections officials asked for statutory clarification. House Information Services had this article on the bill.

Housing/Property Taxes

Homestead tax treatment for manufactured housing cooperative. I didn’t author the bill but worked with stakeholders on a technical piece of legislation that avoided a major property tax hike for some residents of Lexington. The Department of Revenue offered a provision in a technical bill that would have altered the homestead status for residents of manufactured home (aka mobile home) park cooperatives. There are a handful of these co-ops in the state, and one of them is in the City of Lexington. The technical change would have vastly increased the property taxes for these residents. I moved to delete the provision several months ago and then asked the Department of Revenue and affordable housing advocates to come up with a compromise. They did so, and Rep. Marquart and I introduced the legislation as HF3760/SF3348. This was inserted into the Omnibus Tax Bill (HF3729), Chapter 389, Article 1, Section 15, and is awaiting signature.

Environment

HF2402/SF2152: Changes to battery recycling fee. Chapter 258, initiated by Alliance of Automotive Service Providers of Minnesota. Since 1987, when a consumer buys a new auto battery, they need to bring in the old battery. If they don’t bring in the old one, state law says that the consumer has to pay $5. The retailer then passes the $5 to the battery manufacturer. This system has worked well for 23 years; the recycling rate for auto batteries is 97%! Auto service retailers asked me to carry this bill because battery manufacturers now charge $10 or more when the retailer does not provide the old battery. That means Minnesota retailers get shorted $5. So the bill increases the fee charged by retailers to consumers to at least $10.

HF2655/SF2286: Construction and demolition debris recycling requirement for state bonding projects. Inserted in bonding bill (HF2700), Chapter 189, Section 33, and self-initiated. My old recycling colleagues from Wisconsin showed me data that their state administration agency requires that new state building projects valued over $5 million recycle 50% of their construction waste. The result is that these building projects are saving a lot of money! For every 1,000 square feet of construction, projects there have saved an average of $179 in disposal costs. Recycling also sustains more jobs than disposal. I drafted legislation to mirror the requirement in Wisconsin. We have a robust construction waste recycling industry in Minnesota and they are prepared to handle this material.

HF2667/SF2202: Redwood County Materials Recovery Facility (MRF). Inserted in bonding bill (HF2700), Chapter 189, Section 9, Subdivision 3. Line-item vetoed by the Governor. Initiated by Redwood County. Every two years the MN Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) makes capital assistance requests to the legislature to pay for solid waste facilities. They usually get about $3 million. I authored this bill on behalf of Redwood County staff, who I worked with in my recycling career, because it would do what we all say is necessary: consolidate county functions to reduce costs and increase efficiency. The project would replace the dilapidated Redwood County Recycling Center with a facility that could serve several West Central Minnesota counties and increase the value of the recycled materials. The private haulers in that area do not have an interest in constructing a facility of their own.

HF2949/SF2925: Metropolitan Council Sewer Availability Charge modification. Chapter 212, initiated by Metropolitan Council. Because of the slow pace of new construction on the outskirts of the Twin Cities, the Metropolitan Council is running very slow on cash reserves for expanding sewer capacity. When a new building is built, the owner pays a Sewer Availability Charge (SAC) that is set aside for reserves and some of it goes to pay for operations of the metro sewer system. This bill will temporarily allow more of the SAC to go to the reserve fund and less to the general operations. While this may increase the sewer bill for the current users of the metro sewer system by a slight amount, it will keep the financial system of the entire system from collapsing, which will be more expensive for everyone.

HF2698/SF2630: Aquatic vegetation control fees modified for drainage ponds. Inserted in Omnibus Environment & Natural Resources Finance Bill (SF3275), passed as Chapter 361, Article 4, Section 60. Initiated by Sen. Sandy Rummel. Senator Rummel and I heard from Shoreview residents living around Kerry Pond last year about proposed DNR permit fees for controlling aquatic vegetation. We held a public meeting for the neighborhood last fall. The proposed permit fee increase for Kerry Pond residents would have gone up from about $7 per year to something like $90! We recognized that the DNR was trying to recover costs for issuing permits, but to us it appeared that metro area lakes with a high number of residents were bearing the brunt of the cost. This bill would cut the permit fee in half for residents needing a permit on small drainage ponds, which is what Kerry Pond is, as opposed to a lake.

Bills that received a hearing but were not acted upon or did not reach the House floor.

It’s often helpful to introduce legislation to initiate a broader policy discussion, especially if a legislator thinks the bill might not make it through the process or get signed by the Governor. Once a bill gets introduced and gets a number, lobbyists, the media, and other stakeholders suddenly start appearing out of the woodwork and start discussing the issue.

HF170/SF129: Removing the requirement that telephone directory publishers deliver a white pages. Self-initiated. This idea got more play in the media than it deserved, or perhaps there are a lot of reporters who hate getting phone books! After discovering that yellow pages publishers are developing ways for consumers to opt-out of getting a yellow pages, I found that state rules require the delivery of a white pages, whether you want one or not. Verizon surveys have shown that one in seven people use the white pages. The bill, as amended this year in the telecommunications division, would require the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to expedite rulemaking and delete the requirement but would require the phone company to deliver white pages if you ask for them. Several Democrats didn’t like this idea because they didn’t trust the phone company to get it right. Since I spent a total of about one hour on this bill and it was not worth spending any more time on, I asked that the bill be tabled in the Commerce and Labor Committee.

HF0418/SF1176: Allowing municipalities to require control or eradication of buckthorn. Initiated by a North Oaks resident. This bill actually made it to the House floor this year but didn’t move in the Senate. Buckthorn is a decorative shrub that can block out native trees and plants. Many Minnesotans are working hard to remove the plant but it is an uphill battle. This bill would give authority to a municipality to pass an ordinance requiring the removal of the plant. The legislation was “permissive,” meaning that a city could pass an ordinance if it wanted to but it would not be required. MnDOT raised objections because they might be required to remove buckthorn in their right-of-way in a city that passed an ordinance, and that would keep them from working on roads. The Star Tribune did a nice article on the issue.

HF2407: Creating a product stewardship framework. Self-initiated. This received an informational hearing in the Environment & Natural Resources Policy Committee. There are a lot of bills introduced every year that would require some industry responsibility for covering the cost of safely disposing of certain solid and hazardous wastes, like electronics, paints, etc. This type of product stewardship is designed to remove or reduce taxpayer costs for protecting the environment and public health. These bills take up lot of legislative time and legislators often don’t have the expertise necessary to sift through conflicting testimony. This bill would create a framework through which the MN Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) could recommend products for legislative action and provide necessary technical background. The State of Maine enacted legislation this year that passed on a bi-partisan basis with support from their state chamber of commerce, and I hope to learn from their model in 2011. You can listen to the audio of the informational hearing on the Environment & Natural Resources Policy Committee website for the May 5, 2010 meeting starting at 36:39.

HF2182: Rating criteria required for capital project funding requests. Self-initiated. I requested a hearing in the Capital Investment Committee on this bill that would add more transparency to the bonding bill. The bonding bill is often very political because many projects get included based on who represents the area. Projects often look like “earmarks.” My bill would require the Commissioner of Finance to ask for specific information about jobs and other data when public entities submit funding proposals. Then legislators would be able to compare and rank projects based on merit. The media and the public would also have access to this information so that they can hold legislators accountable. I received a polite hearing but there was resistance to the idea from members of both parties, particularly from rural Minnesota where bonding bills are popular.

HF2512: Discouraging state purchasing of bottled water. Self-initiated. The State of Minnesota spends about half a million dollars annually on bottled water. It usually comes in the form of five-gallon jugs. It turns out that using tap water is hundreds to thousands of times cheaper, even with a good tap filter. As a means of saving a modest amount of taxpayer dollars, I introduced the bill. It would be a bit picky to put this in law, but the related media attention got a lot of people talking in their workplaces about the wisdom of buying bottled water during difficult economic times. The Star Tribune did a nice article on the issue.

HF2559/SF2655: Public water suppliers required to recover costs of providing service. Self-iniated. The goal of this legislation was to push some cities (especially in rural Minnesota) to stop subsidizing water rates. Some cities and towns under political pressure will charge less than it actually costs to provide the service, and then when the water infrastructure is in need of upgrades there is no money in reserve to pay for it. Then the city goes to the state for a bailout through the Public Facilities Authority that provides low interest loans. Only after negotiating a loan will a city be required to raise rates to pay for the bonds. My goal was to keep the city from needing a bailout in the first place. The legislation also required that water rates only be used for the water service and infrastructure so that the money is not used to subsidize other city services. I didn’t have a lot of time to work on this, but I did get an informational hearing in the Cultural & Outdoor Resources Finance Division and we had a good discussion.

HF2429/SF2418: Bonding request for an anaerobic digester. Self-initiated. This was a request for $3 million in state bonds to support the construction of an anaerobic digester for municipal solid waste in the Twin Cities metro area. A digester is something like a slow cooker but about the size of a small house. It heats the organic contents and result in creating small pellets that encapsulate methane, which then can be burned to create energy. I introduced the bill to get a lot of stakeholders to start talking about locating a digester in the metro area that can handle a variety of organic wastes. The St. Paul Port Authority and many other stakeholders are interested in this and so I had quite a few good meetings. I did not intend for the bonding bill to include this item in 2010 but I may come back with it in 2012.

Survey Results

2010-04-15T11:30:00.000-07:00

[Note on 4/19/10: Based on some comments from constituents, I have some additional clarifying language that is in italics below.]

Every year I send out an electronic constituent survey. Some members send out a mailing to all or some households with a survey and then someone has to tabulate all the results, which takes a long time, and it usually costs some taxpayer money to send out the survey. I prefer the electronic survey on Survey Monkey because it's cheap and about 90% of the constituents who contact me do so by e-mail, so I send the survey to all people who have e-mailed me since 2007. Survey Monkey also tabulates the data immediately.

This year the survey was sent to 888 people. So far 522 people have responded! To be a statistically valid survey, I would have to survey people at random, so one must take this fact into account when reading the results.

One of the House staffers who proofread the survey said, "It looks from the questions and the answers provided that you are actually interested how people respond?" YES! Many surveys do not actually provide that much useful data. However, I write my own surveys in order to help me with decision-making at the legislature on issues I will likely vote on. So here are the results along with some analysis.

Question 1. "Education Funding: Currently the Legislature plans to eliminate the $1 billion deficit by cutting parts of the state budget in virtually all categories except K-12 education. Cuts have been made or are being deliberated in higher education, the environment, agriculture, services for the disabled & seniors, etc. K-12 education comprises just under 40% of the state budget. Even if there is no cut to K-12 schools, previous state budget decisions are causing school districts to cut teachers, reduce class offerings, reduce related services, and/or ask for increases in property tax levies. What are your thoughts about what the Legislature should do about K-12 education funding?"

Without raising taxes, continue to cut other parts of the budget except K-12 to balance the budget: 23.5%
Without raising taxes, cut K-12 funding so that other parts of the budget are cut less, or just cut K-12 spending to balance the budget: 29.8%
Without raising taxes, increase funding for K-12 education by cutting other parts of the budget more: 6.3%
Raise taxes or other revenue to meet the needs of K-12 education: 37.0%
I don't know/I'm not sure: 3.5%

My take: There was strong support for K-12 education on this question. Just under 30% said we should cut education. Based on some of the written comments, some of these respondents are likely disability advocates who would like to see cuts to education equal to those taken by human services. Forty-two percent believed that the state should increase education funding either by raising taxes or cutting other parts of the budget. Another 23.5% preferred a strategy of holding K-12 education harmless when cutting the budget.

Some constituents have interpreted my comments above to imply that the majority of respondents wanted to raise taxes for education. My interpretation is that education has strong support because the majority of respondents don't want to cut K-12 education when we are cutting everything else.

Question 2. "One option for balancing the budget over the next few years is to limit or eliminate some tax exemptions, credits, or deductions that reduce revenue to the state. Studies show that some of these policies don't accomplish their intended goal (e.g., creating jobs, encouraging home ownership, etc.). Other policies favor one group of people (e.g., the wealthy or low-income) or one group of businesses (e.g., rural vs. all other) over another. Please indicate what your thoughts are about changing some of these tax policies. PLEASE CHECK ALL THAT APPLY."

I would support giving tax breaks just to people who really need it based on their income: 31.4%
I would support ending tax breaks that don't accomplish their stated goal: 52.8%
I would support changing tax policies so that everyone or every taxpayer pays the same percentage of income in taxes: 40.4%
The state needs to give more tax breaks because some or all taxes are too high; cut more spending to balance the budget: 29.6%
I don't know/I'm not sure: 1.4%

My take: The second and third questions have to do with what we call "tax expenditures." Each year, Minnesota does not tax certain people, businesses or items while taxing everyone else, and the lost revenue adds up to $11 billion a year. Some of these policies make a lot of sense--for example, we don't tax food. There is a perennial discussion about the wisdom of expanding the sales tax to clothing and professional services. In addition, some kinds of individual and corporate income have lower tax or less tax in order to provide tax relief, to be competitive with other states, or to promote a certain activity such as business development in depressed rural areas. See a list of them all on-line.

The purpose of the second question is to gauge how people view the fairness or utility of these tax breaks, and I asked respondents to check all items that they agree with. Only one response got more than 50% and that was to get rid of tax breaks that don't accomplish their goal. Less than 30% of respondents fit the most fiscally conservative position, which was to cut taxes and cut spending at the same time. I'm not really sure what I will do with the responses to this question, since the question was pretty complicated and there were quite a few complicated answers to pick from. Tax policy is very complicated and it's hard to boil down to a simple question. It's clear that respondents don't like tax breaks that serve no purpose.

Question 3. "The mortgage interest deduction is one tax break that could be limited at the state level. You can currently deduct all of your mortgage interest even if you have a house worth up to $1 million. People with expensive homes tend to benefit the most from the deduction; 41% of all mortgage interest deductions are claimed by the top 10% of income earners. Wisconsin does not allow mortgage interest deductions on state taxes and yet still has a higher home ownership rate than Minnesota. Please indicate your reaction to the proposal to change the mortgage interest deduction. (Note: this would not affect the more valuable federal mortgage interest deduction.)"

Do not change any policy on deducting mortgage interest: 31.0%
Limit the mortgage interest deduction to mortgages on houses worth $500,000 or less: 27.4%
Limit the mortgage interest deduction to mortgages on houses worth $250,000 or less: 12.3%
Get rid of the mortgage interest deduction and replace it with a tax credit that is the same for all homeowners: 12.9%
Get rid of the mortgage interest deduction altogether: 10.3%
I don't know/I'm not sure: 6.2%

My take: This question is a foll0w-up to the second question. One of the more well-known tax expenditures is the mortgage interest deduction. When you buy a house, you can deduct your mortgage interest from your gross federal and state income so that your taxable income is lower. The cost to the State of Minnesota of this deduction (and therefore a benefit to the taxpayer) is more than $400 million a year. People with higher incomes tend to benefit the most from this deduction because they tend to itemize on their taxes. You can deduct all of your interest for mortgages worth up to $1 million.

Half of all homeowners don't itemize and therefore don't take advantage of the deduction. Last year, the House proposed a bill that would have capped the mortgage interest deduction and then given all homeowners a credit. (Deductions reduce your taxable income but credits are better because they are dollar-for-dollar reductions in your taxes payable.) Most households would have done better under this proposal but it ran into a lot of opposition based on a lot of misinformation from opponents. My goal with this question was to see just how much that taxpayers understand about this deduction and what they would be willing to give up.

From the responses, more than 62% said that the status quo--that you can deduct all your mortgage interest even if you have a million-dollar mortgage--should change. However, the preferred method of changing the policy did not emerge in the responses. I admit that this question was pretty complicated.

Question 4. "The Minnesota Vikings would like a public subsidy to cover part of the cost for a new stadium. Please indicate your thoughts on this idea."

I would not support using any public funding for a Vikings stadium: 46.4%
I would support using a user fee (e.g., limiting any tax to those who use the facility, hotels, parking, etc.) to support funding a Vikings stadium: 27.1%
I would support using a dedicated source of public funding like increased legalized gambling, a county-wide sales tax increase, hospitality tax, etc. for a Vikings stadium: 19.6%
I would support using public funding from any source for a Vikings stadium: 4.5%
I don't know/I'm not sure: 2.4%

Generally speaking I have been against public financing of stadiums. I was not in the legislature when the Twins stadium deal was approved so I missed that debate. When I go door-to-door the vast majority of local residents tell me that they they don't like public financing either. But since there's talk of a Vikings proposal, I thought it prudent to "check in" with constituents on the issue. Almost half of respondents said no to public financing and another quarter would only support a user-fee financing system, or a total of 73.5%. So it's pretty clear that constituents don't want to be on the hook for a stadium.

I got a lot of constituent e-mail about my interpretation on this question. As a result, I should state more clearly that a majority of constituents responding the survey don't want to have a broad-based tax to pay for a Vikings stadium. It's a bit of a stretch to say that the majority of respondents support public funding because that support is very conditional, but one could read the results to say a "user-fee" arrangement would have majority support among respondents.

Question 5. "The legislature is being asked to consider alternative teacher licensure for K-12 education. Advocates, including the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and Teach for America, are concerned about the achievement gap between white students and students of color. They believe that the teacher licensing process needs to be easier in order to attract candidates to teach in underachieving schools. The proposed changes would include giving someone a temporary two-year license after they complete a bachelor's degree and 200 hours of training but that is not in a classroom. What are your thoughts about this proposal? Free free to add comments."

I strongly support the idea of an alternative teacher license: 16.2%
I would probably support the idea of an alternative teacher license: 27.5%
I would probably not support the idea of an alternative teacher license: 14.8%
I strongly do not support the idea of an alternative teacher license: 30.0%
I don't know/I'm not sure: 11.5%

My take: I got more "I don't know" responses on this than any other question, where 43.7% said they support or probably would support alternative licensing and 44.8% said that they did not. Education Minnesota (the statewide teacher's union) has been strongly against this idea and I have a lot of teachers who live in the district and who got this survey, which might explain the strong opposition to this idea at 30.0%. But I've met with some very thoughtful--and yes, some liberal--people who support alternative licensure in order to recruit more teachers of color and Teach for America volunteers who can help address the achievement gap. The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce is an advocate as well, and their position is on-line. The Obama Administration's rejection of Minnesota's Race to the Top application in part over alternative licensing is pushing stakeholders to get together on this issue, and I welcome the debate.

Question 6. "Federal health care reform: Future state budgets and the health of Minnesotans will be impacted by the federal health care reform legislation passed by Congress in Washington, D.C. Under the legislation, it is predicted that hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans would receive health coverage; Medicare would be come more solvent; patients would not be denied coverage based on a pre-existing condition; and the federal deficit would shrink over time due to greater efficiencies. The legislation comes with new taxes, mandates, and participation by the federal government that are controversial. Since this legislation will have an impact on Minnesota, I would like to know how you feel about this legislation."

I support the legislation, but I don't think it went far enough: 21.6%
I strongly support the recently enacted federal health care reform: 12.2%
I support the legislation but I have some concerns about parts of it: 12.0%
I don't support the legislation, although there are some good parts to it: 16.0%
I strongly do not support the legislation: 35.5%
I don't know/I'm not sure: 2.7%

My take: While I'm not in Congress, I thought I would just see what people think about federal health care reform. There was strong opposition, with 51.5% of respondents not supporting the legislation and 45.8% supporting it. Those supporting single-payer or at least a strong public option likely picked the first answer about the legislation not going far enough. The level of support is actually higher than national polls and the percentage of people saying "I don't know" was lower than national polls. Many constituents asked me why I didn't leave a comment option for this question. It wasn't on purpose--I forgot to click the right box!

Thanks to all who participated in the survey!

The Legislative Session At Halftime

2010-03-26T12:39:00.000-07:00

The House and Senate are off for a week starting Monday, March 29th for the Easter/Passover Break. We will have a lengthy floor session on Monday and then we come back Tuesday, April 6th. Usually the legislature is accused of working at a snail's pace. While that is often true and is a function of 201 people all with different views trying to achieve consensus, the House and Senate hit the ground running in February. After seven weeks, we have completed the following tasks (or will complete them as of Monday afternoon).

* Fixed General Assistance Medical Care. This week we passed a fix to the General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) program. GAMC is a health care program that covers about 33,000 Minnesotans at any given time (about 80,000+ a year) who have assets of less than $7,800 a year. About 70% of them have a mental health or chemical dependency problem, and about 30% of them are homeless. The Governor unalloted the program for the period April 1 to June 30 2010 and line-item vetoed the program for July 1 2010 to June 30 2011, so a bi-partisan team of legislators put together a series of proposals to serve this population until the Governor agreed to something he could sign. The fix cuts the program significantly but we hope to have a better long-term solution in the future.

* Cut the budget by $313 million and set budget targets for the remaining deficit. The state has a projected deficit of $1 billion for the two-year budget ending June 30, 2011.
Both the House and Senate passed separate bills to cut $313 million from all parts of the state budget except health & human services and K-12 education. This bill is now in conference committee and we are likely to vote on a final version to send to the Governor on Monday.

About $105 of this cut would be in aid to cities and counties. Shoreview, Blaine, Lino Lakes, and North Oaks would not see much change from the state from their present situation since they don't receive local government aid (LGA) and they would lose any market value homestead credit funding (MVHC) but they already lost it for this budget year because of previous cuts. Circle Pines and Lexington receive LGA and MVHC and they would lose a substantial portion. In the House Tax Committee (I'm a member) we did our best to make sure that these cuts do not translate into property tax increases in 2010. That may not be the case in the future.

In addition, both bodies adopted "targets" that show how much more we must reduce the budget in health & human services and K-12 education. Right now the only cut to K-12 would be about $1 million from the MN Department of Education. We also plan to have a net change to health & human services of $710 million. We have not acted on this part of the budget yet because there is still a lot of number-crunching that has to happen to figure out how Congressional action will affect our state Medicaid program. Usually the feds pay half and the state pays half for Medicaid. Right now we believe that the federal government will be sending $408 million our way to support Medicaid programs that serve the disabled and seniors. This is all before any calculations from the newly-passed federal health care form bill are factored in. In addition, the GAMC bill will save $147 million from the health & human services budget. So $147 million + $408 million = $554 million. That leaves $710 million - $554 million = $155 million left to cut after the break.

* Passed a bonding bill (aka Jobs Bill 1). Every two years the legislature produces a capital investment bill for "bricks and mortar" projects in the state. You can see more detail at the last blog entry below. It is expected that this bill will lead to about 15,000+ construction, design, and engineering jobs over the next few years.

* Passed tax credit bill for angel investors (aka Jobs Bill 2). The House Tax Committee that I'm on passed a bill that would create an angel investor tax credit and a historic rehabilitation tax credit to spur job growth. The angel investor credit would give a tax break to venture capitalists seeking to invest in MN companies. Right now we have been losing start-up businesses to Wisconsin because they have a credit and we do not. In addition, the historic rehabilitation credit would make it easier to start projects to renovate historic buildings. These buildings require a lot of specialized labor and craftsmanship. In addition, the bill includes a CarZ program (suggested by the Governor) that would promote re-use by technology businesses at the Ford assembly plant in St. Paul once it is vacated (with no state fiscal impact). The bill also has an extension of tax increment financing (TIF) programs for about a dozen cities that are trying to attract development at a few specific sites (with no state fiscal impact). Finally, the bill includes some flexibility for some existing tax incentives to expand the Mall of America. The mall plan does NOT include state subsidies but allows the City of Bloomington to increase the sales tax at the Mall of America and adjoining facilities ONLY. That was in place already but now we are giving the mall some other options for how to arrange the financing using those tools.

This bill has not passed the House yet but it is likely to on Monday after the House and Senate leadership agree on the final version. It would not go to conference committee so the Governor would get the bill next week. There are areas of disagreement between the House and Senate for how to backfill the loss of revenue resulting from the two tax credits but I think readers will fall asleep if I mention them in any detail!

* My bills: Quite a few of my bills have finishing going through committees and either reside on the House floor or have passed. The bonding bill included a section that I authored that requires recycling of construction waste from state building projects valued greater than $5 million. In Wisconsin, a similar measure saved more than $150 per thousand square feet. HF1217 dealing with disposal of pharmaceutical waste passed the House floor on Thursday, as did HF2949 that will help maintain the Met Council's financial reserve fund for wastewater treatment. More updates on these and other bills will come later in the session.

Sex offenders & the bonding bill

2010-03-14T15:36:00.000-07:00

The legislature just passed and sent to the Governor a new version of the capital investment bill, or "bonding bill." Like our first bonding bill (see last entry), it is just under $1 billion while the Governor's original request was $725 million. The Governor made line-item vetoes this week to reduce the bill to $680 million.

The difference between this bill and the first is that we have included funding for a proposed Moose Lake treatment facility for sex offenders and we took out a bunch of projects in order to include it.

Sex Offenders

The debate over the bonding bill centered heavily on the Moose Lake facility, and that has caused many people to ask not only about the merits of the $89 million proposal but about the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) in general.

When a sex offender is sentenced for his crime, he serves the sentence in a Minnesota Correctional Facility (MCF), which is a prison administered by the Department of Corrections. About 15 years ago, policy makers decided that the state should not be releasing certain sex offenders back into society after the offenders completed their sentences. That led to the creation of the MSOP, which is run by the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS). MSOP facilities are not prisons, but rather treatment facilities. The Moose Lake facility would therefore be a treatment facility and not a prison. In order to be placed at a MSOP treatment facility, a sex offender must receive a "civil commitment" from a judge. After the Dru Sjodin murder several years ago, the number of civil commitments has skyrocketed. There are more than 500 people in the program currently.

Some analysts believe that the constitutional basis for the MN Sex Offender Program (MSOP) is on thin ice because there hasn't been an offender released from the program since its inception. The result has been an exploding growth in the MSOP population, leading to the request for the Moose Lake facility. There is a concern that someone could bring a lawsuit against the state challenging the constitutionality of the program because offenders aren't being successfully treated, and if the decision went against the state, the MSOP patients would be released. Politics in Minnesota carried a good article about the issue.

The Governor proposed legislation, which we are considering seriously in the Legislature, to double the criminal sentences of sex offenders. It would cost $12 million a year but keeping someone in prison is considerably cheaper than in a sex offender facility.

Objective Criteria on the Bonding Bill

One of the problems I've always had about the bonding bill is that is often one of the most political documents considered by the Legislature. Every even-numbered year the Governor's office makes recommendations for capital investment (and a smaller "emergency" bonding bill every other year) based on suggestions by state agencies as well as other public entities like cities, counties, colleges, universities, etc. Some projects get recommended or don't get recommended based on more subjective than objective criteria. For example, the current Legislature approves fewer projects in GOP districts, and the Governor vetoes more projects in DFL districts. There should be a better way.

My bill, HF2182, would require that the Department of Finance (now called MN Management & Budget) give the Legislature some more detailed information about projects like jobs created, wages paid, how a building project will bring a building up to code, etc. so that we can better compare projects. The public and the media would then be able to bring some pressure to bear on the Governor and the Legislature to select projects based on merit.

I got a bill hearing in the Capital Investment Committee last week and presented the idea along with two Republicans who had similar bills. The reaction was not so positive from both the executive branch and at least one DFLer on the committee. See an article that sums up the bill here. I'll keep trying!

How Much Debt Does the State Ring Up?

A few constituents have asked how much debt the state incurs on the bonding bill. My previous entry has a lot of info about our relative debt levels, but I came across this info from MN Management & Budget here. You can see that the percentage of our budget that goes toward debt services is considerably low and consistent using a variety of measures.

A blurb about the bonding bill

2010-02-12T13:05:00.000-08:00

Mid-February will see passage by the Minnesota House of the capital investment or "bonding" bill. I'm already getting a lot of e-mail (generated--I think--by a GOP or conservative group action alert) about the bill, so I thought it would be a good time to review what the bonding bill is.

Every two years the Legislature and Governor work on this bill to provide funding for publicly owned buildings, property, and land. In particular, state agencies have buildings or property that are in need of repair, renovation, or replacement. Our state colleges and universities tend to have a large request because they have a lot of buildings. To be "bondable" the project has to be publicly owned, be of state or regional significance, and be a capital project--meaning it has to be "bricks and mortar" and not for ongoing operation costs. The state raises money for these projects by selling general obligation bonds on the bond market. The state then pays the debt service to pay off the bonds over time.

Many people have written me assuming that when the Legislature passes a bonding bill that the amount of the bill is actually added dollar-for-dollar to the budget. For example, the Senate just passed a $1 billion bill and someone said that they added $1 billion to the deficit. That's not the case. In our current budget, we will now just pay the debt service on the $1 billion, which is in the tens of millions or so.

The state agency Minnesota Management and Budget (MMB) starts the process by asking public entities to submit requests. Usually the requests are something like five times greater than funding available, so MMB winnows them down and eventually the Governor's office submits a proposal to the Legislature with projects he wants. This year the Governor submitted $685 million worth of projects and those projects were mostly for state agencies and higher education institutions. The House and Senate are likely to approve a bill in the $1 billion range. According to staff, this difference of $315 million would increase our debt service for FY2010 by zero and by just $2.5 million in FY2011.

The bonding bill is often touted as a jobs bill. It is true that the private sector creates most jobs, but in bad economic times when the private sector is not hiring, government can spur job growth by spending on public projects that are generally needed anyway. (This is a basic tenet of Keynesian economics.) Right now, construction costs have declined considerably so many of us believe that if we have a larger bonding bill this year it does two things: we get more projects done for less money and we can spur additional job growth albeit temporarily. A general rule of thumb is that for every $100,000 in bonding projects, you get one job. (Someone gets paid for doing the work, but there are also costs to fuel, supplies, construction materials, etc.)

So if we pass a $1 billion bonding bill instead of the Governor's proposed $685 million (a difference of $315 million), we could see the creation of 3,150 additional jobs for just an additional $2.5 million during the next fiscal year. At least in the short term, that's $793 per job when we need to put people to work. WOW.

How do we figure out what an acceptable debt level is? Well, there is no law that limits our debt level, but several decades ago, Governor Perpich used three percent of the general fund budget as a guideline and the state has pretty much stuck to that level.

Moody's (an agency that sets bond ratings) said this about our debt management: "Minnesota's debt levels have historically been a neutral-to-positive part of the state's credit profile. The state's debt issuance is highly centralized and controlled, with the bulk of bonds issued carrying the full faith and credit pledge of the state. Minnesota's metrics have tended to place the state about average or slightly better among the states for debt issuance. Moody's 2009 State Debt Medians Report shows that Minnesota ranks 25th in debt per capita and 32nd in debt as a percent of personal income, largely a result of the state's increasing personal income levels."

A blurb about bottled water....

2010-02-04T14:36:00.000-08:00

It is the first day of session today and an AP reporter asked me about a bill I have (HF2512) about bottled water. We talked a little bit and I thought it would be mentioned as a short blurb on the back page of something, since we have a jobs bill, a bonding bill, General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC), etc. By 4:00 p.m. I started getting interesting e-mail about the bill because the AP put it on the wire and the Star Tribune website had a link on the front page. So to anyone interested for the rationale for the bill, here's some more info...

The text of the bill isn't exactly as clear as it could be, but here's the gist of it:

When state agencies buy bottled water in five-gallon jugs (something seen in many offices) it costs taxpayers about 80 cents to $1.00 per gallon. In contrast, tap water in Shoreview is about 80 cents per ten thousand gallons. An intern of mine last year calculated that even with a high-end tap filter to get out any sediment, hardness, etc. in the water, the bottled water still costs about five to ten times more. And one of the two vendors of bottled water to the state uses tap water anyway.

The bill says that state employees should be discouraged from drinking bottled water, but the intent is that our state agencies should move from bottled water to tap water or filtered tap water because it's cheaper. (If you want to bring or buy your own, go right ahead.)

This isn't something that ought to be in state statute, but I was trying to get people's attention that is this something that could save some money. Not a lot, but when we are going to be laying off state workers and all sorts of other public employees, it is something we should look at.

There are also some compelling environmental reasons for sticking to tap water, since it takes a lot of energy to transport bottled water everywhere, but that was not the impetus for the bill.

November-December 2009 Update

2009-12-23T12:05:00.000-08:00

Greetings! With the holidays I haven't updated this in a while. Here's a summary of my November and December activities.

I'll start by including this campaign flyer for my grandfather that I just unearthed from a box. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Massachusetts House of Representatives in (I think) 1916 as a Democrat. He and his father were supporters of William Jennings Bryan during the progressive era. His father had been a legislator for one term in 1884 on the "Greenbacker" ticket.

Hearings and committee meetings: The Health Care & Human Services Policy Committee (HCHS) met several times. One was on the redesign of State Operated Services (SOS). SOS includes health care facilities run by the Department of Human Services (DHS) primarily for people with mental illness and chemical dependency issues. DHS is undertaking a re-design to maximize the use of its existing beds in the state and to help save money.

We also had a hearing on different proposals for salvaging the General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) program that serves about 33,000 Minnesotans who don't have insurance coverage and who have assets of less than $8,000. About 30% of this population is homeless and around 70% have either a mental health issue or chemical dependency issue, or both. In short, most people in GAMC are not able to function on their own. The Governor made a line-item veto of this program for fiscal year 2011 and then unalloted the program for March to June 2010. Advocates for GAMC have made serving this population a top priority. My colleague Rep. Erin Murphy and Sen. Linda Berglin have proposed an alternative that would increase a surcharge on hospitals that would then leverage matching federal funds. This would salvage GAMC to a degree and return some money to the general fund to help balance the budget. My Republican colleague Rep. Matt Dean has another proposal to have who I would call more high-functioning people on GAMC put on Minnesota Care and then use dollars from the Health Care Access Fund (HCAF) to fund the people who really need additional guidance. Money for the HCAF comes from a 2% health care provider tax--doctors often call it the "sick tax" because you only pay it when you go to the doctor. HCAF dollars pay for Minnesota Care, which serves Minnesotans who have jobs but don't have health coverage. Neither proposal is perfect--rural hospitals are not liking the idea of a higher surcharge to fund what is mostly a metro area issue, and putting GAMC patients on Minnesota Care will deplete the HCAF a lot quicker than expected.

A summary of Minnesota's health care programs is at the DHS web site.

On December 22nd, I participated in a reading of names of those on GAMC with local volunteers from Take Action Minnesota at the Shoreview Community Center.

Environmental Committees: The Environmental Finance Committee met to hear from the MN Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and the DNR about various issues. I sat in on the oversight hearing dealing with "total maximum daily load" (or TDML) compliance. The MPCA must test all waters in the state every ten years for a variety of pollutants. Pollutants that exceed the TDML for a particular watershed will put that watershed into "non-compliance" and trigger a variety of government action. Of chief concern is that the Lake Pepin watershed continues to be non-compliant. The good news is that metro area residents have already paid for significant improvements to the Metro Wastewater Treatment Plant at Pigs Eye to reduce the amount of major pollutants going back into the Mississippi. The bad news is that the Minnesota River continues to be a major problem. One issue I brought up at the hearing was that Minnesota's TDML data is not particularly user-friendly for the public. I suggested that the MPCA look at Maryland's example called BayStat.

Presentation to Jobs Task Force: The House Jobs Task Force is a group of several dozen legislators seeking ways to trigger improved job growth during the recession. On November 30th, I gave a three-minute presentation on how the state could use recycling as a way to boost job growth, since recycling leads to more economic value and growth than throwing recyclable waste away. For example, in Wisconsin, the state has required that all public building projects recycle 50% of their construction waste. For every $1,000 in construction costs, this requirement saves a dollar. It also provides cheaper raw material to manufacturers of concrete, asphalt, steel, aluminum, etc. Quite a few metro area recycling businesses are ready to hire more people if something like this was more widespread.

Check your water data: The New York Times did a recent major article about pollution in drinking water in the U.S. They created a database that you can search for your community's water quality report. All cities in 53A are listed. We have fewer contaminants probably because we don't get water from the Mississippi. On a related issue, the MN Department of Health received some additional funding from the new dedicated sales tax to detect new contaminants in our drinking water. The MPCA has also produced an endocrine disruptor study that shows what kind of contaminants are in our lakes that could mess with the endocrine systems of fish and possibly humans. Lake Owasso in Shoreview was among the lakes tested. At the federal level, the U.S. EPA is considering possible federal regulatory action on pharmaceuticals in drinking water. I'm working on a bill-HF1217-that would reduce the amount of pharmaceuticals being flushed into our wastewater treatment systems. During the fall, I've met with various public, private, and nonprofit stakeholders on the bill so we can make it the best we can make it.

Health care: I found this interesting New York Times article called If Health Reform Fails, America's Innovation Gap Will Grow. It asserts that entrepreneurs will not take risks if they are concerned about not having health coverage.

Energy conservation: My house was one of 50,000 Xcel Energy customers to have an energy usage report with my bill. My energy use was compared to that of my neighbors and the Xcel web site has lots of useful tools for reducing wasted energy. Reporting to customers like this in other states has resulted in a two percent reduction in energy use.

Vikings stadium: The debate on a possible new Vikings stadium is heating up. Many constituents know that I am not a big supporter of public funding for stadiums. Our House Research department has done a great background study of previous stadium funding efforts.

Spending amendment: Governor Pawlenty has proposed the use of a constitutional amendment to cap state spending at the level of the previous budget except in cases of emergency. Here's a link to an analysis that shows that this is not a great idea.

Visitors: Department of Human Services on mental health & State Operated Services; MN Pharmacists Association on HF1217; WasteCap Wisconsin about construction site recycling; constituent about athletic trainer certification bill; constituent about market-based health care bill; Senator Sheran about HF1372; Legal Aid about a water utilities bill; DHS and House Research about HF1217; Ramsey County lobbyist and solid waste staff; Partnership for Affordable Energy about promoting coal as a power source; MN Hospital Association about mental health; League of MN Cities about water utilities bill; constituent and advocates for natural burials; Circle Pines constituent visting the Capitol; Health Partners staff and lobbyists about GAMC; Aging Services of MN & Care Providers of MN about HF1217; Healthy Legacy about HF1217 and HF2407

Visits (where I was the vistor): Ace Solid Waste in Ramsey, Delkor Systems in Blaine; North Oaks for St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce event; NorthStar line opening at Fridley station; E3 Conference presentation on compostable bags; Metro North Chamber of Commerce Working Green Business Expo in Blaine; Allied Waste recycling center in Minneapolis; Courageous Conversations about Health Care event in Mahtomedi; National Caucus of Environmental Legislators conference in Chicago (no taxpayer dollars spent for my travel); House DFL Caucus fundraiser; MPCA meeting on waste issues; Ramsey Conservation District; House DFL Caucus retreat; Anoka County Juvenile Detention Center in Lino Lakes (The Pines School) to talk to students about government

October 2009 Update

2009-11-03T12:29:00.000-08:00

October turned out to be as busy as September, plus I had flu-like symptoms twice that knocked me out for a couple of days. Wash those hands!

Conservation Minnesota Award: On October 26th, I received a conservation leader award from Conservation Minnesota for my work on water conservation and solid waste. I am very honored to be in the company of Will Steger as well as my constituent Dr. Michael Kilgore for his work on the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council.

Endocrine disruptors in Lake Owasso: The MPCA just issued a study that measured chemical compounds in our rivers and lakes that disrupt the endocrine systems of fish. Lake Owasso in Shoreview/Roseville was among those tested. The good news: Lakes where houses are connected to the city sewer have fewer endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) in them. The bad news is that the EDCs go to sewage treatment plants where we can't get rid of the EDCs either. Lake Owasso has high level of organic wastewater compounds in it including DEET and high level of caffeine compared to other lakes tested.

Mental Health: Representative McFarlane and I attended a meeting hosted by NAMI-MN (National Association for Mental Illness), Health Partners, the Archdiocese Office of Social Justice, and the MN Psychiatric Society. The purpose was to discuss the Governor's unallotment and line-item veto of General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC), a program that covers the health care costs of 30,000 people who have virtually no assets and are often chemically dependent and mentally ill. I voted to override the Governor's veto and Rep. McFarlane did not. My assertion in the meeting was that people with private health care coverage end up paying for people without health coverage who show up at the emergency room, and that saving GAMC is cheaper for those with insurance.

Later in the month, I met with an assistant commissioner for the Department of Human Services and his staff about their proposed re-design of State Operated Services (SOS), which are the state's treatment facilities for mental health.

On October 14th, several House committees held an informational hearing about mental health costs in the criminal justice system. We could save a lot of taxpayer dollars by better integrating information about mental health into law enforcement and corrections training.

Phone books: I had a good meeting with members of the Yellow Pages Association and Dex to hear about their efforts to allow consumers to opt-out of yellow pages delivery. State rules still require delivery of a white pages, and we might work on legislation to get rid of that rule.

Water: The MN Rural Water Association invited me to their training class on October 27th in St. Cloud about how to set water/sewer rates that create enough reserves to fund future upgrades. Not enough cities do this and they are often stuck going to the state for funding. They also talked about the conservation rate structure legislation that I authored last year.

Arsenals and race tracks: One proposal made to the City of Arden Hills for the use of the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant (TCAAP) is for a NASCAR track. I happen to be a NASCAR fan, but I am not a fan of this proposal. The 35W corridor between 694 and U.S. Hwy 10 is one of the most congested spots in the north metro because several corridors converge there. In addition, 694 is only two lanes wide from 35E to 35W. So this would be a congestion nightmare. Finally, the noise would likely carry for many miles.

Bioplastics/yard waste: KARE-11 did a story about my legislation on yard waste bags and the Star Tribune did an article as well. On October 19th I spoke about the topic to a national conference focused on using organic waste as an energy source. The MN Pollution Control Agency hosted a great panel discussion on-line on October 16th about biopolymers and their potential in Minnesota.

Campaign finance: A recent New York Times column outlines the many ways in which state campaign finance law there hinders democracy. The State Legislature has ceased to be an effective organization in recent months. I am pleased to say that many of the proposed reforms in the column are already law in Minnesota!

Reporting unsafe drivers: The MN Department of Public Safety has a web page where you can report unsafe drivers. The driver gets a letter notifying that somebody noticed them driving unsafely, and your contact information is not divulged.

Visited these folks or attended these meetings: Product Stewardship meeting in Eagan and Minneapolis about innovative ways to cut taxpayer costs for waste managment; gathering of north metro MN Utility Investors members in Shoreview; waste haulers in Prior Lake; White Bear Lake Area senior transportation meeting; Turtle Lake Elementary School kindergartners; water expert; Qwest area office in Shoreview; Capitol Beverage in Fridley; CTV15 cable TV station for interview on bike commuting; visit with Express Scripts in Bloomington about HF1217; boy scouts in Shoreview; Golden Lake PTA in Circle Pines; RAM/SWANA Conference on recycling, composting, etc.; Sierra Club members in Shoreview; Senator Rummel on issues of mutual interest; UPS Freight tour in Blaine

Visitors: Healthy Legacy lobbyist about state purchasing/bonding ideas that promote less toxic products; Chamber of Commerce representatives about product stewardship; group of about 20 members of the MN Council of Nonprofits learning about the legislature; lobbyists for syringe manufacturer and pharmaceutical products about my legislation; member of League of MN Cities regarding product stewardship proposals; General Accountability Office (GAO) researchers from Washington, D.C. following up on MN's e-waste recycling law; industry representatives from biopolymer sector

September 2009 update

2009-10-05T14:15:00.000-07:00

Here's an update of my September 2009 activities and other information.

District happenings

Domestic violence: I was very troubled to hear of the second case of fatal domestic violence in district 53A in as many months. The murder-suicide was covered in two articles in the Star Tribune here and here. I'm talking to a few legislators to see if any changes in legislation would help avoid this situation in the future. Alexandra House, the only women's shelter of its kind in Anoka County, was mentioned several times.

Constituent suffering from PTSD: Minnesota Public Radio recently covered the case of a Circle Pines Marine who is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from his service in Iraq. I've spoken to a few people involved and it is clear that we have a big job ahead of us in treating the large number of returning servicemen and women with PTSD. Some officials at Fort Snelling are doing their best to avoid the worst case scenario of suicide among veterans. [10/11/09 update: The Pioneer Press reported on 10/08/09 that the Marines are calling into question the story of the Circle Pines Marine. It's a little hard to tell what the truth is on this case but I would still point out that PTSD is a major problem.]

Scrap tires on Highway 14: Anoka County rebuilt Highway 14 through Centerville and Lino Lakes recently. Because the section that crosses the Rice Creek Chain of Lakes does not have a very stable base underneath, the county used 2.6 million shredded scrap tires to shore up the road. I know the tire recycling folks and the U.S. produces about one scrap tire per person per year, which means that this project used about half of all scrap tires collected in MN in one year.

Energy savings in Mounds Views SD: Congratulations to the Mounds View School District for the first year of results from its Schools for Energy Efficiency (SEE) program. The district saved $400,000 by reducing energy use by 12%! Well done.

Mounds View SD requests lottery funding: The Mounds View School District, which owns the Laurentian Environmental Learning Center (ELC) in Britt, MN, and several other ELCs have proposed a project to the commission recommending uses for lottery proceeds. The Legislative Citizens Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR) is hearing proposals this fall for possible recommendations next session. The ELC proposal would request funding for energy efficiency upgrades as well as educational programs on energy.

Centennial levy: The Centennial School District is putting a levy referendum on the ballot this fall. There will be two questions. The first will be asking to renew the existing five-year levy and the second questions would ask for some additional funding. There is more info at the Vote Yes site for the referendum.

Anoka County inmates going to Sherburne: Part of Anoka County's budget cutting includes transferring some inmates from Lino Lakes to Sherburne County in Elk River.

Local business and Gopher Stadium: The new Gopher football stadium includes a novel stormwater treatment system developed by a local company. Rehbein Environmental Solutions in Blaine created a system that can store 132,000 gallons of water at a time instead of releasing it immediately into the stormwater runoff system. WCCO did a story on the stadium's green components.

Sewer charges and Blaine interceptor: The Met Council is considering changes to sewer rates. Revenue for sewage capacity from new development in the outer suburbs has slowed because of the lack of new construction, so the MC may charge people in developed areas (that's us) more.

Health care

Insurance for those rejected from other plans: The Health Care & Human Services Policy Committee that I serve on had a recent hearing on several topics including MCHA--the Minnesota Comprehensive Health Association. MCHA (pronounced EM-cha) is a program run by the insurance industry to offer coverage to people who, among other things, have been rejected by health insurers because of a pre-existing condition. It's not a state government program but it was created by the legislature. Premiums make up about half the revenue of the program and the rest comes from the insurers through an assessment on their regular customers' policies of about three percent. However, self-insured plans (like those created through large employers) do not get charged the assessment, leaving the cost to small businesses and individual policy holders.

Hidden health care tax: A group called Families USA has updated information about how much consumers with private insurance are paying as a "hidden tax" to cover the cost of the uninsured. In Minnesota we have almost half the number of uninsured as the national average so hospitals and clinics have to write off fewer losses, but the average family policy pays $650 more a year in this state in the "hidden tax."

Transportation

Bike commuting: During the first few weeks of September I've been commuting on my bike to the Capitol and using the bus as part of that once in a while. I'm not the first in our area to do this by any means but it's been a good way to get in shape. The Met Council has a Bike2Benefits program on-line where you can log in your miles and see how many gallons of gas you are not using and how much in greenhouse gas emissions you are not creating. You can also track the location and arrival times of your buses in real-time using a PDA on the Metro Transit web site.

694 & 35W: MnDOT plans to update one of the exit ramps at 694 and 35W.

Transit: One of the most used forms of transit in the northern suburbs is paratransit or dial-a-ride. Seniors and the disabled use this service regularly. I'm following the work of the Interagency Committee on Transportation Coordination (ICTC, or "Ick-tick") to find out how to encourage more coordination among our state and local agencies so that we can maximize the use of all our transportation assets. The Met Council is also consolidating its dial-a-ride program in a way that will bring this service to Shoreview for the first time.

Environment

New technology for treating garbage: I visited a company's R&D facility in Blaine recently that can pre-treat garbage in what is called a thermal vessel. The garbage is heated up to 280 degrees or so and the resulting organic material can be put in an anerobic digester to create energy, and recyclables can be separated out also. The company is Visiam and its main office is in White Bear Township. Their web site has a video of the process. I also had the chance in September to visit a new landfill site in Lynd, Minnesota in Lyon County where I met with county commissioners from seven southwestern MN counties.

My bills

Scrap law working: In 2007, I got legislation passed that required scrap metal recyclers to keep records on the people selling them scrap because of a rampant metal theft problem. This recent article highlights one scrap yard that is successfully working with police on the issue.

Product stewardship: Several of my bills for 2009-2010 relate to a concept of product stewardship (PS). PS would assist taxpayers by asking for industries that create products that are difficult to dispose of safely to take some financial responsibility for the waste material. Senator Doll, Rep. McNamara, and I recently spoke to a gathering of local government officials about legislative ideas on PS. I also attended a recent panel discussion at the MPCA on sustainable packaging. Presenters included NatureWorks LLC, Aveda (based in Blaine), and General Mills. Aveda has a very successful plastic bottle cap program that you can get involved with at local schools.

Compostable bag legislation media: WCCO recently gave some coverage about my legislation requiring compostable plastic yard waste bags if you use a plastic bag.

Pharmaceuticals in our water: Blog readers may be familiar with my bill that would create a secure "take-back" system for unused medications that are often flushed. Many of these medications end up in our rivers and streams because wastewater treatment cannot remove certain endocrine-disrupting compounds. The U.S. Geological Survey has just reported that of nine rivers tested nationwide, Lake Pepin on the Mississippi has the highest number of fish that have both male and female sex characteristics! During October and November, I'm meeting with various stakeholders to get their input on my bill, HF1217, for next year to work out technical issues.

Taxes

Cuts to county program aid: One of the least-known programs at the state level to help reduce your property taxes is county program aid. This MinnPost article (albeit with a partisan bent) describes the effects of the Governor's recent unallotment to county program aid. Non-partisan House Research also has this info on the program.

Cuts to market value homestead credit (MVHC): One of the way that the state lowers your property taxes is to give you a market value homestead credit via your city. Lino Lakes along with Shoreview lost all its MVHC from the Governor's unallotment. Due to the loss of MVHC and declining property values, Lino Lakes is making some significant budget cuts.

Meetings: I had the chance to visit Second Harvest Heartland in Maplewood, which has a very sophisticated operation in supplying our community food shelves. Senator Rummel and I hosted a meeting with Shoreview residents who live around Kerry Pond to hear from the DNR about changes in aquatic plant management permits. I also visited Lifetrack Resources in St. Paul, which provides child care and other services for children who are under court protection. I enjoyed greeting 4th graders from Rice Lake Elementary School in Lino Lakes at the Capitol.

August 2009 Update

2009-08-14T12:03:00.001-07:00

Einhausen group: Shoreview has a sister city relationship with Einhausen, Germany, and this year a group of Einhausen residents came to visit Minnesota. Senator Rummel and I met with them in early August for a tour of the state capitol. Find out more about the sister city organization here.

Business visit: I visited Old Dominion Freight Co in my district in Blaine, where they are celebrating 75 years. It included a very cool traveling trailer with exhibits, including a Wii truckdriving game (I crashed) and a radio-controlled 18 wheeler that I successfully backed up after 10 minutes. Argh.

Group house: Senator Rummel and I received a lot of e-mail from irate Lino Lakes residents about a proposed group house in Centerville that would house the developmentally disabled. After the house was vandalized and after a crowded public meeting, the organization proposing the facility, Zumbro House, cancelled the project. KSTP did a story on the controversy. I still don't have all the facts about what type of residents were to live there, other than that they were teenaged and disabled. Some of the information I received but couldn't confirm was that the residents were to be either low-level sex offenders or had serious behavioral issues.

Recent criminal activity: A murder recently took place in 53A, where a Circle Pines man killed a Blaine resident over what appears to be a drug case. A Star-Tribune article has the details. There was another murder in Circle Pines earlier this month in a case of domestic violence.

LEED certified building: I recently visited a house in Lexington that is LEED certified--meaning it has many green components to its design. A husband and wife team designed it and operate their business there. You can visit their web site and see how it was built!

Meeting with Senator Franken about pharmaceutical waste: On August 13th, I attended a great meeting in North Branch for Sen. Franken on Chisago County's successful take-back program for unused pharmaceutical waste. My bill HF1217 would help expand this statewide--look for it in 2010. A description of the problem we are seeking to solve comes from the Product Stewardship Institute. Chisago County worked on this because they originally had a big meth problem, and now teens have moved from meth (which is harder to make now) to "pharm" parties where they swipe drugs like painkillers from adults and mix it with alcohol. When certain pharmaceuticals are flushed down the toilet, our wastewater treatment plants cannot break down some endocrine-disrupting compounds and that can change the genetic structure of fish and also end up in someone's drinking water.

Rice Creek Trail: The Rice Creek Trail that I tried to get state funding for in 2008 will be partially completed by next spring. John VonDeLinde, Director of Parks and Recreation for Anoka County sent me this update:

"...Lino Lakes Town Center to Rice Lake Elementary Trail

"At this point, all of the cultural resources review is complete, and we have found a way to construct the trail through the park, while avoiding any buried artifacts, etc. As you may know, the Rice Creek Chain of Lakes area is rich in Native American history and we are taking the
normal protocols in avoiding disturbance.

"Wetland assessment is also complete. Our engineer, SRF Consulting, has been working with the Rice Creek Watershed District on wetland impacts and floodplain mitigation. We do have enough credits from previous wetland creation projects in the park, so all appears to be good in that regard.

"Construction documents are complete for the trail from the Lino Lakes Town Center to Rice Lake Elementary. Our consultant has also completed the Project Memorandum for this section, which is a federal project requirement.

"In designing the project, we have determined that the old snowmobile bridge over the Rice Creek will need to be removed and replaced. It does not meet federal standards. The new bridge will provide more clearance over the creek and will be shared with the snowmobile trail.

"So, the project design for the main trail is now nearing completion.

"Hodgson Road to Baldwin Lake Trail

"Given the good bids the county has been receiving this year, we have also decided to move forward with construction documents on the section from Birch Street and Hodgson Road to Baldwin Lake Park. Originally, we did not think that this would be financially feasible - it may be now.

"This additional section will require similar planning and construction documents. We expect those to be completed within a month. Once those are in-hand, we can submit the entire design package to MnDOT for review and approval.

"In summary, my expectation is that we will be out for bids in July or August. Construction should be underway by September or October. The project will no doubt carryover to June of next year for completion...."

More information on the project was published in the Quad Communities Press.

Till next time: I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. My family and I spent two weeks in June and July visiting Glacier National Park, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Yellowstone National Park, and the Black Hills.

My 2009 Bills That Passed

2009-07-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a wrap-up of my legislation that passed from 2009. You can look up the text of the bills at the House web site.

HF167/SF0185: The Governor signed SF2082 (the State Government Finance Bill) on May 16th. In that bill there was the text of my HF167, which extends the term of the Legislative Coordinating Commission Working Group on Ethnic Heritage & New Americans. I'm the House DFLer on the working group, which brings together business, labor, and advocates on the issue of immigration to help find pragmatic solutions. The bill is now Chapter 101 of 2009 Session Laws, Article 2, section 1. This bill was an initiative of the Working Group.

HF239: For two years, several of us from the suburbs have worked to assist homeowners who have been hassled by their builders or remodelers over breaches of warranty. Some Shoreview residents I know have spent $100,000 out of pocket in legal fees while the builders delay a settlement, hoping that the homeowner will give up. Others in the state have had to spend thousands of dollars in hotel or rental housing costs when their house is uninhabitable. My bill, HF239, would allow homeowners to be reimbursed for short-term housing if they have to be out of their house as a result of warranty work. It passed the House and Senate and was presented to the Governor on May 15th. The bill is now part of Chapter 103, 2009 Session Laws. The Governor vetoed the bill and discusses details in his veto letter. I dispute his rationale for the veto but we need to move on. This bill was initiated by advocates for homeowners and Shoreview constituents.

HF356: HF2088 is an omnibus economic development and housing bill that the Governor signed recently to replace a previous bill that he vetoed. It included my legislation from HF356 to maintain the solvency of the manufactured housing relocation trust fund. The bill is now Chapter 78 of 2009 Session Laws, Article 8, Sections 1 to 3. (The Governor made some line-item vetoes in the bill but not my legislation.) This bill will help make sure that owners of manufactured housing (aka mobile homes) will be able to tap into a self-insurance pool should the owner of their mobile home park sell the land, requiring all residents to vacate. There are about 500 manufactured homes in my district. This bill was an initiative of All Parks Alliance for Change.

HF403: HF2123, the environment and energy finance bill, passed with a high number of votes on the House floor from both parties. It included budgets for the MN Pollution Control Agency, the DNR, and several other smaller agencies. My legislation in the bill included provisions that will boost two industries in Minnesota--bioplastics and compost. Many district residents are asked by their waste hauler to dispose of their yard waste in a rolling cart or a compostable bag because the regular plastic bags contaminate the finished compost. Haulers pay a higher fee to get rid of plastic and compost site operators can't sell their compost. The legislation has all metro area residents use certified compostable bags starting January 1, 2010 if they use a bag. (Carts and reusable bags are fine too.) The idea is to increase quality and streamline rules across multiple jurisdictions. We have several Minnesota manufacturers of compostable bags who will be able to meet consumer demand, and they are part of our growing bioplastic industry. The original bill was HF403. This bill was signed by the Governor and is now Chapter 37 in Minnesota statutes. This bill was my own initiative.

HF1333: The Governor signed HF1298, a non-controversial bill with various tax compliance and other tax provisions. My bill HF1333 that authorizes bonding for Met Council transit facilities was included. The bill is now in Chapter 88 of 2009 Session Laws in Article 6, Section 20. This bill was initiated by the Met Council.

HF1373: My legislation to promote greater coordination of transit for the disabled and others who cannot drive passed. It's actually in two parts. The legislation creates the Minnesota Council on Transportation Access, where state and regional agencies that serve the disabled come together to figure out how to make a very fragmented and inefficient network of transit services more efficient and cost-effective. HF1373 was the original bill and the funding ended up in HF1309 and the enabling legislation ended up in the omnibus transportation policy bill in HF928. HF928 passed the House on May 17th and is now Chapter 151 of 2009 Session Laws, Section 28. The Governor vetoed the bill, and mentioned my legislation in his veto letter. The Governor signed HF1309 that is now Chapter 36 of Minnesota statutes. However, the Governor did direct the Department of Transportation to add additional members to the Interagency Committee on Transit Coordination (ICTC) as would have been required in my bill. Senator Dibble and I initiated this legislation.

2009 Bills That Will Be Back in 2010

2009-07-19T08:45:00.001-07:00

These are bills I introduced in 2009 that I would likely bring up again in 2010. You can look up the text of the bills at the House web site.

HF170: This bill would require publishers of telephone directories to allow consumers to opt out of delivery. I asked for an informational hearing only since I want to spend most of my legislative time helping to create jobs or address the deficit. The Yellow Pages Association and R.H. Donnelly testified about the bill and demonstrated Dex's opt out web site. You can hear audio of the hearing on-line. This hearing concluded my work on this issue for the year. KARE-11 did a web article on the bill on the KARE website. This bill was my own initiative. The 2010 version of this bill would likely just remove the state’s requirement that phone book publishers must distribute a White Pages.

HF298: This bill would remove some regulatory barriers for day training & habilitation (DT&H) organizations to serve more people with their bus and van fleets. Nonprofits in our area that pick up and drop off adults with developmental disabilities are interested in transporting other clients from other organizations to be more efficient, but their insurance rates would go way up, making the venture prohibitive. I don't have a Senate author, and after talking to a senator about it, I chose to invest time in HF1372 instead because it was a more wide-ranging initiative. This bill was initiated by Merrick Inc. and other DT&H providers.

HF336: This bill would allow homeowners associations to inform their residents about pesticide applications up to 48 hours in advance using newsletters, e-mail, etc. in lieu of sticking up those little signs after the application. This bill was initiated by a constituent with sensitivity to lawn chemicals. I didn't get a Senate author for this bill this year but would plan to proceed with this in 2010.

HF418: This bill would allow local governments to enact their own tougher ordinances to combat the spread of buckthorn. The bill received a hearing in the Agriculture Policy Committee and passed, and then was held up in the local government committee due to lack of time. This bill was initiated by a North Oaks resident, and I would like to proceed with it in 2010.

HF457: This bill would allow Minnesotans to donate their remains after death to an organization accredited by the American Association of Tissue Banks instead of just to a university. This bill ran into opposition to a consortium of mortuary science stakeholders (seriously) that had worked on some reforms in this sector several years ago. I was under the impression that some other reforms would be forthcoming from another member this year and I could incorporate this legislation into that bigger bill, but the legislation did not materialize this year. I plan to pursue this issue in 2010. This bill was initiated by a constituent.

HF500: This bill would create standards for recycled water so that builders, plumbers, and others would have some guidance from the state when they are creating greywater systems that use treated wastewater. The dialogue among stakeholders was late in coming during the session so I did not proceed with this bill by the committee deadline in March. I hope to work on this in 2010. The bill was initiated by Sen. Jungbauer.

HF1118: This bill would change the allocation formula for revenue from the Solid Waste Management Tax (SWMT). The SWMT is collected on your waste hauler bill and up to 70% of it goes to the state's environmental fund to pay for cleaning up old landfills, recycling programs, etc. The bill would set an allocation formula for county funding. The bill received a hearing in the House Taxes Committee and was referred to the Environmental Finance Committee for consideration in 2010. The bill was originally authored by Rep. Demmer, who didn't have time to work on it. The bill was initiated by the Association of Minnesota Counties.

HF1217: This is a bill to set up a product stewardship program for unused pharmaceutical products to keep them out of our wastewater and drinking water and to keep them out of the hands of kids. Old medications often get flushed down the toilet and the chemical compounds do not break down in the wastewater treatment process. Many of these compounds are endocrine disruptors, meaning that they can change the DNA of fish and other aquatic life. They can also end up in our drinking water when it comes from a source where treated wastewater feeds into that source, like the Mississippi River. The bill would have the drug industry fund a secure "take-back" system at pharmacies. This is a pretty complicated bill so I introduced it this year so that stakeholders and I can discuss it during the interim and then I can modify it in 2010. This bill was my own initiative.

HF1286: This bill would give free fish and game license eligibility for disabled veterans. This bill was heard in the Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee and was referred to the main Agriculture & Veterans' Affairs Committee but it was too late in the session to get through. This bill was initiated by a constituent.

HF1372/SF1323: This bill would require that retailers of more than 90 syringes in a carton must provide a "sharps" collection container for the consumer to store used syringes. Used syringes are one of the biggest safety hazards to waste haulers and other maintenance people. After passing the Senate easily and after passing the House Environment Committee on a voice vote, I was contacted by a national organization working on the issue and they asked for a delay in a floor vote on the bill in order to make some necessary changes. I will be working on this bill during the interim and will present some changes in 2010. This bill was initiated by a Minnesota vendor of collection containers.

HF2182: This bill would require the Department of Finance to request more information from state and local government agencies when they submit bonding requests for capital investment projects. This relates to the annual "bonding bill." I was interested in seeing more objective information when public entities want state funding so legislators can compare projects more clearly. The bill was introduced too late to be heard in the Capital Investment Committee, but the chair was interested in having an informational hearing. This bill was my own initiative.

HF2402: This bill would increase the fee charged by auto shops for unreturned used auto batteries from $5 to $10. Right now battery manufacturers are charging $10 to auto shops that do not exchange a used battery for a new battery, instead of the $5 they used to charge. State law requires that auto shops charge $5 to consumers when they don't return a used battery, so the auto shops are $5 short when this happens. Obviously consumers who bring in an old battery when they buy a new one get a total refund of $5. The bill was introduced too late to get a hearing but it will come forward in 2010. The bill was initiated by the Alliance of Automotive Service Providers of MN, Inc.

HF2407: This bill is a sweeping product stewardship initiative to keep hazardous or valuable waste materials out of the garbage. It would create a process by which the MPCA would suggest products that would require special attention. This was introduced on the last day of the session so that I could get feedback from industry and government before requesting a hearing in February. This bill was my own initiative.

My 2009 Bills That Did Not Proceed

2009-07-19T07:00:00.000-07:00

Here are bills of mine that did not proceed in 2009.

HF625: The Governor signed SF2082 (the State Government Finance Bill) on May 16th. The final bill did not include my HF625 that would require the state to use an Application Program Interface (API) that would allow third parties to analyze exported state budget information. Who says that the state must be the only entity that holds data and information that we paid for? Politics in Minnesota has followed this legislation and reported on the need for this legislation for greater government transparency. They have also aggressively followed up on it in articles on May 6th and May 7th. (The state Department of Finance doesn't like it because it is pretty sweeping legislation.) HF625 got in the House file of the State Government Finance Bill but not the Senate file and it was not accepted in the final conference committee. This bill was my own initiative.

HF663: This bill would require that truth in taxation notices for your property taxes get mailed before the November general election. You can see the video of the hearing. The bill was "laid over" by the Property Tax Division of the Taxes Committee so it might get included into an omnibus bill by that division. There were several lobbyists for the school board association and the Association of Minnesota Counties as well as the Department of Revenue who testified against the bill. The legislation got into part of a bigger tax bill but was ultimately removed because of objections from local governments. This bill was initiated by a constituent.

HF808: This bill would increase the reimbursement rate for an intermediate care facility for the developmentally disabled (ICF/MR) in Shoreview. Reimbursement rates are set by the state, and a group house in Shoreview has increasing costs to care for these adults who have no family. The bill was initiated by Lutheran Social Services and did not receive a hearing.

HF1548: This bill would cap property taxes as a percentage of income for seniors. This bill was initiated by the Minnesota Senior Federation and a constituent. It did not receive a hearing.

HF1642: This bill would create a Health Opportunity Account (HOA) pilot project for medicaid patients in Minnesota. Patients would have a high deductible account but the state would pick up the deductible. The idea is that the total cost of this arrangement would be lower than our existing Medical Assistance program while providing the same level of service. Earlier this spring, Congress prohibited new HOA pilot projects, making the bill moot. This bill was initiated by a constituent.

HF1643: This would change the levy referendum component of the K-12 education funding formula. Specifically, it would increase the referendum market value equalizing factor that has not been raised in many years. In English, this means that school districts like Centennial that have a smaller commercial tax base would see an increase in state funds for education. The bill was heard by the K-12 Education Finance Committee and was held over for possible inclusion in their omnibus bill. It was not included because of the cost during this difficult budget year. The bill was initiated by constituents in the Centennial School District.

End of Session Wrap-Up

2009-05-19T14:12:00.001-07:00

The 2009 legislative session just ended and news reports say that a “deal” was not made on the budget. In fact, the Legislature did deliver a balanced budget to the Governor after five months of rigorous work.

During the last five months, all committees in the legislature worked to enact significant cuts to the state budget and hold the line on spending in major areas. We cut ethanol subsidies, agency administrative budgets and bureaucracy, reimbursement rates for certain health care providers, and many more items.

We also made significant reforms. We reduced mandates on schools and other local governments, reduced reporting requirements, and restructured health care payments. We also agreed with the Governor to delay $1.8 billion in payments to K-12 schools.

In addition, we made prudent use of federal money to maintain health care eligibility for more than 100,000 people, many of whom have recently been laid off, and to cap higher education tuition increases.

That left us with a $1 billion gap in a $6.4 billion deficit that could only be solved in one of four ways. The first option included the Governor’s proposal to borrow the money and pay off the bonds for 20 years plus $600 million in interest. Constituents overwhelming rejected this idea in my legislative survey, and Democrats and Republicans voted against this option on the House floor almost unanimously.

The second option was increased gambling revenue. We also voted on this idea and it did not pass. The Governor said he would not sign a bill that increased revenues from gambling.

The third option was a tax increase. We passed a bill that would raise the money from a higher income tax rate for joint filers making more than $250,000 a year, a surcharge on credit card companies that charge higher than 15% in interest rates, and increased taxes on alcohol. Our plan dedicated this funding to K-12 schools, nursing homes and similar facilities, and our hospitals. We felt that this was a pay-as-you-go approach as opposed to a borrow-and-spend approach. The Governor vetoed this bill.

The final option was more cuts. The Governor signed all of our finance bills, but vetoed our bill to raise revenue. To close the gap left by his veto, the Governor said he would make some line-item vetoes in those bills and then use his unallotment power to unilaterally make cuts starting on July 1. The first line-item veto he made was $380 million in General Assistance Medical Care. GAMC provides health coverage to 30,000 adults who make less than $7,800. Seventy percent of these patients have a serious mental illness and many of them—including veterans—are homeless. In public testimony, the Governor’s own Department of Human Services Commissioner Cal Ludeman said these people are the “poorest of the poor, and the sickest of the sick.” These are precisely the people—the least of these—for whom a government safety net is required.

In addition, our hospitals like Regions and HCMC are expected to make significant job layoffs and reductions in services because this funding makes up such a large part of their budgets. HCMC in Minneapolis could be cut up to $100 million and Regions could be cut up to $46 million. This will drive up health care premiums for those of us with private health coverage.

Readers of my columns and blog will know that I do not engage in a lot of partisan rhetoric and finger-pointing. But that line-item veto, and the subsequent party-line vote in the House that upheld the veto, were the coldest and fiscally counter-productive political actions I have ever witnessed.

The Governor’s unallotment is also likely to cut higher education significantly, and the University of Minnesota tells us that will likely increase tuition by about 15%. Circle Pines and Lexington residents will likely see increased property taxes due to his proposed cuts to local government aid and the rest of us will lose a lot from cuts to the market value homestead credit and the property tax refund program. Taxes hurt, but so do cuts.

There was a lot of good legislation that ran under the radar this session, due to the budget shortfall, including some of my own legislation. But that can wait for a future entry. Have a good summer, and I hope that you will share your thoughts with me in the months to come.

Questions about the End of Session

2009-05-14T09:02:00.001-07:00

Minnesota Budget Bites posted a good set of frequently asked questions about what happens at the end of the legislation session, such as discussing deadlines, vetoes, overrides, and so on.

The House of Representatives Session Weekly includes a good article about unallotment, which is the tool that the Governor says that he is going to use to balance the budget.

At this writing, the details are sketchy as to where the Governor unallot once the new fiscal year starts on July 1. I'll defer judgment until we see the details, but he would have to unallot something like ten times the amount that has ever been done in state history, and I don't know how he can pull it off.

Here's what the Governor is saying about what he will do.

Week of May 10 & 17, 2009

2009-05-13T16:30:00.000-07:00

This is the last full week of the session, and the major budget bills and omnibus policy bills are coming forward. Here's a quick summary.

Tax or Borrow: The major sticking block in our budget negotiations with the Governor is about $1 billion. Our bill that the Governor vetoed on Saturday would raise $1 billion in taxes (see entry from last week) and his proposal since January is to borrow $1 billion, then to spend the next 20 years paying it off along with $600 million in interest. We have made major cuts to our hospitals, people with disabilities, nursing homes, economic assistance to needy families, as well as curbed spending in other areas like education. We are also looking at deferring some of our state payments (a "shift") to schools. That still leaves us with big gap that the $1 billion will help fill.

DNR Game & Fish Bill (HF1132): This always has some interesting sounding provisions like "free either-sex deer permit for recently discharged service members" and "elimination of slot limits for spearing northern pike." But they are important to many folks. This is also the first bill I've seen since my first election that deals with firearms, and that is always controversial. The bill contains a provision that would allow uncased firearms in your vehicle. The idea is that if you are hunting and you are going from one area to another close by, it takes a long time to case up your gun or bow. The Public Safety Policy Committee chair had the bill amended to maintain current law in the seven county metro area. There are various conditions under which you can have an uncased gun or bow that make this more palatable to me. The bill also has an amendment that would require gun show vendors to do a background check on their customers just like gun dealers at a store. I support this provision--I don't think requiring a 10-minute check is particularly burdensome and this is the law in 18 other states.

Manufacturing Housing Legislation Passes Again: HF2088 is an omnibus economic development and housing bill that the Governor signed recently to replace a previous bill that he vetoed. It included my legislation from HF356 to maintain the solvency of the manufactured housing relocation trust fund. The bill is now Chapter 78 of 2009 Session Laws, Article 8, Sections 1 to 3. (The Governor made some line-item vetoes in the bill but not my legislation.)

State Government Finance Bill: The Governor signed SF2082 on May 16th. In that bill there was the text of my HF167, which extends the life of the Legislative Coordinating Commission Working Group on Ethnic Heritage & New Americans. I'm the House DFLer on the working group, which brings together business, labor, and advocates on the issue of immigration to help find pragmatic solutions. The bill is now Chapter 101 of 2009 Session Laws, Article 2, section 1. The final bill did not include my HF625 that would require the state to use an Application Program Interface (API) that would allow third parties to analyze exported state budget information. It was in the House file but not the Senate file and it was not accepted in the final conference committee.

Technical Tax Bill: The Governor signed HF1298, a non-controversial bill with various tax compliance and other tax provisions. My bill HF1333 that authorizes bonding for Met Council transit facilities was included. The bill is now in Chapter 88 of 2009 Session Laws in Article 6, Section 20.

Transportation for the Disabled: My legislation to promote greater coordination of transit for the disabled and others who cannot drive has passed. It's actually in two parts. The legislation creates the Minnesota Council on Transportation Access, where state and regional agencies that serve the disabled come together to figure out how to make a very fragmented and inefficient network of transit services more efficient and cost-effective. HF1373 was the original bill and the funding ended up in HF1309 and the enabling legislation ended up in the omnibus transportation policy bill in HF928. HF928 passed the House on May 17th and is now Chapter 151 of 2009 Session Laws, Section 28, awaiting action by the Governor.

Homeowner warranty bills pass: For two years, several of us from the suburbs have worked to assist homeowners who have been hassled by their builders or remodelers over breaches of warranty. Some Shoreview residents I know have spent $100,000 out of pocket in legal fees while the builders delay a settlement, hoping that the homeowner will give up. Others in the state have had to spend thousands of dollars in hotel or rental housing costs when their house is uninhabitable. My bill, HF239, would allow homeowners to be reimbursed for short-term housing if they have to be out of their house as a result of warranty work. It passed the House and was presented to the Governor on May 15th. He has three days to sign it, which would be May 18th, the last day of session. The bill is now part of Chapter 103, 2009 Session Laws.

Public Safety Finance Bill: coming soon

Health & Human Services Finance Bill: coming soon

Capital Investment Bill: coming soon

E-12 Education Finance Bill: coming soon

Higher Education Finance Bill: coming soon

Agriculture & Veterans Affairs Finance Bill: coming soon

Facts about Recent GOP Mailing about Home Heating Fuel

2009-05-13T15:58:00.000-07:00

Many district residents received a mailing from the Republican Party of Minnesota during the last few days that makes some misleading statements about my bill (HF1584-which is incorporated into an omnibus tax bill, HF2323).

It suggests that all consumers would be taxed on their home heating fuel, which is not correct. Right now heating fuel is exempt from sales tax during the period November to April. The bill (as I amended it in the Tax Committee) would have the sales tax kick in ONLY after one's cumulative use exceeds 130% of average use for the whole winter, which right now is about 875 "therms" on your Xcel bill for natural gas. Only about 10% of all heat that could be taxed in the state would be taxed. I looked at my own bill in my 2,000 square foot 1972 rambler with four people and I didn't reach 700 therms for the whole winter, so LOTS of people will not even be taxed at all.

The idea here is that the largest energy users tend to drive up prices for everyone else because during the coldest periods demand for these users disproportionately higher. We have also been advised by experts to focus on narrowing or ending certain sales tax exemptions (so called "tax expenditures") to avoid tax revenue volatility from year to year. This is why many people recommend charging the sales tax on clothing, for example.

However, critics believe that there will be too many drafty houses, especially in rural areas, where people with low or fixed incomes live. I can't get them to prove to me that the tax would apply to them, but just in case, we amended the bill to exempt anyone on heating assistance. Also just in case, I have an amendment to exempt anyone who is affected by the Cold Weather Rule who has trouble paying their bills, often because of a job loss.

It looks like this bill will not proceed in any case--the metering technology in rural Minnesota for electric heat is not very uniform and the variability in the housing stock is too great to precisely target the legislation to the right people. But it certainly raised some helpful issues for future deliberations. Sometimes we propose ideas that might seem like a "stinker" on the surface but it's important to have the dialogue and in so doing we often stick our necks out a bit in the legislative process.

Improving communications with your legislative colleagues

2009-05-13T12:02:00.000-07:00

Greetings. I am posting the text of an e-mail I sent out to my colleagues today along with an attached letter.

Dear colleagues,

At this time in the session, the pressure builds, the deadlines loom, and the differences among us start to magnify. We're tired and a little cranky. That said, we still need to maintain high standards in our communications to each other, either with the opposite caucus or within our own.

I recently failed to maintain those high standards in some electronic communications regarding two of our members. I have attached a letter that I shared with Rep. Emmer and Rep. Buesgens.

Education & Health Care/Tax Bill & Legacy Funding Bill (May 8, 2009)

2009-05-08T14:19:00.000-07:00

The House and Senate are voting today on a new education and health care bill that would raise about $1 billion in revenue and use the funds for K-12 education, nursing homes and similar facilities, and hospitals.

Here's the breakdown. There would be three accounts set up: E-12; Nursing Homes & Long-Term Care; and Hospitals.

* K-12 Education: The bill would generate $585.7 million in the next two year budget cycle for an E-12 account. If we were to cut $500 million from K-12, it would break down this way.

Centennial School District: Loss of $3.8 million, or $566 per student
White Bear Lake: Loss of $4.7 million, or $580 per student
Mounds View: Loss of $5.5 million, or $584 per student

Statewide, 12,000 teachers would lose their jobs.

* Nursing Homes & Long Term Care: The bill would generate $287.5 million in the next two-year budget to a specific account. The bill passed today would have us cut 30% less than the Governor to our nursing homes. Many rural nursing homes in particular are in danger of closing. The funding would also avoid deeper cuts to services for Minnesotans with disabilities. We have a lot of group homes in our district and families with disabled children so this is of particular interest to our area.

* Hospitals: A hospital account in this bill would receive $114 million in the next two years. Support from the state comes in different forms including General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC), which serves indigent Minnesotans who do not have health care and often have other major mental health or chemical dependency issues; Medical Assistance (MA) which usually supports health care for the disabled; Minnesota Care, health coverage for low-income adults who have a job but no coverage; inpatient mental health treatment that is cheaper than institutionalization, and others. Under the Governor's proposal, our hospitals would be cut significantly. Here's how our area's hospitals would be affected under the Governor's budget proposal:

Unity (Fridley) cut of 7.3%

HCMC (Minneapolis) cut of 15.1%
Abbott Northwestern (Minneapolis) cut of 4.1%
Regions (St. Paul) cut of 9.9%
Bethesda (St. Paul) cut of 7.2%
St. Joseph's (St. Paul) cut of 5.9%
St. John's (Maplewood) cut of 5.0%

These cuts all get passed along to the rest of us who have health coverage through private plans, so this bill would help lessen the impact of the cuts on our premiums.

Where the revenue comes from:
* A 9% income tax rate on joint filers with $250,000 in taxable income a year (2.3% of all filers), raising $516.3 million. This provision would sunset in four years.
* An increase in the alcohol tax, raising $240.9 million.
* Surtax on credit card companies on interest penalties charged on rates above 15%, raising $216.3 million.

The amount of revenue raised equals what the Governor is proposing should be raised through appropriation bonds. Our proposal chooses taxes over borrowing, and I voted in favor of this bill.

Legacy funding bill: The other bill taken up this evening is the Cultural & Outdoor Resources Finance Division finance bill, HF1231. This bill allocates the funding derived from the new dedicated sales tax approved by the voters in November. There are four funds in the bill: outdoor heritage (for habitat); clean water fund (including money for drinking water); parks and trails fund; and the arts and cultural heritage fund. There is some controversy with the bill among hunting and fishing organizations because they want the legislature to adopt 100% of the recommendations of the Lessard Outdoor Heritage Council, which recommends projects to be funded by the outdoor heritage fund. We actually are likely to pass all of the PROJECTS recommended by the council, but the House has cut the amount of administration money that the council wants. We also are requiring that there be a web site for the public to see where the money is being spent, and some folks don't like that apparently. We are still in the middle of debate, but I plan to vote for this bill.

Weeks of April 26th & May 3, 2009

2009-05-07T08:59:00.001-07:00

The last two weeks have seen a lot of floor activity and plenty of constituent e-mail, letters, calls, etc., so it has been pretty hard to keep up!

Earlier this week, the House and Senate passed three finance bills out of about nine that need passage. These bills were among the least controversial so the Governor and legislative leaders decided that we should proceed with these first to help "set the table" for the big bills. Two of these bills also don't have that much funding from the General Fund that is in deficit. The bills included environment & energy, economic development, and transportation. All of them had some legislation of mine that deal with bioplastics, housing, and transit for the disabled.

HF1309, the transportation bill, relies mostly on dedicated funds from the motor vehicle sales tax, the gas tax, and so on and was pretty uncontroversial. My provision in the bill will help better coordinate transit for people who cannot drive. There is a lot of room for taxpayer savings in this area because there is a lot of duplication in bus and van fleets that serve seniors, the developmentally disabled, and others. The legislation (originally from HF1373) would set up a coordinating body of the folks who operate the fleets. The Governor signed this bill just before midnight on Thursday and is now Chapter 36 of Minnesota statutes.

SF2081, the economic development bill, included a wide variety of legislation related to housing, economic development programs, funding for the Department of Employment and Economic Development, and some cultural resources programming. This bill contained controversial language about forgiving the last remaining debt that St. Paul has on the Xcel Energy Center loan. The loan forgiveness would not actually kick in for four years so it would not affect the next two two-year budgets. The city would then use the dollars to build a community ice rink across from Xcel. I am not enthusiastic about this proposal but we also have some important stuff in this bill for assisting people who are losing their homes. My provision in this bill was a revision to the manufactured housing (mobile homes) relocation trust fund so that a fund that helps these homeowners relocate when their mobile home park closes will be solvent. The Governor vetoed this bill over the Xcel Energy Center provision.

HF2123, the environment and energy finance bill, passed with a high number of votes on the House floor from both parties. It included budgets for the MN Pollution Control Agency, the DNR, and several other smaller agencies. My legislation in the bill included provisions that will boost two industries in Minnesota--bioplastics and compost. Many district residents are asked by their waste hauler to dispose of their yard waste in a rolling cart or a compostable bag because the regular plastic bags contaminate the finished compost. Haulers pay a higher fee to get rid of plastic and compost site operators can't sell their compost. The legislation has all metro area residents use certified compostable bags if they use a bag. (Carts and reusable bags are fine too.) The idea is to increase quality and streamline rules across multiple jurisdictions. We have several Minnesota manufacturers of compostable bags who will be able to meet consumer demand, and they are part of our growing bioplastic industry. The original bill was HF403. This bill was signed by the Governor on Thursday and is now Chapter 37 in Minnesota statutes.

We have several other bills which are in conference committee and are ready to go pending a few minor decisions that have to be made. The state government finance bill includes language from my HF625 that would require the state Department of Finance to allow the exporting of state budget information into a common format so that enterprising and tech-saavy people can develop third-party applications for this information. Who says that the state must be the only entity that holds data and information that we paid for? Politics in Minnesota has followed this legislation and reported on the need for this legislation for greater government transparency. They have also aggressively followed up on it in articles on May 6th and May 7th. (The state Department of Finance doesn't like it yet.)

Federal funding for local roads and bridges: Anoka County just informed me that the federal recovery program will provide funding for the 35E & Highway 14 intersection at $4.825 million. You can track the accounting on these projects at www.recovery.gov. I believe that a park and ride lot will get installed there after it's all done.

The way it was: The Minnesota Legislative Library has a 30 minute documentary posted on line about the legislature in 1976. The filmmaker follows Rep. Tom Berg. The technology (typewriters!) is interesting to see, as well as all the smoking and plaid suits. Thought readers might be interested! A lot of the experience is still very much the same.

Mounds View Schools survey and article: The Mounds View School District recently performed a survey in the community, and the results can tell you about the possible results of state budget cuts.

Tax bill from April 25th: I voted against our first tax bill. While I thought there were some good ideas in it, it was really a lot to ask of almost all Minnesotans. My particular concern was the provision for allowing a local options sales tax of one-half of one percent. We have another tax bill coming on May 8th and I look forward to considering it thoughtfully.

Constituent contacts: The volume is so high right now that I can't list all of them as in the past. However, I can give you a flavor of what people are sending me. They include: weatherization funding from federal recovery legislation to be used for low-income Minnesotans (all pro); K-12 education funding (all pro); alcohol tax increase (all against, from beer distributor employees in district); state agency enforcement of law against internet gambling (all against); DNA newborn screening (several MDs for, many conservative constituents against), medical specialist reimbursement rates (all MDs against cuts); provider tax (all MDs against increasing it); mortgage interest deduction changes in first tax bill (a lot, all against); tax cuts (all pro and all form e-mails generated by Minnesota Majority website); freedom to breathe act/smoking ban (all pro); medical marijuana (all pro); tax increase on the wealthiest (all pro and all form letters)

Some misinformation about heating fuel tax

2009-04-27T17:04:00.000-07:00

On Saturday during the House Tax Bill debate, there was a lot of hay made about my legislation to narrow the sales tax exemption on home heating fuel. But there was a lot of misinformation about it, with other members suggesting that all Minnesotans' heat would be taxed. Not true.

According to current law, home heating fuel during the months of November through April is exempt from the sales tax. My bill would narrow this exemption for the first 850 therms (or hundred cubic feet or ccf) for natural gas and for the first 5,750 kilowatt hours of electric heat. My concern is that there are a lot of big homes out there that consume a lot of non-renewable energy while we are cutting health care, education, and so on. We could help with the deficit while incentivizing conservation at the same time.

Two commissions of business leaders and financial experts have repeatedly told the legislature that we need to consider extending the sales tax to certain things that are currently exempt to avoid the wild volatility of our budget over many years.

In the FY2009-2010 biennium, if the state collected sales tax on all residential heating fuel users, the state would bring in $320,000,000. My legislation (see text below) would bring in $34,200,000, or only 10.68% of all taxable heat.

Liquid propane, propane gas, fuel oil, wood, coal, steam, and hot water heating fuels are not covered by this provision and would remain exempt. It only covers metered electric heat and natural gas, mostly because it is much easier to calculate and collect tax through our regulated utilities instead of 850 other energy vendors.

The legislation would help to stabilize volumes during peak times which holds prices down for everyone. 100% of natural gas and most of our electricity comes from fossil fuels, so we have an opportunity to smooth out or curb the use of finite natural resources.

Some of my colleagues are saying that folks in drafty houses will end up paying the tax. Well, if that is the case, there are more FREE weatherization services available due to the stimulus package through county community action programs (CAPS) than ever before, so Minnesotans in need will have resources available for sealing older homes and even getting some new furnaces and other appliances. So there are a lot of opportunities for avoiding the tax if indeed there would be people who exceed the tax-exempt threshold. (I do not think that there will be that many.)

Rep. Olin and I worked on an amendment to exempt people on low income heating assistance (LIHEAP) from the tax. I am also working on an amendment to exempt people who are behind on their bills (for something like job loss) and are covered by the Cold Weather Rule.

Here's the text of the legislation from HF2323, 3rd engrossment.

177.15 Sec. 28. Minnesota Statutes 2008, section 297A.67, subdivision 15, is amended to read:
177.16 Subd. 15. Residential heating fuels. (a) Residential heating fuels are exempt
177.17as follows:
177.18(1) all fuel oil, coal, wood, steam, hot water, propane gas, and L.P. gas sold to
177.19residential customers for residential use;
177.20(2) for the period encompassing the billing months of November, December,
177.21January, February, March, and April, the first 850 hundred cubic feet per dwelling unit of
177.22natural gas sold for residential use to customers who are metered and billed as residential
177.23users and who use natural gas for their primary source of residential heat; and
177.24(3) for the period encompassing the billing months of November, December,
177.25January, February, March, and April, the first 5,750 kilowatt-hours per dwelling unit of
177.26electricity sold for residential use to customers who are metered and billed as residential
177.27users and who use electricity for their primary source of residential heat.
177.28(b) Notwithstanding paragraph (a), residential heating fuel sold to a customer
177.29registered with their natural gas or electricity service provider and receiving assistance
177.30through a federal or state low-income home energy assistance program is exempt as
177.31follows:
177.32(1) for the billing months of November, December, January, February, March, and
177.33April, natural gas sold for residential use to customers who are metered and billed as
177.34residential users and who use natural gas for their primary source of residential heat; and
178.1(2) for the billing months of November, December, January, February, March, and
178.2April, electricity sold for residential use to customers who are metered and billed as
178.3residential customers and who use electricity for their primary source of residential heat.
178.4EFFECTIVE DATE.This section is effective for sales and purchases made after
178.5June 30, 2009.

I don't know if this provision will survive conference committee or not, but I offered the idea as one way to help with the deficit in a means-tested way. We'll see.

Weeks of April 12 & 19, 2009

2009-04-13T12:48:00.000-07:00

During the week of April 19th, we have been taking up our omnibus finance bills. Every two years, our finance committees put together a budget within a funding target set earlier in the session. There are about 10-12 of these bills.

Schedule: On Monday, April 13th, I met with a business owner and constituent about how S-Corps fit into the state tax code. On Tuesday, April 14th, I attended the House Taxes Committee and we heard my bill HF1118 about the solid waste management tax. We had a short floor session and did a cable TV interview. On Wednesday, April 15th we had two Taxes Committee meetings and two caucus meetings and I met with our GIS office about a map. Thursday, April 16th included a Taxes Committee meeting, a floor session, and a meeting at the North Metro Mayors Association. On Friday, April 17th we had the Taxes Committee meeting, a meeting with Rep. Dean Urdahl and his Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. Later in the afternoon we had a short floor session and a Taxes Committee meeting. On Saturday, April 18th, the Taxes Committee met and then the committee caucus met until about 9:00 a.m. to discuss the omnibus tax bill. I also went to a town hall meeting in White Bear Lake with Rep. McFarlane about health care. On Sunday, April 19th, we had a tax committee caucus in the evening.

On Monday, April 20th, I met in Tax Committee where the committee unveiled its tax bill. (More info below.) Afterwards we had a caucus meeting and a floor session, followed by a committee caucus meeting and another Tax Committee meeting where we took public testimony on the tax bill. On Tuesday, April 21st, I met with a Centennial high school student who is a page this week. Then I attended the Taxes Committee where we marked up the bill. We had a floor session in the afternoon and had a lengthy House DFL Caucus meeting.

On Wednesday, April 22nd, on the floor we voted on the agriculture and veterans affairs finance bill, the higher education finance bill, and the environment and energy finance bill. In the agriculture and veterans affairs budget, we cut ethanol subsidies by 20% and when a vote came up to eliminate the remaining subsidy (about $26 million or so) I voted in favor, although the amendment failed. Last year the amendment only got about 37 votes and this time it got 49. Find out more at this MPR story. (We received a report from the legislative auditor about biofuel subsidies and how we need to change them.) The higher education bill included a cap on tuition. After a recess we handled the environment bill, in which my legislation regarding compost and bioplastics are located. We started at 9:30 a.m. and finished at 12:15 a.m.

On Thursday, April 23rd, we took up the early childhood education finance bill, the K-12 education finance bill, and the state government finance bill.

Minnesota leads in public health: The New York Times ran a strong article about how the Minnesota Department of Health did excellent work for the rest of the country on detecting food-borne illness including the recent peanut food poisoning issue. Way to go!

35W bridge collapse fund: Survivors of the collapse praise the work of the special master appointed to administer the compensation fund. MPR did a good story.

House and Senate Tax Bills and Mortage Deductions: The House has set "budget targets" where the body decides how many dollars will be available for spending and how much will be cut, how many payments would be deferred to the next fiscal year (a "shift"), and how much new revenue must be raised. Our target for new revenue is $1.5 billion for the budget. The House Tax bill (HF2323) raises the revenue this way:

$11,535,000 resulting from conformity with new federal tax laws
$913,656,000 from individual income taxes increases and modifying a lot of income tax breaks
$122,925,000 from corporate sources, mostly closing of loopholes
$20,600,000 from changes to the estate tax
-$11,570,000 from loss of sales tax revenue (mostly due to modification of transportation taxes)
$413,272,000 from special taxes (half from alcohol and half from tobacco products)
$21,250 from "other"

That adds up to $1,501,363.

Here's how the individual income tax increases of $913,656,000 break out.

$489,365,000 from ending or modifying tax breaks for individuals
$467,700,000 from raising the highest income tax bracket to 9% on single filers making $156,000 or more or joint filers making $300,000 or more
-$43,409 from various changes in tax code

Here's the deal about the $489 million in tax breaks. A big amount of this comes from changing the current state (not federal) income tax deduction for mortgage interest and from eliminating the deduction of property tax payments. There is a lot of misunderstanding about the mortgage interest payment deduction. A homeowner would still be able to deduct up to $10,000 from their state taxable income but not beyond that. A deduction is a deduction from your taxable income, not a dollar-for-dollar subtraction from your income taxes. The House bill would replace the deduction with a dollar-for-dollar tax credit so everyone would get a credit whether or not they itemize their taxes. The idea here is that we stop subsidizing million dollar mortgages and let all homeowners benefit. This has the same net effect as raising taxes on the wealthiest Minnesotans because people who are wealthier tend to live in big houses with big mortgages. Wisconsin has tax law similar to this. Our researchers have put together a one-page summary that is linked to this Politics in Minnesota web page.

While I support progressive taxation, the parts of the House tax bill that I find objectionable include a local option sales tax and street improvement districts. Under the bill, counties would be able to levy a 1/2 percent sales tax in their county to pay for local expenses. However, the bill's language about how citizens are made aware of this possible tax increase and how they can have a reverse referendum on this tax is extremely weak, and counties are just going to levy this tax without much public input. In addition, the language about what counties can use the money for is WAY too vague and I am concerned that it will not be used for reducing property taxes. We are asking for Minnesotans to sacrifice a lot in this recession, either through program cuts or higher taxes, and I am concerned about this method to increase the sales tax, which has been raised twice in the last year already. It is for this reason that I did not support the bill in committee.

The Senate proposes raising $2.2 billion, mostly from the rolling back of income tax increases from 1998 legislation. These dollars would come from all taxpayers, not just the highest earners. I am opposed to the Senate version because even people making less than $33,000 would pay higher income taxes.

Visitors: Shoreview constituent and U of M student who introduced me to about half a dozen immigrant students; Circle Pines and Lino Lakes residents representing American Parkinson's Association; lobbyist for MN Grocers Association about HF403; Environment Minnesota about nuclear power plant moratorium; kindergarteners from Island Lakes Elementary in Shoreview; building trades lobbyist about a construction stimulus package; two constituents about GLBT issues

Constituent contacts: hard to keep up with--hopefully I will get this in soon

Weeks of March 29 & April 5, 2009

2009-04-04T11:56:00.000-07:00

Hi, folks! With our policy committee deadlines on March 26 and April 7, we've been working late at the Capitol. It's kept me from updating you, but now here it is.

Survey: If you've sent me e-mail as a constituent during the last two years, you should have received an e-mail from me asking you to take an on-line survey. If you didn't get an e-mail on this and you are a constituent, please e-mail me at rep.paul.gardner@house.mn and I'll send you the link. I've received almost 400 responses in 72 hours.

Bonding bill: Last week we passed the House version of a bonding bill. Usually in a budget year the legislature considers a smaller bonding (or capital investment) bill to address acute needs for state buildings and the like. Rep. Alice Hausman, the House Capital Investment Committee chair put together the bill and it is about $200 million, with funds to be spent on a limit amount of state projects like "asset preservation" for state buildings--that means paying to fix up those buildings, bring them up to code, etc. The Senate has a much bigger bill that has lots of non-emergency projects in it. (I prefer the House version.) The bill is now in conference committee. I introduced a bill this year (HF2182) that would require all proposals for bonding to have specific outcomes listed publicly so that the legislature can compare these projects for merit. Too often in the past the legislature will put together a bonding bill that has projects in it where the public does not have a way to confirm the project's purported benefits. It is too late to get a vote on this bill this year but I have asked for an informational hearing.

Alzheimer's Disease statistics: I recently received a useful report on Alzheimer's disease and its impact in Minnesota. Minnesota data is on page 23. The value of unpaid care in MN is $1.685 billion with 175,000 unpaid caregivers helping out Alzheimer's patients.

21st Century Tax Commission: Last year the Governor appointed business leaders to a 21st Century Tax Commission to help promote business growth in Minnesota. The group released its report and we had a hearing on it in the Taxes Committee. The group suggests repealing the corporate tax and cutting taxes for S-Corps, limited liability corporations (LLC), and partnerships. To make up for the lost revenue, the commission recommended extending the sales tax to clothing and other exempt items. The Governor has praised the tax cuts but didn't agree about raising the other taxes. I appreciate the fact that the commission did what a lot of people don't do when they come to the Capitol--they asked for a cut in taxes in one place but explained how they would pay for the deficit it would create.

Green Acres: On the House floor we recently voted to make changes to the Green Acres law. Green Acres is a program that allows certain agricultural land to be taxed at a lower level if the owner (usually a farmer) agrees not to plant on it. The idea was to preserve non-cultivated farmland as suburban sprawl takes place. There were quite a few abuses in the program outlined by the Legislative Auditor last year, and the legislature ended up repealing the program in 2008. There was a huge amount of opposition to it from many Green Acres program enrollees, and the new law delays some of the changes and creates a new rural preserve program. One problem with Green Acres is that each county gives the farm owner the tax break and then spreads the cost of it to all other property owners to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. There is no state money involved. In Ramsey County it is a pretty small program--the increased cost for an owner of a $185,000 house is $1 a year and in Anoka it is $23 a year. But in Wright County it is $146 a year, in Carver County it's $168 a year, and in Chisago County it's $104 a year.

Next wave of foreclosures: In committee, the MN Foreclosure Partners Council spoke to us about the "next wave" of foreclosures that are likely to take place. The first wave was due to subprime mortgage resets that totaled about $1 trillion in assets nationwide. The next wave would be for the resetting of Alt-A and Option ARM mortgages in 2010 and 2011. The total amount of assets in these mortgages is up to $1.6 trillion nationwide.

TIF: Recently the Taxes Committee heard proposals by local governments for tax increment financing (or TIF). House Research has several web pages about TIF, but the basic definition is that TIF is a method of financing real estate development costs to encourage developers to construct buildings or other private improvements or to pay for public improvements, such as street, sidewalks, sewer and water, etc. TIF pretty much sets aside the new property tax revenue from the development to pay for the improvements, thereby paying off the costs but keeping the new revenue from going into that city's property tax base until a certain number of years pass. Cities come to the legislature to extend the TIF financing period (e.g., five years to ten years) or to make other changes. One of the proposals recently was for Arden Hills' proposal for the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant (TCAAP), or HF1468.

In 53A, here is the percentage of our net property tax capacity that is locked up now in TIF by city: Blaine 4.8%; Circle Pines 14.8%; Lino Lakes 2.4%; Shoreview 5.6%. (There was no TIF data for Lexington or North Oaks.) Here are the percentages for our school districts: Centennial 10.8%; Mounds View 10.1%; and White Bear Lake 5.0%.

Low Carbon Fuels: In committee we heard a proposal for creating a low carbon fuel standard
The advocates for this policy include the Izaak Walton League and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, and they have a set of fact sheets on-line. This would be one of the several dozen proposals we have for how the state can reduce its carbon emissions. The idea is that gasoline could have reduced carbon intensity that would require some reformulation. The two refineries in the state, Marathon and Flint Hills Resources, and their labor unions are staunchly against the policy. We received an interesting map of Canadian and U.S. crude oil pipelines and refineries. I couldn't find it on-line but did find a similar map here. Most of the crude oil in Minnesota comes from Canada. What was frustrating is that no one in the hearing--either pro or con--could tell us what would need to take place chemically to reduce carbon in fuels or what it would cost. We either heard that it was good for the climate or that it was bad for jobs.

Letter in the Shoreview Press: Last week a letter from Joyce Thompson of Shoreview appeared that expressed displeasure at the conduct of our Health Care & Human Services Policy Committee. She came to the Capitol to protest against a bill (HF1341) that would update the state's DNA newborn screening program.

First some background on the bill. For several decades the Department of Health has had a program that has helped save the lives of many children (including the son of Rep. Paul Thissen, who is the bill's author) by requiring that hospital staff take a DNA blood sample after birth. The sample is then screened for more than two dozen genetic diseases, many of which are fatal if not detected. Opponents to this program argue that parents did not know that their child's DNA was being sampled and that the Department of Health kept the samples. HF1341 would require that hospital staff notify parents that the sample will be taken and that parents have the right to opt-out of the testing and to request the destruction of the DNA sample. DNA samples that are still in existence would be destroyed and those that are kept until destruction will have a serial number that is kept separate from the name of the child. The Health Department can only "link" the number and name by appealing to an independent review board. I am satisfied that this legislation now provides an appropriate balance between saving lives and data privacy. However, the opponents still believe that government may have some nefarious purpose for the DNA samples--what that purpose is is not clear to me.

As for the committee, Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Delano)--an opponent of any kind of screening--saw that the committee was going to support the bill and just before the vote moved to strike out several substantial sections of the bill. In this committee, we have what is called a 24-hour rule. All amendments to a bill must be given to the committee 24 hours in advance so that we can actually read the amendment to figure out how it would change the bill. Democrats and Republicans alike have had to comply with this rule. The vice-chair of the committee, Rep. Tina Liebling (DFL-Rochester), told Rep. Emmer that he was out of order and Rep. Emmer started to lose his temper. After we had a vote to uphold the ruling of the chair on the 24 hour rule, he then stomped out of the room, shouting, "I'm out of here!" and other words to that effect. Rep. Emmer knows this topic very well and apparently didn't prepare. As for the issue of signs in the committee room, we also have a rule about not allowing signs in committee rooms and in the House gallery. This is a little like not allowing signs, buttons, stickers, etc. for candidates at your polling place. You can have signs in the Rotunda, in the hallways, etc., but just not in places where members vote.

Schedule for Week of March 29th: Monday included two caucus meetings and a floor session. On Tuesday, I did a cable TV interview, attended the Health Care & Human Services Policy committee (HCHS), presented my HF403 bill on bioplastics to the Environment & Natural Resources Finance Committee, and spoke to a group of ISAIAH members at a church in Circle Pines about health care. Wednesday included a committee caucus meeting, the House Taxes Committee (presentation of the Governor's 21st Century Tax Commission report), a floor session, an HCHS Committee meeting, the House DFL Caucus, and an evening meeting of the HCHS Committee. On Thursday I presented my HF1373 bill in the Government Operations Committee, and attended a caucus meeting, a floor session, and HCHS and Environment & Natural Resources Policy Committee meetings. On Friday, we had a committee meeting for Taxes on tax increment finance district (TIF) proposals.

Schedule for Week of April 5th: On Monday, Senator Olseen and I visited Northern Technologies International Corp. in Circle Pines to talk about the bioplastics industry. In the afternoon, I attended two caucus meetings and a floor session, and presented my bill HF1584 in the Taxes Committee. On Tuesday, I attended the Taxes Committee and presented HF1333, attended a floor session, presented my bill HF625 in the House Government Operations Finance Committee, and chaired the Environment & Natural Resources Policy Committee where we had an informational hearing on Rep. Hortman's bill on creating a low carbon fuel standard. On Wednesday, Senator Rummel and I attended a half-day workshop at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs' Center for Science, Technology and Public Policy. Several legislators met with industry and environmental group representatives to talk about how to make better policy regarding chemical risks. It is part of an ongoing dialogue. On Thursday and Friday, the legislature was on Easter/Passover Break.

Visitors: Shoreview resident about property taxes; several utilities about my bill HF1584; staff from All Parks Alliance for Change and MN Manufactured Housing Association about my bill HF356; lobbyist and staff from Ramsey County about parks funding; lobbyist from City of St. Paul and Como Park staff about Como's bonding request

Constituent contacts: coming soon--this stacks up a lot!

Week of March 22, 2009

2009-03-26T10:00:00.000-07:00

This is the week of policy committee deadlines, so policy bills must pass all necessary policy committees in one of the two houses by March 27th or they are dead for the year. So we met late into the night most of the week to hear a long list of bills. I've often thought that we ought to consider a unicameral legislature but I think that having our current system in both houses tends to weed out bad ideas that don't make it through deadlines.

Fetal alchohol issues: We heard a bill in the health committee about fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. According to advocates, "FASD affects more live births than autism. Autism affects 2-6 babies per 1,000 live births a year, while FASD affects 10 babies per 1,000 live births a year. "

Nursing homes: One of the bigger expenditures for the state in health and human services relates to nursing homes. Rep. Gunther from SW MN presented a bill in committee that would try to free up more dollars for rural nursing homes. Not many people know this, but Minnesota and North Dakota are the only states that require that the same rate be charged to both publicly and privately funded nursing home patients. Rep. Gunther's bill would eliminate equalization so that private pay patients pay more. AARP and others oppose this because it would likely have private pay patients exhaust their savings quicker and then they would end up on public assistance anyway. There is no nursing home in my district but in rural Minnesota this is an extremely big deal because of the rapid aging of the population in many areas.

Tax Reform: The House Tax Chair, Rep. Ann Lenczewski (DFL-Bloomington) and the House Property Tax Division Chair, Rep. Paul Marquart (DFL-Dilworth) came out last week with some big tax reform proposals. Rep. Lenczewski proposes in HF1782 to get rid of a lot of individual and corporate tax breaks in order to lower taxes overall in a revenue-neutral way. Revenue-neutral means that the state would receive the same amount of tax revenue despite the changes. I received a letter from a group of medical device manufacturers who are opposed to getting rid of the R&D tax credit. One of the companies was Advanced Molding Technologies in Blaine in my district.

Legislative Audit Commission findings: The Office of the Legislative Auditor continues to be an important resources for finding waste and inefficiency in state government. Three reports came out this week that are alarming. Here's the summary.

"The reports included three material weaknesses:

The Department of Human Services did not adequately communicate to its subrecipients of federal funds the compliance requirements related to those funds. As a result, we estimate that more than $100 million was not included in subrecipients’ single audit coverage. Additionally, this issue resulted in our qualification of the audit opinion about the state’s compliance with federal requirements for several major federal programs, including the Medical Assistance Program.The Department of Human Services did not have sufficient controls to prevent or detect a fraud within the Medical Assistance Program. The Department of Finance did not ensure that state agencies fulfilled their responsibilities when passing federal funds through to subrecipients.

"In addition, six of the reports note that the agencies did not have a comprehensive internal control structure to ensure compliance with federal program requirements. (Education, Employment and Economic Development, Health, Human Services, Natural Resources, and Public Safety)"

Centennial bill hearing: At the behest of Centennial Area Advocates for Responsible Education (CAARE), I introduced HF1643 and got a hearing on it in the K-12 Education Finance Committee this week. The bill would in effect leverage more state dollars for Centennnial and other similar school districts for the local property tax levy dollars that Centennial residents pay. CAARE works closely with Schools for Equity in Education (SEE) on legislative issues. The SEE director testified with me and he has a blog that explains the bill in more detail.

Schedule: Monday included a bill hearing for HF1333 on bonding authority for metro transit facilities; a caucus meeting, a short floor session, and a meeting of the Taxes Committee. I ended up chairing the committee while Chair Lenczewski presented her bill that would reform many tax credits and loopholes. In the evening, I attended a potluck at Summer House in Shoreview. This senior housing complex worked with a nonprofit group to find ways to reduce energy consumption and the nonprofit gave a presentation and some awards to the best energy savers! On Tuesday, I attended a committee caucus meeting, a short floor session, and the Environment & Natural Resources Policy Committee and the Health Care & Human Services Policy (HCHS) Committee. On Wednesday, there was a Taxes Committee meeting, a short floor session, a visit to the eye doctor, an HCHS Committee meeting in the afternoon and evening, and a meeting of the House DFL Caucus. Another late night. On Thursday, we had a caucus meeting, a short floor session, two committee caucuses, an HCHS Committee meeting in the afternoon and evening, and an Environment & Natural Resources Policy Committee meeting that went late. At this time of year, legislators end up shuttling between different rooms since a lot of committees go late. Also on Thursday, I presented my bill HF1643 that would change how the state administers levy equalization for K-12 that would help the Centennial School District. On Friday, I chaired a meeting of the House DFL Suburban Caucus and met with the Speaker on suburban issues.

Visitors: Lino Lakes college student supporting private college grant program; electronics company representative (by phone) regarding proposed changes to e-waste recycling law; Senator about HF356; constituent services staff about a constituent's family law issue; two North Oaks residents for MN Utility Investors day on the hill; Ramsey County library staff and board members for library day on the hill; three constituent beer distributors for MN Beer Wholesalers day on the hill; Department of Administration staff about "green" government purchasing; staff from U of M about pharmaceutical waste issues; industry lobbyist about HF1338

Constitutent contacts: coming soon!

Week of March 15, 2009

2009-03-21T11:31:00.000-07:00

Budget update: As soon as I can post the info on our House budget targets I will do that. I've been out sick for a few days so I am behind!

Peer pressure for energy conservaton: WCCO recently did a report on a Connexus program on promoting energy conservation. Utilities are using some software that lets consumers know if they are using more energy on average than their neighbors. I've spoken to the head of the software company, and they integrate publicly available assessor data on square footage with the utility usage data and then they calculate the average energy use for similar types of homes in the same area. No consumer would know the consumption for their neighbors, which is not the impression you get from the title of the story. In California, this type of program led to a 2% reduction in energy usage. At first the utility out there used a "frowny face" for people who were above average in their energy use but it got some negative feedback on that!

Government Information: I just found this cool web site about government information in Minnesota. It is aptly named the Minnesota Coalition on Government Information. (I'm sure they spent many late nights working on the name.) The Coalition is "a network of individuals and organizations committed to open access to public information in print, electronic and digital forms." There are lots of tools for figuring out how to access public information. We rank dead last, by the way, in public disclosure of state contracts. My colleague, Rep. Ryan Winkler, is trying to remedy this with legislation.

Growth and Justice accountability report: Growth & Justiced has just released a report called Government with Accountability.

"The report outlines six essential principles that capture the essence of accountability in government and actions that can be taken to achieve better results from the vital public investments made through state and local governments. The principles, which were developed after study and consultation with some of the state’s leading authorities on public-sector management, are:

Establish leadership commitment. Dedication to accountability must come from the top.
Set long-term goals and priorities. Outcomes must be in clear and measurable terms and specify the indicators for making progress toward the goals.
Strive for transparency, straight talk and open books. Government should open its books and provide the information in a way that citizens can understand.
Maintain fiscal responsibly and fairness. Leaders should aim for revenue sufficiency required to provide stable, reliable services and programs.
Focus on efficiency and effectiveness. Leaders must recognize the difference between the two and that efficiency is doing things right and effectiveness is doing the right things.
Demand accountability for results. Consequences for meeting or failing to meet goals should be considered for government and public service providers and consideration should be given to transformational overhauls of public systems."

Stimulus money helping to weatherize local housing: The Community Action Partnership (CAP) of Ramsey & Washington Counties notified me of how federal stimulus money will help create jobs and save energy in our area. They have already weatherized 13,000 homes in the past 30 years, but the new federal dollars will allow them to create 50 new jobs for work that will weatherize between 1,800 and 2,000 homes, and which will infuse $1.5 million in spending for supplies. Payback for fuel savings is expected in 10 years or less. There are 3,500 homes on their weatherization waiting list.

Schedule: Monday included a floor session, a caucus meeting, and a meeting of the Taxes Committee. (I had to miss the Taxes Committee due to a sick child.) Tuesday included a committee caucus meeting, a cable TV and podcast interview on paratransit, a Health Care & Human Services Policy (HCHS) Committee meeting, a public hearing about Green Acres legislation, and Environment & Natural Resources Policy Committee meeting. I also presented my bill about sharps disposal (e.g., used syringes), HF1372, in the Environment Committee and it passed to the floor without any big issues. I presented my two transportation bills for transit bonding and a transit council (HF1333 and HF1373) in the transportation committee about the same time and they passed to the Finance Committee. The environment and transportation meetings were at the same time so I was shuttling back and forth. This happens a lot in March as we approach policy committee deadlines. On Wednesday, I presented two bills in the Civil Justice Committee, including HF239 about homeowner warranties and HF403 about compost and bioplastics. They passed and HF239 goes to the floor and HF403 goes to Finance and then Environmental Finance. After that, I presented my bill on the manufactured housing relocation trust fund (HF356) to the Housing Committee that has been a product of much negotiation between the homeowners and the mobile home park owners. It was "held over" while we await a fiscal note. We then had a short floor session, a committee caucus meeting, a meeting of three of us from the suburbs with the Speaker, a meeting of the House DFL Caucus, and Environment & Natural Resources Policy Committee and HCHS Committee meetings that were meeting at the same time. On Thursday, I had two caucus meetings, a floor session where we considered four non-controversial bills, a committee caucus meeting, an HCHS Committee meeting, and an Environment & Natural Resources Policy Committee meeting. With the late meetings for the last three days I was at the Capitol for an average of 13 hours a day. Which would explain why on Friday I came down with some kind of virus and was at home sick all day.

Visitors: Revisor staff about HF356; lobbyists for Manufactured Housing Association of MN about HF356; staff from All Parks Alliance for Change about HF356; lobbyist for Met Council about HF1333; several constituent chiropractors for their day on the hill; lobbyist and staff for Project 515 regarding bills on same-sex partner benefits and other rights; citizen lobbyist for SAFPlan on family planning; four Centennial school district teachers about Education MN legislative agenda; several business owners with businesses in 53A for MN Business Day on the Hill; constituent citizen lobbyist for AARP; about four constituents from SEIU about its legislative agenda

Constituent contacts: Shoreview resident about recycling policy; more coming soon

Week of March 8, 2009

2009-03-15T14:45:00.000-07:00

PCA mercury study: The MPCA has just reported that mercury levels in walleye and northern pike have not been decreasing. In fact, mercury concentrations have been increasing.

Ramsey County groundwater study: The Ramsey Conservation District (formerly the Ramsey County Soil & Water Conservation District) has published its draft Ramsey County Groundwater Protection Plan. I attended a public meeting this week where staff presented its findings and recommendations. You can take a look at the link above. There are quite a few pretty cool maps in there.

Mental Health Ombudsman: The state has an ombudsman who provides oversight on mental health and developmental disabilities. We hear testimony from the head of this office when our Health Care & Human Services Policy & Oversight (HCHS) Committee has hearings on wrongful death or some other grievance issues. They have a web site with much helpful information. Most recently, we heard about how some mental health patients were given medication as part of clinical trials even though their families indicated that the medication was creating adverse effects, including one suicide. The ombudsman also told us about a useful federal web site that has a registry of current private and public clinical trials.

Is Your Doctor's Prescribing Information Private? We voted on a bill in the HCHS Committee this week that would prohibit the use of doctor's prescription data for marketing purposes. A nonprofit called The Prescription Project has been promoting legislation like this because it believes that the relationship between doctors and drug companies is too cozy. The Atlantic magazine had a good article on this issue in 2006. In effect, drug companies get data (although not patient data) from data-mining companies that compile information about what drugs doctors are prescribing. If a doctor is putting people on a competitor's drug, a company can start pushing their product with the doctor.

What are the fastest growing expenditures in the state budget? The legislature requires that the Department of Finance (now Minnesota Management and Budget) report on any programs that increase in size by more than 15% from one budget to another. The most recent report has just come out.

MN still pretty low in Medicare reimbursement costs: Minnesota has been pretty low on the national scale for Medicare spending per capita. In committee, I recently came across this very cool interactive map from the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care.

Bills pulled: I was to have bill hearings on HF457 on anatomical bequests and HF500 about recycled water standards on Tuesday but I pulled the bills because they were really not ready yet. There was a lot of technical stuff that has to be worked out and we need to focus more on the budget, so I can work on these next year.

Tax Incidence Study: The Department of Revenue issued its annual report showing who pays how much taxes in Minnesota. This data gets used by both parties to prove their points in subsequent floor debates.

Schedule: On Monday, I attended a caucus meeting, a short floor session, and a meeting of the House Taxes Committee. Tuesday included the Taxes Committee (revenue forecast presentation by the state economist), two committee caucus meetings, an HCHS Committee meeting (the big bill was on prescription issues as mentioned above), and an Environment & Natural Resources Policy Committee (used paint product stewardship program, greenhouse gas registry, and oversight of new dedicated outdoor and arts funding). On Wednesday, I was part of a small group meeting about mental health budget issues, the House Taxes Committee meeting (the 2009 Tax Incidence Study), a committee caucus meeting, an HCHS Committee meeting (about eight different bills), and a House DFL Caucus meeting. Thursday included a short floor session, a committee caucus meeting, an HCHS Committee meeting (about "welfare reform"), the Environment & Natural Resources Policy Committee (mostly a DNR technical bill and I chaired part of the meeting), and a public meeting of the Ramsey Conservation District about their new groundwater study (mentioned above). I also presented my homeowner warranty bill (HF239) to the Commerce Committee, and it passed quickly. Friday included a short Telecommunications Division meeting on three bills, and a House DFL Suburban Caucus meeting. I was supposed to present a bill about veterans and fishing licenses (HF1286) but I offered to be bumped off the agenda until next week since one bill took up most of the meeting. The bill was about granting veterans benefits for Hmong veterans who fought with U.S. troops in Laos. It was a very interesting but tense discussion.

Visitors: lobbyist and staff from Minnehaha Creek Watershed District about HF500 on recycled water standards; staff from MN Department of Health about HF500; Shoreview resident for mental health day on the hill; staff from NAMI-MN about mental health issues; organizer for Corporate Accountability International about their anti-bottled water campaign; staff from Anoka Conservation District about their programs; Sierra Club staff about sulfide mining bill; lobbyist and staff from Science Care about HF457 on whole body and tissue donations; staff from Richardson, Richter about Green Jobs Task Force; new President of Century College; Education Minnesota and Teachers Retirement Association lobbyists about teacher pension and health insurance issues; lobbyists for Manufactured Homes Association about HF356; staff from All Parks Alliance for Change about HF356; staff from Legislative Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR--they administer the lottery money for the outdoors) about their programs and the 2009 bill for project funding; lobbyist for Mdewankanton Sioux Community about gaming issues

Constituent contacts: Shoreview resident about workers compensation initiatives; four district residents against Senate idea to tax legal services; four district residents against HF417 dealing with an insurance issue; two Shoreview residents about charitable gambling tax rates; Shoreview resident supporting closing the gun-show loophole; two district residents against decriminalization of medical marijuana; Shoreview resident urging that K-12 education be the state's top priority; Lino Lakes resident concerned about Senate proposal to cut K-12 education; Shoreview resident inquiring about property tax issue; Shoreview resident supporting HF1396 on domestic violence issues; about six district residents against "welfare reform" bills proposed by the GOP; Shoreview resident concerned about SF10 on bidding for school services; Shoreview resident about a green technology; about 25 postcards from district residents generated by a payday lending company in opposition to regulation of the payday lending industry; Shoreview resident supporting tough regulations on sulfide mining; Lexington resident supporting racino legislation; district resident and social worker against harsh health & human services cuts; Lexington resident about scope of practice legislation for athletic trainers; Shoreview resident against taxpayer money for a Vikings stadium, casinos or racinos, and puppy mills; three district residents sending identical e-mails generated by MN Rural Electrical Co-ops opposed to climate change legislation; Blaine resident about math standards in K-12; Lino Lakes resident against moratorium on cancer radiation facilities

Week of March 1, 2009

2009-03-06T09:29:00.000-08:00

Stimulus follow-up: Our fiscal analysts have posted a summary of stimulus money coming from the feds to Minnesota. The pdf document is a summary of the various programs funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the federal stimulus bill). The items in this summary were prepared by state agencies and assembled in Minnesota Management and Budget. This is sort of a first draft, more and better information will likely be added.

Budget: Contrary to the hype out there, we are all working furiously on budget options. Just can't divulge much yet! I'm working on several health and human services items as we speak to find efficiencies and savings.

Schedule: Monday included a two caucus meetings and a short floor session and a presentation to students from the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs with other alumni who work at the capitol. Tuesday included a meeting of the Taxes Committee (Department of Revenue technical bill), two committee caucus meetings, a cable TV interview, a meeting of the Health Care & Human Services Policy Committe-HCHS (bills on blood lead monitoring and bisphenol-A), and a meeting of the Environmental Policy Committee (Minnesota Clean Cars Act), and a meeting at my Senate DFL district in the evening. Wednesday included a meeting of the Taxes Committee (five bills including one controversial bill that would likely allow collection of taxes from on-line vendors who currently are exempt from sales taxes), an HCHS meeting (presentations on effects of childhood trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder, and an oversight hearing about improper use of restraints at an intermediate care facility in Cambridge), and a meeting of the House DFL Caucus. The testimony of the HCHS committee was particularly compelling when an Iraq vet working on PTSD issues told his story. We hung on every word! On Thursday morning, I attended a meeting of stakeholders and other legislators on our homeowner protection legislation and a floor session that considered two bills. In the afternoon, I attended an HCHS committee meeting where we considered two bills--one on access to acupuncture and one on preventative coverage for health savings accounts. I was excused from the Thursday afternoon Environmental Policy Committee meeting due to parent-teacher conferences. On Friday morning, Rep. Knuth, Sen. Marty, and I spoke to a rally in the Rotunda for All Parks Alliance for Change (APAC), an advocacy group for residents of manufactured homes--their slogan is "Mobile Justice." In the afternoon, my intern and I visited a business in Afton that uses sustainable onsite water recycling and wastewater treatment systems.

Visitors: lobbyist for Qwest on telecommunications issues; staff and lobbyist for Kennecott Exploration regarding non-ferrous mining in Minnesota; staff for All Parks Alliance for Change on HF356; three constituent members of MN Association of Public Employees (MAPE) with MAPE's legislative agenda; constituent and lobbyist for MN Insurance & Financial Services Council; staff and lobbyist for Western Lake Superior Sanitary District on wastewater and solid waste issues; representative of 1,000 Friends of Minnesota about HF898 that would link transportation and climate change policy; staff from North Oaks Golf Club with legislative agenda of MN Landscape and Nursery Association; staff and lobbyist for Metro Cities about local government aid and other tax issues; citizen lobbyist for container deposit legislation

Constituent contacts: Shoreview constituent concerned about health data privacy, DNA newborn screening, gun control legislation, and taxation in general; Blaine resident and two Shoreview residents against proposed cuts to rehabilitation services for adults; Shoreview resident against HF989 that would eliminate exemption on religious grounds for full head driver's license photo; Shoreview resident supporting HF1077 that would require licensing for respiratory therapists; Circle Pines resident supporting HF1071 that would require the issuing of only one license plate instead of two per vehicle; Lexington resident concerned about taxes on the middle class; Circle Pines resident supporting HF797 that would define horses as livestock; Lexington resident against sending prisoners from one state-run prison to a private prison in western MN; Shoreview resident supporting creation of an oral hygienist practitioner license and training; Shoreview resident against a provision of a bill that would prohibit the creation of a new charter school within one mile of an existing public school; Shoreview resident supporting progressive taxation; Circle Pines resident against new Obama administration; Shoreview resident supporting funds for family planning; Lino Lakes resident supporting get tough approach to illegal immigration; three Shoreview residents supporting platform of MN Association of Professional Employees; Shoreview resident against HF953, a bill to create gun registration; Shoreview resident against HF417 related to insurance; Shoreview resident supporting reform of taxation of charitable gambling operations; Shoreview resident supporting HF1249 that would license clinical laboratory technicians; Shoreview resident and North Oaks resident against proposed cuts to health care safety net; Shoreview resident against HF772 and HF803 that would limit medical examinations by physicans paid by insurance companies; Blaine resident inquiring about the purpose and cost of Governor Pawlenty's foreign trips; Blaine resident seeking changes to high school graduation tests for math; two Circle Pines residents supporting bill that would eliminate or change mandates for homeschooling; Shoreview resident against Governor's proposed cuts to housing; Circle Pines resident against HF797 about horses defined as livestock; Lino Lakes resident supporting inclusion of all possible therapies for autism in HF359; Circle Pines resident against gay marriage, expansion of gambling, medical marijuana, comprehensive sex education, and abortion; Shoreview resident sending me quotes from Thomas Jefferson, inferring that a conservative philosophy of today is in line with TJ's thinking; Blaine resident against expanding the sales tax to clothing and against public financing of a Vikings stadium

Week of February 22, 2009

2009-02-27T18:18:00.000-08:00

Budget listening session in White Bear Lake: About ten of us from the legislature attended a public meeting at White Bear Lake High School on Wednesday night. The purpose was to hear ideas from the public about balancing the budget. We heard from 72 different people. The most numerous comments came from advocates for the disabled, the judiciary, health care, and quite a few people who were against taxation generally. The press coverage of a similar meeting in Woodbury pretty much sums up what we heard in White Bear Lake.

Legislation: This week four of my bills received committee hearings:

HF239: This bill would allow homeowners to permit the recovery of damages incurred due to faulty construction. There are several of us from the suburbs who are carrying legislation to assist homeowners related to breaches of warranties by builders and remodelers. This bill would allow homeowners to recover the cost of lodging, meals, and incidental expenses if they have to leave their house due to repairs. You can see video of Friday's hearing. The bill passed with an amendment and the resulting 1st "engrossment" will be the second draft of the bill and it will be heard in the Commerce and Labor Committee soon.
HF403: This bill will help create jobs and add value to the economy in both the compost industries and the bioplastics industry. The compost industry has had problems with plastic bags in yard waste, leading to lower interest from buyers like landscapers because of the contamination. The bill would expand Dakota County's existing requirement that yard waste in plastic bags must use compostable bags to the entire seven-county metro area. At the same time, Minnesota is home to many bioplastics manufacturers like Cortec Corp. in White Bear Lake, Natur Tec in Circle Pines, and NatureWorks LLC in Minnetonka who make the compostable bags. The bill passed with amendments and now goes to the Commerce and Labor Committee. You can watch video of the hearing on-line.
HF663: This bill would require that truth in taxation notices for your property taxes get mailed before the November general election. You can see the video of the hearing. The bill was "laid over" by the Property Tax Division of the Taxes Committee so it might get included into an omnibus bill by that division. There were several lobbyists for the school board association and the Association of Minnesota Counties as well as the Department of Revenue who testified against the bill.
HF170: This bill would require publishers of telephone directories to allow consumers to opt out of delivery. I asked for an informational hearing only since I want to spend most of my legislative time helping to create jobs or address the deficit. The Yellow Pages Association and R.H. Donnelly testified about the bill and demonstrated Dex's opt out web site. You can hear audio of the hearing on-line. This hearing concluded my work on this issue for the year. KARE-11 did a web article on the bill on the KARE website.

Blaine Airport meeting: On Tuesday the Concerned Citizens of the North Metro had a meeting about the possible extension of the runway at the Anoka County-Blaine Airport. It was fiery in a few spots. You can view the meeting on the North Metro 15 web site-the video on-line is a .wmv file.

Stimulus tracking site: The official web site about the recently passed federal stimulus package is at http://www.recovery.gov. (This the site that Vice President Joe Biden forgot.)

Schedule: Monday included a meeting with Senator Jungbauer and some stakeholders about HF500 on recycled water standards, a meeting with compost stakeholders on HF403, a caucus meeting, and a floor session that went pretty long. (The floor session covered a bill regarding the fund for the 35W bridge survivors and a bill that would provide the structure necessary for the incoming federal stimulus money.) On Tuesday, I attended a bi-partisan meeting of legislators seeking to promote comprehensive immigration reform, a committee caucus meeting, a Health Care & Human Services (HCHS) Policy Committee meeting, an Environment & Natural Resources Policy Committee meeting (a joint meeting with the Transportation Committee on reducing carbon emissions in the transportation sector), and a meeting of the Concerned Citizens of the North Metro regarding the Blaine airport. Wednesday included presenting my bill HF663 in front of the Property Tax Division of the Taxes Committee, a meeting with the Speaker and Majority Leader, a meeting of House and Senate members from the fourth Congressional District regarding recommendations of a candidate for the U of M Board of Regents, a committee caucus meeting, an HCHS committee meeting on single-payer health care, a caucus meeting, and the town hall meeting at White Bear Lake South High School to hear from the public on the budget. On Thursday, I attended a pre-session caucus meeting, a short floor session, did short interviews for cable for North Metro 15 and CTV15, an HCHS committee meeting on a range of mental health legislation, and an Environment & Natural Resources Committee on the Green Acres program. On Friday, I presented my phone book bill (HF170) to the Telecommunications Division of the Commerce and Labor Committee and my homeowner warranty bill (HF239) and compost bill (HF403) to the Labor & Consumer Affairs Division of the Commerce and Labor Committee. In the afternoon I met with special education staff at Mounds View High School.

Visitors: Shoreview resident seeking reform of charitable gaming tax rates; Shoreview resident regarding funding for the developmentally disabled; lobbyists for waste haulers regarding HF403; several arts advocates from NE Metro; four constituent nurses for the MN Nurses Association day on the hill; high school student about recycling and composting issue; Lino Lakes college student about the private college grant program; three constituent dentist for the MN Dental Association day on the hill; Shoreview constituent about property tax cap legislation; St. Paul retailer about pharmaceutical product stewardship legislation; three constituent students for Support the U of M day

Constituent contacts: Shoreview resident and North Oaks resident supporting voter ID; Lino Lakes resident against taxes and spending; Shoreview resident inquiring about federal stimulus package; Shoreview resident inquiring about how to become a vendor of a product to the state; two Shoreview residents and Lino Lakes resident supporting HF1037, a bill to reduce mandates for home schools; Lino Lakes resident supporting platform of MN Dental Association; three Shoreview residents supporting single-payer health care; Shoreview resident supporting HF359 that would require health plans to cover autism treatment; Shoreview resident against cuts to providers of services to the developmentally disabled; Shoreview resident and grouse hunter supporting aquisition of conservation easements in northern MN; Lino Lakes resident with a car payment problem; Shoreview resident supporting legalization of marijuana; three Lino Lakes residents and Shoreview resident seeking integrity in the use of new dedicated sales tax revenue for the outdoors; Lino Lakes resident against Governor's proposed cuts to rehabilitation services; two Lino Lakes residents supporting medical marijuana; Shoreview resident pining for Ronald Reagan; Shoreview resident against Governor's proposed cuts to the courts; Shoreview resident supporting cutting spending; Blaine resident with idea to keep businesses from going offshore; North Oaks resident against voter ID and against mileage-based gas tax; Shoreview resident supporting racino gambling

Week of February 15, 2009

2009-02-20T12:19:00.000-08:00

Lots of things happening this week.

Town Hall Meetings: Legislators (mostly the committee chairs and other leadership) are holding public meetings around the state to hear public testimony about the budget. Each of the meetings start with a presentation by non-partisan legislative staff showing how the deficit is addressed in the Governor's budget and where existing tax dollars go by program. The data here is pretty good and I would encourage you to see the presentation slides on the House web site. There has been much talk that the meetings would be a "beat up the Governor" exercise but from what I can tell from press reports my colleagues are not editorializing but are listening to the public, and the public is giving a variety of views.

Don't forget that on Wednesday the 25th there will be a town hall meeting at 6:30 p.m. at White Bear Lake South High School and Senator Rummel and I plan to be there. At the other meetings it has been standing room only and there is a 2-3 minute time limit for speakers. However, there will be cards where you can give your input in writing if you choose. You can sign up to speak at the House web site. Sen. Rummel and I plan to have "office hours" or other types of meetings with the public in the weeks to come.

Shared services: One of the ways that public agencies can cope with budget cuts this session is to consider sharing services. Many cities, counties, and school districts have done this already. For example, Shoreview and Arden Hills combine efforts for their semi-annual cleanup events. Lexington, Circle Pines, and Centerville use the Centennial Lakes Police Department instead of having their own police departments. But there are likely some other ways that we will need to think of before this budget session is over. Lately I've been meeting with the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce about their survey of east metro governments who have successfully shared services. The Governor has also proposed consolidating many back-room functions for county human services agencies into 15 offices instead of 87 by rewarding those counties that comply with less of a cut in county program aid. When the revenue commissioner described this to the Taxes Committee, I kind of rankled some of my DFL colleagues by saying that this was a good idea! If you have any ideas for how local governments can be more efficient, send them along!

MPR Budget Idea Generator: Minnesota Public Radio has set up an "idea generator" about the state's budget. You can make suggestions and also send an e-mail to your legislator showing how you balanced the budget. Check it out!

E-waste law working, creating jobs: One of the bright spots for employment in Minnesota has been the recycling of electronic waste. Because of the law we passed in 2007, consumers have been able to get rid of their old TVs, computers, etc.--usually without a fee--and have them recycled properly. Under the law, electronics manufacturers pay recyclers to have the material recycled, and in the first year, 33 million pounds (that's million) have been recycled. That exceeds the projected volume by 10 million pounds. We may be tweaking the law in the coming weeks to improve some technical details.

Tax Cuts: Part of the Governor's budget proposal that we've heard in Taxes Committee includes a reduction in the corporate income tax over the next six years by 50%. This is not a bad idea because the corporate tax is a regressive tax on employers who could hire more people. However, the proposal comes as we have a $5 billion deficit and the idea would cost tens to hundreds of millions in tax revenue in the next few years. In committee, Republican members asked the revenue commissioner if his department had done any projections to see how the tax cut would result in increased employment. Surprisingly he said it had not, and he then planned to talk to another agency that uses a software program (the "REMI model") to project the impacts of this policy. This is one reason that the legislature takes a long time to work on a budget--we have had six different hearings with this commissioner to get the details on the Governor's budget proposal and only by asking direct questions can we figure out how "real" an idea is based on data.

Stimulus Watch: Like all Americans I'd like to know that the federal economic stimulus money is going to be spent wisely. There is an independent web site called Stimulus Watch that lets you see what projects will be funded, and you can search by state. Among the projects listed are $40 million for the public infrastructure to upgrade the TCAAP arsenal property. (It would pretty much wipe the army's buildings off of the site and install the utilities to be ready for re-development, creating 7500 jobs according to the web site.) Utility projects are also listed in Hugo.

My bills: I have a bill (HF418) that would allow cities to pass an ordinance to control buckthorn on public and private property. A North Oaks resident brought the idea to me and it passed the Agriculture & Veterans Affairs Committee this week. (The Agriculture Committee hears anything related to "weed control" and pesticides.) It now goes to the Local Government Subcommittee of the Government Operations Committee.

White Bear Lake School District Annual Report: I received this report recently.

Q-Comp: The non-partisan Office of the Legislative Auditor recently issued this report about the Q-Comp teacher compensation system. Major findings report that a lot of people like Q-Comp but that most teachers get the Q-Comp pay and that there is no evidence yet that the system results in higher student achievement.

Transit costs moving off of property taxes: Anoka County copied me on a letter last week reporting that the 1/4% sales tax increase dedicated to transit has lowered the total county levy by $3,249,856.

U of M staff and alumni in 53A: The U of M has asked supporters to send us mail about funding for the university system. In the mail it reports that there are 566 faculty and staff from the U of M in my district, and 6,250 alumni who have 8,166 degrees. (That's a lot!)

Some helpful health reports: I've had a look at several helpful factoids and reports on the Health Care & Human Services Policy Committee including:

Transform 2010-Preparing for the Age Wave related to the rapid aging of MN's population
Financing long-term care for MN's baby boomers
Every one dollar spent on family planning saves a minimum of $4.02 in Medicaid birth costs (from MN SAFPLAN-Statewide Association for Family Planning)
The cost of sexual violence is $8 billion JUST IN MINNESOTA and in 2005 there were 61,000 people reported to have been assaulted in 77,000 cases
325,000 Minnesotans are enrolled in health savings accounts, or 9.2% of people under 65 with private coverage; these HSAs have higher deductibles, higher out of pocket expenses, and higher chances for inadequate coverage

Schedule: Monday included an impromptu meeting of the state Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, a caucus meeting, a short floor session, a meeting of the Taxes Committee, and a bill hearing on my buckthorn ordinance bill (HF418). On Tuesday, I spoke to a meeting of the Arden Hills/Shoreview Rotary Club about the budget and attended committee meetings for Taxes (on the Governor's tax proposals), Health Care & Human Services Policy/HCHS (bills on medical transportation), and Environment & Natural Resources Policy (presentations on household hazardous waste and product stewardship), plus two committee caucus meetings. On Wednesday, I met with some community leaders about the proposed Anoka County-Blaine Airport runway expansion and attended a joint Taxes-Health and Human Services committee on maintenance of effort (MOE) issues and the HCHS Committee (medical marijuana-I voted in favor of allowing it--and rural health cooperatives). Afterwards the DFL House Caucus met into the evening. On Thursday, we had a lengthy floor session to pass a tax conformity bill so that our tax law matches recent federal tax changes. (The minority offered amendments for tax cuts totalling $1.7 billion that would have increased the size of the budget deficit by 35%--this is why it is a bad idea to make policy on the floor and not in committee.) Friday has become clean-off-my-desk day.

Visitors: Senator about recycled waters bill; lobbyist and staff from Organic Technologies Inc. about HF403; lobbyist for Comcast about cable regulation; candidate for U of M regent; several constituent pharmacists with platform of MN Association of Pharmacists; constituent member of SEIU about health care legislation; lobbyist for Association of MN Counties about solid waste tax legislation; Century College Student Senate members about higher education; teachers from Mounds View School District with Education MN legislative platform; two constituent electricians with legislative platform for the IBEW; teachers from Forest Lake School District with Education MN legislative platform; another representative about single-payer health care; another representative about the Blaine airport and transit for the disabled; Centennial Legislative Action Committee with K-12 legislative platform; lobbyist for MN Electrical Association about HF239; staff from Natural Conservancy about conservation easements for Upper Mississippi Forest Project; delegation from St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce about shared services ideas; staff for All Parks Alliance for Change about HF356; two citizen activists supporting transit for the disabled; Senator Rummel on items of mutual interest; lobbyist for Key Aviation

Constituent contacts: North Oaks resident about abuse in home health care programs; Shoreview? resident against spending; Shoreview resident in favor of voter ID; Shoreview resident asking about legislative pay cut idea; Shoreview resident against Governor's proposed cuts to rehabilitative services; Shoreview resident against MN Faith in Action bill (HF0760); Lino Lakes resident about mileage-based gas tax idea; Blaine resident against legislation that would close "gun show loophole" for background checks; Shoreview resident against current single-payer health coverage bill; HR manager from City of Shoreview on HF612-paid sick leave bill; Shoreview resident and Lino Lakes resident supporting HF359 that would require that health plans cover autism therapy; Circle Pines resident who might lose health coverage under Governor's proposal; Circle Pines resident against mandatory vaccination, dental mercury and restrictions on free speech about nutrition; two Shoreview residents supporting puppy mill legislation; Shoreview resident about licensing issue; Lino Lakes resident against Governor's budget proposal for K-12 education; North Oaks resident supporting charter schools and the Perpich Center for the Arts; three Shoreview residents supporting the arts; North Oaks resident against illegal immigration, for tax cuts, and against "global warming madness"; North Oaks resident supporting comprehensive sex education

Week of February 8, 2009

2009-02-12T09:04:00.000-08:00

Shoreview library saving energy and money: The on-line news site Minnpost recently did an article about how local governments can save money through energy legislation in the federal stimulus package. They showed an example of how the Shoreview Library upgraded its lighting and will see a payback of the investment in 3 1/2 years. The word I have is that the money coming to Minnesota from the stimulus package will create 66,000 jobs in the state.

Lincoln Bicentennial: I've been serving on a committee with another legislator to help celebrate the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln. The Minnesota Historical Society has a GREAT site about Lincoln's connection to Minnesota.

Budget listening session: Don't forget that the legislature will be coming to White Bear Lake on Wednesday, February 25th at 6:30 p.m. to hear your thoughts about the state budget. You can find details at www.house.mn and sign up as a speaker. My hope is that we can give Minnesotans an idea of just how big the deficit is, and that neither just cuts nor just tax increases will completely solve the problem.

Getting rid of that old TV after upgrading to DTV? If you are getting rid of your old TV and upgrading to accept digital signals, don't forget to recycle your old unit. Information is available at www.rethinkrecycling.com.

New Rules: We spent quite a few hours debating new Permanent House Rules on the floor. That may not sound like much, but during the last two years, the legislature has wasted an incredible about of time on the floor--maybe hundreds of hours--in debate that had no limits. The minority Republicans were introducing dozens of amendments to bills in order to slow down the legislative process. In one case I think we voted on about 150 amendments to one bill taking 18 hours to debate it. That keeps us from doing our work in committees and actually have debate on the merits of the bill. So with the new rules we may choose to limit debate (how about six hours instead of 18?) on bills so that we can manage our time well in a part-time legislature. It would also allow us to do our work in plain view of the public instead of way past midnight!

Schedule: Monday included a caucus meeting and a short floor session, then a meeting of the Taxes Committee and a meeting with the Shoreview City Council. Tuesday brought a meeting of the Taxes Committee, a caucus meeting, a Health Care & Human Services Policy Committee meeting on the economic impact of the Governor's budget on MN's hospitals (16 hospitals testified), and an Environment & Natural Resources Policy Committee meeting where I had a hearing on my compost bill (HF403). The bill passed and now goes to the Commerce & Labor Committee. Wednesday included the House Taxes Committee, the HCHS Committee (bills on sexual violence prevention and comprehensive sex education), a caucus meeting, and a training session for committee vice-chairs. Thursday included a caucus meeting, floor sessions on new House rules from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. to 10:45 p.m., the HCHS Committee (death certificate modification bill, long-term care financing bill, and home health care tax credit bill), the Environment & Natural Resources Policy Committee (water and wetlands legislation related to drainage and cost-sharing by local governments), and a joint committee meeting with HCHS to get an overview of how the legislature manages and screens sex offenders. (The Lino Lakes prison houses 200 of them.) Thursday was a long day! Friday included a meeting of the Suburban DFL House Caucus. On Saturday, I met with some local AFSCME representatives about their legislative platform.

Visitors: MN Commission of the Procurement and Use of Anatomical Donations and the University of MN Medical School Anatomy Bequest Program about HF457; lobbyists for MN Chamber of Commerce and American Chemistry Council; Lutheran Social Services staff about intermediate care facility funding in Shoreview; candidate for U of M regent; staff for Seniors & Workers for Quality Care (coalition of organizations supporting workers in nursing homes); two constituent carpenters with legislative platform for union carpenters; teachers from White Bear Lake School district; two constituent engineers with the legislative platform for consulting engineers; lobbyist and staff for non-profit organization that works with organ and tissue donation about HF457; another member about metro parks and trails issues; students from Centennial alternative high school; lobbyist for MN Auto Dealers Association about clean cars legislation; lobbyist for several smaller health care organizations; Centennial School District teachers; several constituent dental hygienists supporting the creation of an oral health practitioner (OHP) program; staff from Friends of the Mississippi River with their legislative platform; another member about clean cars legislation; staff from Association of MN Counties about health care; lobbyist for MN Manufactured Housing Association about HF356

Constituent contacts: Lino Lakes constituent supporting puppy mill legislation; about 20 constituents with petitions for puppy mill legislation; Shoreview resident and North Oaks resident supporting comprehensive sex education; Lino Lakes resident about green initiatives; Lexington resident about veterans and property taxes; Shoreview resident inquiring about state long term care partnership program; two Shoreview residents and two Lino Lakes residents against pay freeze for public employees; Shoreview resident concerned about Governor's allocation of new dedicated sales tax for the outdoors; Shoreview resident with inquiry about gay marriage and the budget; Shoreview resident supporting HF297 with funds for dog parks from new dedicated sales tax; Shoreview resident against funding of dog parks; Shoreview resident about sustainable forestry; Shoreview resident supporting medical marijuana; Blaine resident in support of second amendment; Shoreview? resident supporting cutting education to balance the budget; Shoreview resident against Governor's proposal to cut health coverage and dental coverage to uninsured Minnesotans; Shoreview resident about a business matter with the state; Shoreview resident supporting higher taxes for wealthiest Americans and the federal stimulus package; Lino Lakes resident against proposal for school districts to share services (this was a very well-thought out e-mail); Shoreview resident asking me to drop the phone book issue and to balance the budget and fix 694; Shoreview resident against SF115-the Reproductive Privacy Act; Shoreview resident asking for repeal of new Green Acres law changes; Shoreview resident against the state keeping health data; Lino Lakes resident asking for support of the most vulnerable Minnesotans in the budget process; North Oaks resident promoting organic food to combat obesity; North Oaks resident against cuts to the arts; Shoreview resident supporting legislation requiring health care coverage for autistic children

Week of February 1, 2009

2009-02-06T11:09:00.000-08:00

Budget breakdown: I've had a chance to review the Governor's budget. The media is picking up on some of my colleagues who are saying, "So what is your plan?" or "This budget is terrible!" but most of us are looking through the details so that we can put something together that blunts the worst of the cuts and/or allows us to avoid future deficits. However, when you look at the big numbers, it is pretty overwhelming.

Here's how the Governor's budget breaks down. The deficit is $4.847 billion.

Proposed cuts: $2.521 billion
Federal stimulus funds: $920 million
Shifts/Deferring K-12 payments from June 2011 to July 2012 (to the new fiscal year): $1.294 billion
Borrowing against future tobacco settlement funds: $983 million
New spending: $323 million (adds to deficit)
Tax cuts: $287 million (adds to deficit)
New tax or fee revenue: $0
Budget reserve: $250 million

That adds up to $4.858 billion with $11 million left over. Roughly half of the deficit reduction comes from cuts and the rest is one-time money. If the state were to raise taxes in some way, it would likely not exceed $1 billion, which still leaves us with big cuts, more borrowing, and putting off about a billion dollars to the next budget, creating an automatic deficit for the next legislature.

Listening session in White Bear Lake: The leadership of the House and Senate are planning budget listening sessions around the state. Members of the GOP are also being invited. The one in our area will be on Wednesday, February 25th at 6:30 p.m. at White Bear Lake High School - South Campus, 3551 McKnight Rd N. I hope that you can join us to talk about what issues are important to you as we balance an unprecedented budget deficit.

Broadband links: At a recent committee meeting, Connect Minnesota presented a MN broadband service inventory map and some useful web links. At their web site, you can look at a map of the state to see who can get high speed internet service and also enter your address to see what service providers you can find in your area. You can also test your internet speed at a separate site to see how well you connect.

Funding for the disabled: On the health policy committee, we heard from parents who have been on a waiting list for services for developmentally disabled children. Many people assume that human services funding from the state goes to people in the inner cities or to people who don't want to work. In our suburban district, I have met many people who receive funding to keep their kids at home instead of having them institutionalized, where services are more expensive. Having a group house on my block, I have seen how residential living is really helpful for these disabled Minnesotans. Once those kids get to be adults and can't live on their own, the parents can no longer lift them if the kids can't walk. The funding program for things like chair lifts, personal care assistants, etc. is called the "DD waiver." There are 5,000 people on the waiting list statewide for this program. The average household cost for this is $66,138 and the cost for having that person at a nursing home is around $92,000.

Local government efficiency: Rep. Paul Marquart (DFL-Dilworth), chair of the Property Tax Division of the House Taxes Committee, has created three working groups to promote reform, accountability, value, and efficiency in local government. The three working groups include state property tax system benchmarks and critical indicators; local government performance measurement and improvement; and local government decision-making flexibility and mandate reduction. I'm hoping to work with the latter group to assist in some consolidation initiatives I am pursuing.

Schedule: On Monday, we held a short floor session and a caucus meeting. In the afternoon, I attended the Taxes Committee where we continued our briefing on sales and corporate taxes. Later, I spoke to a class of environmental policy students at the U of M about policy and the legislature. Tuesday brought three caucus meetings and a cable TV interview, along with meetings of the Taxes Committee (federal tax conformity bill), Health Care & Human Services (HCHS) Committee (Rep. Knuth's toxic children's products bill), and the Environment & Natural Resources Policy Committee (also Rep. Knuth's bill). In the evening, I attended my DFL Senate District meeting in Lino Lakes. On Wednesday, the Taxes Committee heard a presentation from the Revenue Commissioner on the Governor's proposed budget. I attended two caucus meetings as well as the HCHS committee (Rep. Norton's bill to require coverage of autism disorders by health plans). Thursday brought a floor session where we set policy committee deadlines at March 27th. (You have to get your policy bill through committee by that date for the legislation to proceed). In the afternoon, the HCHS Committee heard Rep. Emmer's bill to allow the courts to amend a death certificate in case of incorrect or mistaken cause of death, and the Environment & Natural Resources Committee we heard bills from Rep. Hansen on drainage regulation and dog parks. In the evening, several legislators and I spoke to about 30 students and local residents at Century College about climate change. On Friday, I attended the Telecommunications Division where we learned about the state's broadband mapping project and attended meetings with other legislators about better paratransit coordination and homeowner protection legislation. During the week I also worked with two interns from the district who are helping me on various projects.

Visitors: Senator about environmental legislation; Shoreview resident for physical therapist day on the hill; lobbyist for MN Multi Housing Association about phone books; North Oaks and Shoreview residents promoting healthy communities; YMCA staff and volunteers with their legislative agenda; lobbyists supporting medical marijuana bill; citizen lobbyists supporting continued funding for natural health practitioners; Senator about compost legislation; staff from MN Department of Health giving overview of department; House researcher on capital investment legislation; Shoreview resident with Education MN legislative agenda; staff from St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce about shared services proposal; Department of Administration staff on Capitol recycling issues; House member about shared services proposal; League of Women Voters about off-road vehicles issues; lobbyist for MN Builders' Association about HF239; Isaak Walton League staff about low carbon fuel standard; North Oaks residents with MN Medical Association legislative platform; MPCA staff on closed landfill cleanup program

Constituent contacts: district constituent asking for cuts to balance the budget; Shoreview resident against government intrusion into health care; Shoreview resident about a licensing bill for interior designers; Circle Pines resident about high cost of MS drugs; Lino Lakes resident supporting early childhood programs; North Oaks resident asking that education be the #1 state priority; Shoreview resident supporting HF359 to require health plans to cover autism treatment; Shoreview resident against state employee salary freeze; Shoreview resident inquiring about an insurance matter; Lino Lakes resident against phone book bill; North Oaks resident supporting the arts; district resident against state employee salary freeze; Lino Lakes resident supporting school counselors; North Oaks resident against dissolution of the Health Care Access Fund and supporting public health care programs; Lino Lakes resident against taxpayer-funded abortions; Shoreview resident against the state accepting federal stimulus funding and for large budget cuts; Shoreview resident supporting charter schools; Shoreview resident supporting allowing school districts to start classes before Labor Day; Shoreview resident supporting legislation that protects victims and children from domestic violence

Week of January 25, 2009

2009-01-27T11:20:00.000-08:00

Governor's Budget Recommendations: The Governor's office has released his proposed budget and you can see it on-line. I have to sift through the details before commenting further.

Recovery legislation: On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the "American Recovery and Investment Act." This is the so-called "stimulus plan." You can read the details of the plan on-line.

Anoka County-Blaine Airport update: On Thursday night I attended a meeting of Concerned Citizens of the North Metro, recently formed to oppose any potential expansion of the Anoka County-Blaine Airport. I thought several of the organizers did a very good job of determining what the potential increased noise impacts would be if the airport runway was expanded to 6,000 feet.

Phone books: Several people have asked me why there is so much publicity about my proposal to allow consumers to opt out of getting phone books. This was to be a pretty minor piece of legislation that should take a back seat to solving the huge $4.8 billion state budget deficit, but for whatever reason, local reporters have been calling me up to ask about it. I wonder if the reporters are of an age where they grew up with the Internet and see the phone book as an outdated product. Anyway, readers should know that I am working on a bunch of other stuff that helps make specific state-funded programs more efficient but the legislation isn't ready yet. As one of my colleagues says, "Good legislation takes a while to draft properly."

Legislation: Here are two pieces of legislation that help reduce costs to taxpayers. HF298 is a bill that would make it easier for nonprofits that serve the disabled to use their vans and buses to pick up clients at other locations. These day training & habilitation (DT&H) providers have their own fleets but if they pick up other clients when their vans are idle, they are considered "for hire" and are subject to much higher insurance rates. My bill would seek to remedy the problem and would allow these fleets to be used more efficiently.

HF403 is a bill that would help boost the bio-based plastics industry in Minnesota by cleaning up our yard waste compost sites in the Twin Cities metro. Right now, taxpayers and ratepayers are paying much higher tip fees through their waste hauler to get rid of leaves and grass at the curb when they use plastic bags. If metro residents used a compostable plastic bag instead of the non-degradable plastic bag, the value of the finished compost would rise, waste haulers and counties would reduce tip fees, and Minnesota's compostable bag industry would see added business. The private sector would also be enticed to establish compost sites instead of government because high quality compost sells very well. Dakota County already has an ordinance that does this, but the legislation would require that one would have to use a compostable bag in the seven-country metro. It sounds a little weird at first, but when you get the facts you can see how the economics work.

Managing expectations: Our biggest task at the moment is to manage expectations for the budget. It is clear that not a lot of people realize how huge our deficit is and how limited our options are. Many groups are asking for new money or asking not to be cut. The groups that get our attention are ones that say, "I hope you don't cut us, but if you do, we have some ideas for how we can save money in the long term." These savings usually come in the form of streamlined or reduced state mandates or consolidation of certain functions. I have received a bunch of good ideas from the Anoka County attorney, the Association of Minnesota Counties, and MN School Business Officials so far.

Schedule: On Monday I stopped by a forum held by the Association of Metropolitan School Districts on the future of education funding, attended a short floor session, a caucus meeting, and a joint meeting of the K-12 Education Finance Committee and Taxes Committee (on the use of Other Post-Employment Benefits--or OPEB--bonds). OPEB bonds are used by school districts to borrow money to pay for retiree health care benefits. There is no referendum requirement for these bonds and some districts are using the short-term cash to pay for operations, which sounds like a disaster waiting to happen!

On Tuesday, I attended the Taxes Committee, two committee caucus meetings, a Health Care & Human Services Policy (HCHS) meeting, an Environment Committee meeting, and a meeting of the Mounds View School Board. I chaired the Environment Committee since the topic was on drinking water issues and I was going to end up asking most of the questions anyway!

On Wednesday, I attended two committee caucus meetings, the Taxes Committee, the HCHS committee, the Early Childhood Education Summit on the House floor, and a reception held by the Rochester delegation in the St. Paul Armory.

On Thursday, I attended a meeting held by Congresswoman McCollum about the federal stimulus package, a short floor session where we approved an extension of unemployment benefits, an HCHS committee meeting (about developmentally disabled waivers) an Environment Committee meeting (on fish and animal diseases), and a meeting of opponents to an expansion of the Anoka County-Blaine Airport.

On Friday, I attended a caucus meeting and a meeting of stakeholders working on a plan to change how we pay to recycle and safely dispose of used paint. Rep. Sailer and Sen. Doll had a bill last year that the Governor vetoed that would shift the $5 million that taxpayers pay statewide to handle the paint to those who actually buy paint using a small fee. They will bring this bill forward again in 2009.

Visitors: lobbyist for MN Oncology and Hematology (MOHPA) opposed to new moratorium on radiation facilities in the metro area; lobbyist for Xcel Energy; lobbyist and members of MN Beverage Association about solid waste and recycling issues; lobbyist for Medica introducing their organization; about ten staff of MN's credit unions, including three constituents; representative of MN Licensed Beverage Association; staff from Eureka Recycling about composting legislation; lobbyists for SEIU and TakeAction MN about universal health care legislation; lobbyist for Allina about ambulance issues; lobbyist and representatives of MN Works, a group that coordinates employment for disabled adults on recycling projects; staff and lobbyist for MN Credit Unions; staff from Environment MN about phone books; staff from Healthy Legacy about toxic products legislation; lobbyist on organ and tissue donation issues; lobbyist for MN building officials about building code and home construction legislation

Constituent contacts: Lino Lakes resident about domestic violence issues; Circle Pines resident against Q-Comp; Lino Lakes resident about data sharing between the state and insurance companies; Shoreview resident and Lino Lakes resident suggesting that phone books is not an important issue; Circle Pines small business owner asking that health coverage for MN Care not be cut; Blaine resident upset about recent actions of the Obama administration; Shoreview resident supporting tighter welfare requirements; Shoreview resident with an idea to promote green jobs; two Shoreview residents asking that education be the top priority in the state budget; Shoreview resident and Circle Pines resident supporting MN Health Security Act; Shoreview? resident leaving message disappointed about a recent education vote (we're not quite sure what vote that was since I haven't voted this year on education yet--no phone number left); Shoreview resident urging a spending freeze and that the state not accept any federal money from the stimulus package; Circle Pines resident against airport expansion; Shoreview resident asking "exactly" how I am going to balance the budget; Lino Lakes resident supporting early childhood education; Shoreview resident about a charitable gambling issue; Lino Lakes resident supporting phone book legislation; Circle Pines resident upset with my vote for the federal stimulus package (I mentioned that Congress voted on this bill not the state legislature); Shoreview resident supporting puppy mill legislation; Lino Lakes resident supporting phone book legislation; Shoreview? resident supporting marriage equality legislation; North Oaks resident against deep cuts to state health care programs; North Oaks resident supporting instant runoff voting; Shoreview? resident asking about long-term care legislation; Circle Pines MAPE member supporting agenda for public employees; Lino Lakes resident asking that cancer prevention and health care access be #1 on state agenda; two Lino Lakes residents, Shoreview resident, Circle Pines resident asking that K-12 education be the #1 state priority; Shoreview resident supporting findings of the Budget Trends Commission; Lino Lakes resident supporting repeal of changes to the Green Acres legislation from last year (she was REALLY mad!); Lino Lakes resident against airport expansion; Lino Lakes resident asking for a balanced budget; Shoreview? resident sharing views on "reverse" racism and sharing quotes from Thomas Jefferson

Week of January 18, 2009

2009-01-26T08:53:00.000-08:00

Lots of info stacking up! I will add some other issues soon!

Schedule: On Tuesday, I attended a meeting of the Taxes Committee where we had a discussion about "maintenance of effort" legislation. In the afternoon, I went to a meeting of members on the Health Care and Human Services (HCHS) Policy Committee about federal and state health care programs, followed by a meeting of DFLers on the committee and then a meeting of the full committee where the Department of Human Services discussed their outcome measures and priority areas. Late in the day I had a meeting of the Environment & Natural Resources Policy Committee, where we received a program overview from the Board of Water and Soil Resources. On Wednesday, I participated in a caucus meeting for the Taxes Committee, a full meeting of the Taxes Committee where we voted on "maintenance of effort" legislation. In the afternoon, the HCHS Committee met and we heard about county-based purchasing for health care. Many rural counties are providers of health insurance because private providers don't operate there. On Thursday morning, I attended a meeting of Schools for Equity in Education (Centennial School District is a member) and a floor session where Rep. Eastlund asked for an "urgency" to skip the first and second readings of his bill and vote to repeal the Green Acres law changes from last year. (I would like to have hearings on this legislation rather than vote in a knee-jerk fashion.) In the afternoon, the HCHS committee heard speakers on nutritional labeling as a means to combat obesity. Listing calories on fast food menus in places like New York City does lead people to make better choices but there aren't any studies showing that actually leads to lower obesity rates.

Visitors: lobbyists from Health Partners about state and federal budget impacts on health care and on Regions Hospital; lobbyists for Medical Transportation Management about non-emergency medical transportation; Sierra Club staff about their legislative agenda; two staffers from Congresswoman's Bachmann's office about how they can help constituents with federal issues; lobbyist for day training & habilitation providers for adults with developmental disabilities; staff and clients of MN Federation of the Blind; lobbyist and volunteer from Friends of the Boundary Waters about sulfide mining in northern Minnesota; lobbyist and staff from Apple Tree Dental, a nonprofit that provides critical access dental services in the state; lobbyist for Clean Water Action about legislative agenda; lobbyist and staff from MN Dental Association about advanced dental practitioners; co-chairs for the MN chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program promoting single-payer health care; representatives of Fair Vote MN promoting instant runoff voting; lobbyist from Yellow Pages Association about my phone book opt-out bill; staff from Audubon MN about their legislative agenda; staff from Environment MN about their legislative agenda; lobbyist for Flint Hills Resources about low-carbon fuel standard

Constituent contacts: Shoreview resident supporting House Republican proposal to limit welfare benefits for those who come from out of state; Shoreview resident asking that education be the top priority for 2009; two Shoreview residents supporting legislative agenda of the MN Association of Public Employees; Shoreview resident with an idea for the U of MN to participate in the economic recovery; Lexington resident asking that I adopt the political approach of Ron Paul (and a few other choice words); Lino Lakes resident asking me to co-author HF45 requiring higher penalties for aggressive and reckless driving that results in death; four teachers from the district asking me to support K-12 education; district resident asking for a pay freeze for all public employees; Lino Lakes resident and Shoreview resident supporting SF97 that permits medical use of marijuana; Shoreview resident about a licensing matter; Lino Lakes resident supporting instant runoff voting; Lino Lakes resident supporting increased funding for the judicial system; district resident asking for no tax increases; district resident supporting Governor's proposal to reduce business taxes; North Oaks resident supporting legislation that would better regulate puppy and kitten mills; Shoreview resident against tax increases; North Oaks resident supporting full funding for special education; North Oaks resident supporting legislation allowing cities to pass an ordinance requiring buckthorn treatment; Lino Lakes couple supporting education as top priority; Shoreview resident supporting Rep. Dittrich's bill (HF105) that requires schools to have fiscal literacy as part of high school economics offerings

Week of January 11, 2009

2009-01-16T09:11:00.000-08:00

DTV conversion: Our telecommunications committee heard from experts about the impending conversion to digital television signals. There is a ton of information available about what you may need to do on-line.

My transportation project for the session: Senator Dibble and I are working on an initiative to find efficiencies for community based transit (CBT). CBT is transit that serves seniors and the disabled. Because of all the "silos" of money from the federal government that fund different programs, many of the vans and buses for these services are idle when they could be serving additional people. CBT is expensive--dial-a-ride service is often $20-$25 per ride one-way, although riders usually only pay a few dollars so that they can afford it. This is three or four times as expensive as mass transit. State agencies have been working on this so we have an opportunity to save money and improve service. More to come!

State of the state: The Governor gave his State of the State address on Thursday. During the last speech I heard from Tim Pawlenty at the Chamber of Commerce two weeks ago, I agreed with 95% of what he said about the need to get smarter with state and local government spending. Another time in the last month or so he suggested that a fiscal crisis can bring people together and the barriers that we put up to good ideas will be lowered out of necessity. Another good speech that focused on problem solving. However, I was pretty confused with the State of the State. The Governor said that taxes are out of the question (no surprise) and talked about removing a lot of costly state mandates for local governments. But then he outlined a bunch of new mandates for school districts, additional spending for K-12 schools, and a cap on tuition for higher education. I look forward to seeing how are we going to pay for these new projects and mandates in about two weeks when his budget is released.

Per diem: WCCO did what seems like an annual story about legislative per diem. Yours truly is third from the bottom out of 201 legislators.

Suburban DFL co-chair: At a meeting of the DFL Suburban Caucus on Monday, I was elected co-chair along with Rep. Bev Scalze and Rep. Mike Obermuller. There are 39 Democrats from the suburbs out of 87 members.

Revenues down for last two months of 2008: We received an update from Minnesota Management & Budget (the old Department of Finance) that shows that tax revenues in the last two months of 2008 were below forecast, or more than $100 million, or down 4.5% percent overall, with sales tax down 4.4%, corporate tax down 42%, and income tax down 3.3%. That means that there could be additional budget cuts before the end of the current fiscal year that ends June 30th.

Budget trends commission: The Budget Trends Study Commission issued its recommendations this week. The legislature asked a group of former finance commissioners and other experts to help figure out how to even out Minnesota's tax revenue over time. Their report covered a variety of issues including: the impact of Minnesota's changing demographics on the budget; revenue volatility; trend growth rates; current spending pressures; long term revenue forecasts; and projected expenditure obligations. The recommendations included boosting our budget reserves so that the state can weather a major deficit without cutting major services or raising taxes excessively; taking note of a long-term demographic shift to an older population with fewer taxpaying workers; and reining in health care costs. The Commission noted that it will be hard to change the tax system to provide more even revenue flows and even then the volatility will not go away. The U of M has commented more on this on-line.

One Minnesota Conference: All legislators were invited to attend a conference on Wednesday to hear about global and economic trends that affect what we do at the state. One of the better speakers talked about how states and regions have done well economically when they figure out what they are good at and then create "clusters" of businesses and industries that feed into that strength. Other speakers talked about how states can boost economic development of these clusters--like "green jobs"--with tax credits, grants, and investment in higher education institutions. So I had to ask a question, "In a time of fiscal austerity, how can the state boost the green economy without tax credits, grants, and investment in higher education?" The audience burst out laughing, mostly because it correctly characterized our fiscal situation and lack of options. Dark humor I guess. The panelist responded that even without funding, government can set rules of the game for the market.

Blaine airport public meeting: A citizen group called Concerned Citizens of the North Metro Area is having a meeting regarding the possible expansion of the Anoka County Airport in Blaine. The meeting is Thursday, January 29th from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Mounds View Community Center. Blog readers will recall that citizens were not happy about Anoka County trying to push for expansion at the legislature without much public input.

Schedule: Monday included a meeting of the DFL Suburban Caucus, a short floor session, a meeting of the Tax Committee, and a meeting with local Education MN members; Tuesday included meetings of the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, the Tax Committee, and Health Care & Human Services Policy, plus meetings with Healthy Legacy about their legislative platform and DFLers on the Environmental Policy Committee. On Wednesday, I was at the Humphrey Institute for the OneMinnesota Conference. Thursday included meetings of the Environmental Finance Committee, the DFL House Caucus, Health Care & Human Services Policy, and Environmental Policy, plus a floor session for the State of the State address and a meeting of the Ramsey County legislative delegation. Friday included a meeting of the Telecommunications Regulation and Infrastructure Division, and a training for committee chairs and vice-chairs.

Visitors: Representative of Parks & Trails Council of MN; representatives of bio-degradable plastics industry about compost issues; DNR staff about drinking water legislation follow-up; lobbyist for Coalition of Greater MN Cities about local government aid; lobbyist for MN Paratransit Association about legislation; former district resident about internship; staff from Chief Clerk's office about tracking legislation in omnibus bills; House Research staff about legislation I'm working on

Constituent contacts: Lino Lakes resident pleased that I'm third from the bottom in per diem; Shoreview resident who liked the Governor's speech; district resident about workers comp issue; North Oaks resident against allowing the school year to start before Labor Day; Shoreview resident against higher per diem; Shoreview resident against cuts to K-12 education; Shoreview resident against tighter licensing of interior designers; Lino Lakes resident against requiring private homes to have sprinklers (the Pioneer Press ran a story about some experts proposing this); Lino Lakes resident commenting about the $700 billion bailout and how it should go to regular people instead of banks; Shoreview resident suggesting that property taxes should be replaced with a 2% income tax to local governments; Shoreview resident about internship; Shoreview resident against Rep. Rukavina's idea of an income tax surcharge; Lexington resident with ten suggestions for balancing the budget; Lino Lakes resident wanting the state to get subsidies back from Northwest Airlines and against per diem; Shoreview resident about a matter with drivers and vehicle services; Shoreview and North Oaks residents sending cards with legislative platform of MN Utility Investors

Week of January 4, 2009

2009-01-11T12:30:00.000-08:00

New committee assignment: On Friday, the Speaker's office added me to the Telecommunications Regulation and Infrastructure Division of the Commerce and Labor Committee. It meets on Friday mornings. Last session, the committee discussed plans for greater broadband access statewide.

Stimulus: This week, we've been hearing about what projects in Minnesota might be funded by a possible economic stimulus bill under consideration in Congress. One of the projects is the widening of 694 between 35W and 35E. More info as I get it.

Phone books: KARE-11 did a news story about my past efforts to empower consumers to "opt out" of getting multiple phone books. I did not think that this was anything newsworthy but I have been bombarded with e-mail from people around the state who support this.

Yellow Book: Yellow Book, one of those yellow pages directory publishers, now allows you to opt out by going to their web site. You can also opt out from Dex directories (or request additional ones) at the Dex web site.

Schedule: On Tuesday, I attended a DFL House Caucus meeting and then we had our first floor session where we were all sworn in to the legislature. The first day is a little dull; the swearing-in takes about thirty seconds. We had about five voice roll call votes, where the clerk goes down the list of members and asks for each member's vote on the choice for Speaker, Chief Clerk, other officers in the House, etc. It takes about 10-15 minutes to get through the whole list each time! Guests can attend so my mom sat on the floor with me and my stepdad and wife sat up in the gallery. My mom was visiting from Annapolis, MD. On Wednesday and Thursday, DFL members of the Health and Human Services Policy Committee met to discuss session priorities for the committee. In the evening, I attended the Session Priorities Dinner convened by the MN Chamber of Commerce at RiverCenter. The Governor was the keynote speaker and legislative leaders participated in a panel discussion afterwards. On Thursday, I attended the DFL House Caucus. On Friday, several other suburban legislators and I attended a briefing from the Municipal Legislative Commission about their legislative platform. Shoreview is a member of this group. Later in the day I spoke to about 40 members of the MN Council of Nonnprofits about the legislative process.

Visitors: Shoreview resident supporting Health Security Act; Senior Fellow at Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs about green chemistry; MnDOT staff and Senator about increasing efficiency of community based transit; Senator about legislation to promote composting; House researchers about energy and environment issues; representatives of the MN Manufactured Housing Association about mobile home legislation from 2007.

Constituent contacts: Circle Pines resident supporting Health Security Act; Shoreview resident asking (again) exactly how I will solve the deficit; Lino Lakes resident against a public utility competing against other firms for non-utility business; Shoreview resident supporting charging parents of public school students a fee for attendance; Shoreview resident with idea for balancing the budget; Shoreview resident upset about the idea of extending unemployment and suggesting that if women would stay at home there would be no need for unemployment benefits; Shoreview resident concerned about recent change in property taxes; North Oaks resident against taxes and fees of any kind

Weeks of December 21st and 28th, 2008

2009-01-04T19:49:00.001-08:00

Committee assignments: On Wednesday, December 31st, I received my committee assignments. They include Environment and Natural Resources Policy, Health and Human Services Policy, and Taxes. I'll be the vice-chair of the Environment and Natural Resources Policy Committee under Chair Kent Eken. The Health and Human Services Committee was a bit of surprise but I am looking forward to active participation.

Schedule: On Monday, December 29th, I met with the warden at the Lino Lakes prison to get a background briefing on corrections. It costs $81.56 per day to keep someone incarcerated at Lino Lakes. Minnesota also has one of the lowest incarceration rates per capita in the U.S., in part because we don't keep a lot of people in jail for minor non-violent offenses. Less than three percent of our state budget is spent on corrections, which puts us at number 49 out of 50 in the U.S. (Oregon spends 10.9% at the number one position.) Lino Lakes can house up to 1247 medium security and 87 minimum security inmates.

Visitors: None during the holiday break

Constituent contacts: Shoreview resident and North Oaks resident asking for protection of programs for the most vulnerable Minnesotans; Shoreview resident seeking a get-tough approach on illegal immigration; North Oaks resident supporting GLBT rights; North Oaks resident suggesting a revenue source to balance the state budget; Lino Lakes resident upset about higher property taxes for cabins; Lino Lakes resident supporting physical education requirements for public school students

Weeks of December 7th & 14th, 2008

2008-12-17T12:46:00.001-08:00

Unallotment: As part of the effort to balance the FY2009 budget (the current fiscal year runs through June 30, 2009), the Governor exercised his ability to "unallot." That means that he will make unilateral cuts to the budget to meet the $426 million deficit. Before he can cut spending, he has to use up the state's budget reserve of $150 million, and that leaves a deficit of $271 million or so. MPR listed the cuts in detail. Higher education took a hit of $40 million, health and human services were at $73 million, and local government aid and the homestead tax credit were at $110 million. The legislature itself also was cut by $2.2 million. There were not really a lot of good choices here.

[This is an updated paragraph as of 12/23/08]

In our cities, Shoreview lost $139,069 that it was expected to get to fund the Market Value Homestead Credit (MVHC), Circle Pines lost $56,281 in MVHC, Blaine lost $420,891 in MVHC, and Lino Lakes lost $120,481. The MVHC is a tool where homeowners get a credit on their property taxes if their property is valued at less than $413,000. North Oaks will lose $13,677 in both local government aid and the MVHC, and Lexington will lose $55,013 in both LGA and MVHC.

Track agency results: The state has set up a web site where you can track how agencies perform against their stated goals. The Accountability Minnesota website is a good start but it's a little light on data in some areas and is skewed toward areas where the state is already doing good stuff.

Conservation rate structure: Lino Lakes did a utility rate study in 2007 and the city adopted a water conservation plan in October 2007 to help avoid wasteful use of groundwater. Now it is going through with a new ordinance that codifies new requirements for a conservation rate structure, which I got passed as legislation in 2008. The ordinance proposes new tiered water rates. 98.7% of residents in Lino Lakes use less than 40,000 gallons per quarter, but there is a small fraction of residents who use a lot more than that and they would pay a higher rate.

Property taxes: The December 7th Star Tribune listed changes in median property tax values and property tax rates in metro communities with more than 5,000 population.

Here is the breakdown by city for percent change in market value and percent change in tax since last year.

Shoreview: market value -3.6%; tax +1.6% (Mounds View SD)
Lino Lakes: market value +3.0%; tax +2.3% (Centennial SD) & +2.8% (White Bear SD)
Circle Pines: market value -4.4%; tax -7.8% (Centennial SD)
Blaine: market value -0.6%; tax -1.5% (Centennial SD)

North Oaks and Lexington have fewer than 5,000 people and were not included in the article. My property taxes in Shoreview are going down by 1.7% and the market value declined by roughly (don't have the statement in front of me) 4%.

Waiting for answers: A Shoreview constituent recently wrote a letter to the Shoreview Press expressing impatience that I have not said exactly how I plan to balance the state budget. Look for my rotating column in the Press next week (or maybe the week after) for a more thorough description of just what kind of sacrifices we will have to make during this difficult economic recession.

Truth-in-taxation letter: Another Shoreview resident wrote a letter to the Shoreview Press while I was out of town suggesting that I author legislation about truth-in-taxation notices and meetings. He was upset that cities, counties, and school districts have their public meetings after the election, and he felt that the legislature should require them to be before the election. I think this is a GREAT idea. I looked into it and it was in legislation in the last session before eventually getting cut out of the final omnibus tax bill. I would like to pursue this legislation in 2009.

Schedule: On Saturday, December 6th, I participated in an all-day meeting of the House DFL Caucus. Governor Pawlenty and former Governor Carlson both came to talk to us, which I thought was a good thing. From Sunday, December 7th to Tuesday, December 16th, I was in Washington, DC and environs. The purpose was to attend a three-day meeting of the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators (NCEL). My airfare was covered by a scholarship from NCEL funded by the Joyce Foundation. I stayed with family members in the DC area, so no taxpayer dollars were spent on the travel. My family also came with me so we had a chance to see a few things downtown on the days when I was not at the conference. We were underwhelmed by the newly re-opened Smithsonian American History Museum other than the refurbished Star-Spangled Banner. However, the Smithsonian Natural History Museum got a big thumbs up from kids and adults alike for its new Ocean Hall. The U.S. Capitol has a new visitor center built underground on the east side. Very posh. I knew that two prominent citizens of each state are represented by a sculpture, but I didn't know that Minnesota's two are Henry Mower Rice and Maria L. Sanford. Save that for Minnesota Trivial Pursuit!

The NCEL meeting was excellent. There were presentations on mercury, energy efficiency, water quality, climate change, the Great Lakes, the Mississippi River, etc. Legislators who attended were from the Great Lakes states and the province of Ontario. Rep. Hornstein and I had a long conversation at lunch with the Canadians to understand how their provincial parliament works. Very different! They rely on stricter party loyalty than in the U.S.

I stuck around for two days afterwards so that I could do some family history research. During the last 15 years, I've tracked down various branches of my family and I've spent quite a bit of time on my Gardner ancestors. The first one to come over from Ireland arrived in about 1811 and settled in Millersburg, Pennsylvania. So on Monday I did some deed research in Harrisburg and discovered the location of his house, which I photographed in the afternoon--if indeed it is the same building. (Long story there.)

On Thursday, December 19th, I attended a meeting with legislators and Anoka County about the county's legislative agenda for 2009; met with representatives of the phone book publishing industry and their lobbyist; staff at Great River Energy about waste-to-energy issues; and Ramsey County Commissioner Tony Bennett on issues of mutual interest. On Friday, December 20th, I attended a meeting of the Association of Metropolitan School Districts (AMSD) for legislators.

Visitors: None

Constituent contacts: Circle Pines resident about recent publicity about Otter Tail Power Company competing with private firms; Lino Lakes resident supporting more physical education in public schools; Lexington resident supporting an end to ethanol blended fuel in MN; North Oaks resident concerned about funding cuts to Meals on Wheels; Blaine resident supporting tax cuts for businesses; Circle Pines resident concerned about local government aid cuts to that city; Shoreview resident supporting spending freeze; district resident requesting that "you Democrats need to stop spending our money like drunken sailors"; Shoreview resident supporting spending freeze, corporate tax cuts, and cutting services; Lino Lakes resident supporting spending cuts; North Oaks resident supporting spending cuts

Week of November 30, 2008

2008-12-04T14:16:00.000-08:00

Budget forecast is grim: On Thursday, December 4th, the state released a budget forecast for the fiscal biennium beginning July 1, 2009 and ending June 30, 2011. The projected deficit is $4.8 billion. There was also a forecast for the fiscal year (the current one) ending June 30, 2009, and there is a deficit there of $425 million. So the total deficit is $5.2 billion.

You can see the whole forecast at the web site of Minnesota Management and Budget. Video archives of the news conference by the finance commissioner and state economist are also on-line.

Legislators are being interviewed by the media or are holding their own press conferences to share some ideas for balancing the budget. I would not hold your breath on some of these ideas, like selling the Minneapolis airport. We have a long way to go to the end of session in late May, so I and others here are trying to be patient, look at all our options, and talk to constituents and stakeholders about what effects our actions will have. I look forward to your ideas in the weeks and months to come.

Drinking water profiles for cities in District 53A: The Met Council has produced a draft Master Water Supply Plan for review before the legislation session. There are city profiles for each city in the seven-county metro area, and they project how much groundwater they will need through the year 2050. The data profiles are in appendix 2 in the report link above. Here are what the six cities in 53A may have to do between now and 2050.

Blaine: 13 new groundwater wells necessary through 2050!
Circle Pines: No additional groundwater wells necessary
Lexington: No additional groundwater wells necessary
Lino Lakes: One new additional groundwater well necessary every ten years through 2050
North Oaks (using data from White Bear Township): No additional groundwater wells necessary
Shoreview: One new additional groundwater well necessary about 2040

Subcommittee dissolved: On Friday, the Speaker announced our committee structure for the next session. The number of committees has been cut by 15%, and a lot of subcommittees have been eliminated. The purpose was to simplify our committee process. At my request, the Speaker eliminated the Drinking Water Source Protection Subcommittee that I chaired. We could never find a regular time to meet and it was hard to get a quorum, and I figure I can get just as much done on protecting our drinking water by working within our existing environmental policy and finance committee.

Twin Cities Best for Business: MarketWatch, a web publication of the Wall Street Journal, just recognized the Twin Cities for the second year in a row for being the best metro area for business.

Schedule: On Monday, December 1st, I attended a meeting of the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission at the State Office Building. My Republican colleague Dean Urdahl leads the group and I'm the other legislator on the group. In the evening I attended a fundraiser for the DFL House Caucus. On Tuesday, December 2nd, I attended a presentation by the Met Council on their drinking water supply plan. In the evening, I attended a meeting of our local DFL Senate District. On Wednesday, December 3rd, several legislators and I participated in a conference on "Assessing, Managing and Communicating Environmental Risk" hosted by the Center for Science, Technology & Public Policy at the U of M's Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. On Thursday, December 4th, I attended a meeting of the Legislative Coordinating Commission Working Group on Ethnic Heritage & New Americans, where I made a presentation giving a historical perspective on immigration in Minnesota. In the afternoon, I participated in a meeting at the MN Pollution Control Agency where staff sought input on a report I requested on product stewardship.

Visitors: State Revisor on progress toward greater transparency on omnibus bills; Met Council staff regarding community based transit (e.g., dial-a-ride) services; four high school students asking for input on an environmental legislation proposal; staff from MN Department of Veterans Affairs about a constituent issue; student reporter from Hamline University about recent political developments; staff from a human services agency in the northern suburbs about transportation issues; lobbyists from Waste Management, Chamber of Commerce, and chemical companies about environmental issues coming up before the legislature; another state representative about transit issues; staff from the MPCA and Ramsey County about safe disposal of unused pharmaceutical products and how to avoid having them get in our drinking water

Constituent contacts: Blaine resident asking that human services budget be spared when balancing the budget; Shoreview resident interested in the opt-out option for phone books; two Shoreview residents against tax increases to balance the budget; Lino Lakes resident supporting a new Vikings stadium (although not necessarily built with public funding); Shoreview resident seeking bike lane on Highway 49; three Lino Lakes residents asking for revisions to last year's Green Acres law

Week of November 23, 2008

2008-11-29T18:34:00.000-08:00

Sick and tired of unwanted phone books (or want more?): While I spent time knocking on doors this fall, constituents had just received a new phone book and many asked how to avoid getting them. I worked on legislation on this issue in 2008 to give consumers the option to "opt out" of getting a phonebook. Since Dex has created a solution to give consumers the option of controlling how many, if any, phone books you would like to receive, I thought I would like to know how to go about it.

Dex has developed an online web page which allows users to find out which directories they are currently receiving and alter what type and how many they would like to receive in the future. There is also a link to the phone numbers for other directory publishers.

Here are the steps required to alter the amount of directories you receive.

Step # 1 - Go to www.selectyourdex.com
Step # 2 - On right hand side of the screen, enter your zip code
Step #3 - Near bottom of the screen click “Proceed to select your Dex link”
Step #4 - Fill out information on right side of screen. Under “Available Directories in Your Area” make sure you’ve checked the number “0” next to each listed directory if you do not want to receive anymore phone books. (You can also order additional directories if you choose.

Dex has a toll-free number (1-866-547-5100) available for anyone who would rather change their phonebook service via telephone rather than use the Internet. Other publications include Yellow Book (800-YB-YELLOW) and Verizon (800-555-4833).

Visit to District Court in Anoka: One of my constituents is a district court judge in Anoka, and she invited me to observe the court system at the Tenth Judicial District on Tuesday, November 25th. During the morning, I sat through about a dozen probation violation hearings, three short trials where drivers were contesting their tickets, and a few felony hearings for drug violations. There were plenty of defendants who I think probably were scared straight because of their experience with the criminal justice system, and there were a few people who were never going to get their act together. Two years ago I had the opportunity to tour the Lino Lakes prison, and I plan to do a ride-along with some local law enforcement agency soon, so I'll have the complete picture!

Centennial Community Education: I met with staff from Centennial School District regarding community education initiatives, such as "educational, recreational, social, and cultural programs [that] include enrichment classes, outings, drivers education, swimming lessons, and more." I was particularly interested in the Adult Continuing Education program, which includes help with GED preparation among other opportunities. Statistics about who is going back for a GED were particularly enlightening.

Schedule: No committee or working group meetings during this short holiday week

Visitors: A Senator regarding paratransit issues; constituent dentist about dental licensing policy; Centennial School District community education staff regarding their programs

Constituent contacts: Lino Lakes resident supporting Rule of 90 teacher pension legislation; two constituents reporting that pollsters called them asking about why they voted the way they did for the 53A race earlier this month; North Oaks resident reacting to story about the Fergus Falls school superintendent recruiting Chinese students; Shoreview resident about upcoming reconstruction of Highway 49 through Shoreview; Shoreview resident about the hazards of buying gift cards for retailers who are entering bankruptcy or who are closing for good; Shoreview resident supporting Wine with Dinner legislation to allow wine sales in grocery stores; Shoreview resident asking if I am a member of ISAIAH and whether I endorse its views (see link to organization on the right); Shoreview resident supportive of Blaine airport runway extension; Lino Lakes resident seeking additional financial support for K-12 education; Circle Pines resident supporting legislation to increase recycling of cans and bottles

Week of November 16, 2008

2008-11-20T11:55:00.000-08:00

Met Council Water Supply Plan: The Metropolitan Council has prepared a draft of its Master Water Supply Plan. Since I work on drinking water issues, I have been plowing through the draft, which is available on the web. There are public meetings coming up before the end of the year, and you can see when these meetings will be held on the link above. You can also read the plan.

Airport follow-up: The Metropolitan Airports Commission has a web page on the Blaine Airport (aka Janes Field), as does Anoka County. I also found a list of noise abatement procedures for the airport. ABC Newspapers did a pretty complete article on the recent situation. The operator of the airport is Key Air. Finally, legislation would be required to expand the airport runway to 6,000 feet, since it would move from a minor airport to an intermediate airport. (Look at subdivision 4 for details in Minnesota Statutes 473.641.) The MAC also has a noise complaint website where you can report airport noise issues.

Schedule: Monday, November 17th included meetings with the Citizens League on their water governance initiative, Senator Rummel on drinking water issues, and a former intern who is working on an instant runoff voting initiative. Tuesday, November 18th included attendance at the Anoka County Airport Committee (see next post), a meeting with St. Paul-Ramsey County Environmental Health Division staff about solid waste issues; and a visit to a Lutheran Social Services intermediate care facility in Shoreview where eight developmentally disabled adults live. The latter included an in-depth discussion of state funding issues that affect this facility. It was an eye-opener! In the evening, I attended a meeting of the full House DFL Caucus. On Wednesday, November 19th I met with a North Oaks resident about a health care legislative proposal and met with canvassers at Clean Water Action to discuss my work on drinking water. (I also turned 41 on the 19th.) On Thursday, November 20th, I attended a meeting of the Minnesota Historical Society, whose state funds are allocated by a committee I serve on. On Friday, November 21st, I met with two St. Thomas students working on a class project on scrap tire recycling and met with different house researchers about potential legislation. In the afternoon, I attended a meeting of the Working Group on Ethnic Heritage & New Americans. We participated in a video conference with the Iowa Workforce Development agency and a similar Illinois agency about their efforts to integrate immigrants into their workforce.

Constituent contacts: Approximately two dozen constituents e-mailed me about the proposed Blaine airport expansion. One was neutral on the issue and two were in favor, and the rest were against it. Shoreview resident seeking an interview for a college paper; North Oaks resident and high school student seeking meeting about class project; Lino Lakes resident seeking information about how to start a recall petition for Anoka County Commissioners; district resident asking about stipulations for contractors on Twins stadium; Lino Lakes resident supporting get-tough policy on immigration; North Oaks resident about special education

Blaine Airport Expansion Public Meeting

2008-11-18T15:30:00.000-08:00

The Blaine Airport expansion issue has gotten a lot of attention during the last few days. This morning in Anoka, the county's airport committee (Commissioners LeDoux, Erhart, and West) recessed their meeting so that a public meeting could be held to get input from local residents.

That meeting will be December 2nd at 7:00 p.m. at Kingswood Church, 1264 109th Ave NE, Blaine (just west of Hwy 65). Representatives of Key Air (which operates the airport) and the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) will be there.

[11/21 note: This meeting has now been cancelled as Anoka County will not be acting on the resolution to support airport expansion.]

There were several dozen county residents in attendance this morning as well as numerous reporters.

Early November 2008

2008-11-16T18:14:00.000-08:00

Blaine Airport Expansion: I just received word that Anoka County is considering an expansion of the Blaine Airport from 5,000 feet to 6,000 feet. About four years ago I was aware that an original expansion to 5,000 feet would allow planes to do "instrument landings," meaning that they could land without having the engine cranked up and therefore could reduce noise over my district in Lexington, Circle Pines, Lino Lakes, and possibly Shoreview. The expansion to 6,000 feet would allow more safety but would bump up the Blaine Airport up to "intermediate airport" status, which could allow more flights and larger planes flying over 53A. Minnesota Statutes 360.365 has a list of the aircraft that can fly into an intermediate airport: single engine or light to medium multiengine aircraft. Right now the airport can accommodate single engine or light multiengine planes.

[11/17 update: I have received a ton of e-mail from constituents in Circle Pines, Lino Lakes, Lexington, and Shoreview complaining about increased noise from flights just in the last year.]

Anoka County is considering a resolution that would support the expansion, but there hasn't been a whole lot of public information about it. However, on Tuesday, November 18th, Anoka County's airport committee and intergovernmental committees will be meeting to act on the resolution starting at 11:00 a.m. in the Anoka County Government Center. The legislature would have to act on this expansion as well but this would be a good opportunity for citizens to give their input. I will be attending the meeting, and would appreciate any input from district residents to pass along.

Park and ride update: The Met Council informs me that a park-and-ride at Highway 14 and 35W (in Lino Lakes just a few blocks east of Centerville) is likely to be designed in 2009 and then built in 2010 or 2011.

Shoreview to Minneapolis express bus to stay: Metro Transit reports that it will keep running the 261 express bus from Shoreview City Hall to Minneapolis three times a day in each direction. Metro Transit set up a demonstration route of the route last year by extending to route from Roseville City Hall to Shoreview. If there were more than 16 riders between Shoreview and Roseville, the route would stay. The ridership has been strong and steady, and the route is now permanent!

E-waste: There was a story on 60 Minutes on November 9th about how some electronic waste from the United States ends up poisoning communities in China. I'm working on some legislation that would help address this issue in Minnesota, but much of the responsibility and enforcement lies with the federal government. In another development, a non-profit group called the Electronics TakeBack Coalition just issued a report card on the major TV manufacturers on their recycling programs.

Conservation Rate Structure legislation follow-up: Legislation I authored last year required public water suppliers to create a conservation rate structure to promote conservation of our drinking water supply. The DNR has prepared a two-page primer for water authorities to better understand how the rates work.

Higher Education Veterans Programs: While at Century College in November, I found a helpful brochure and web site informing veterans, military personnel, and their families of their opportunites for higher education.

Schedule: Things have picked up since the election! On Thursday, November 6th, I spoke at the Recycling Association of Minnesota's annual conference about legislation related to solid waste and recycling. In the evening, the House DFL Caucus met in St. Paul and we elected Margaret Kelliher as Speaker and Tony Sertich as Majority Leader. On Monday, November 10th, I attended a Metropolitan Council District Dialogue in Maplewood, where Peter Bell gave an update on actions by the Met Council. Many city, county, and state elected officials attended. Later, I attended a meeting of the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission in St. Paul. Rep. Dean Urdahl (R-Grove City) is the organizer and I'm the DFLer on the committee. On Thursday, November 13th, I spoke to a group of canvassers at Clean Water Action in Minneapolis about recent drinking water issues at the Legislature. In the afternoon, I attended a Veterans' Day ceremony at Century College to help open a new veterans' center. My colleague Bob Dettmer (R-Forest Lake), who has been a member of the MN National Guard for several decades, gave the keynote address. Later in the afternoon, I attended a meeting in Circle Pines regarding the future opening of a county library in Lino Lakes, and then I stopped by a reception in North Oaks to welcome the new members of the city council. On Friday, November 14th, I participated in a meeting by the MPCA on product stewardship of beverage containers. The states of Wisconsin and Minnesota are engaging the beverage industry about how to increase recycling of cans and bottles. (Recycling cans in particular helps reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.)

During this period I have also been working with House Research staff to figure out what legislation I will be working on in 2009. Constituents and colleagues have been suggesting a ton of ideas of things to address where I might be able to help. I also managed to clean up my office so I can find stuff and be ready for the session.

Constituent contacts: Lino Lakes and Circle Pines residents about proposed Blaine Airport expansion; Shoreview resident asking about legislative plans to balance the budget for the 2010-2011 biennium; Shoreview resident about Congressional action on a federal lands issue; Shoreview resident asking for legislation prohibiting dog tethering (we all got about 200 identical e-mails on this from all over the state); Lino Lakes resident and Circle Pines resident supporting get-tough strategy for illegal immigration

Election Results & Next Steps

2008-11-06T07:02:00.000-08:00

The election brought a victory of more than 1,000 votes on Tuesday evening. Thanks to the voters for their support of my re-election! Big thanks also go to my campaign team of Tom McSteen, Matt & Jennifer Percy, Dawn Reckinger, Mike Spellman, and Judy Ohannesian. They and dozens of others did an incredible job. My opponent John Kappler also worked very hard (I can attest to how many doors he knocked!) and I enjoyed getting to know him during the campaign.

The legislative session will start Tuesday, January 6th. In the meantime, the House DFL Caucus will meet Thursday evening, November 6th, where we are likely to elect a Speaker and Majority Leader. We will also meet again in November and December to begin looking at our legislative strategy for 2009. Balancing the budget will be a major challenge with the economic downturn.

If you are interested in getting e-mail updates from me during the legislative session, you can sign up at http://www.house.mn/53a.

More to follow!

Immigration Mailing & Per Diem mailing

2008-11-02T09:40:00.000-08:00

Saturday, November 1 brought a new mailer from the Freedom Club PAC talking about voting record about illegal immigration. Here's some context.

DREAM Act: In state tuition for students whose parents came here illegally

I support this provision because demographers tell us that the number of high school graduates is declining at a time when baby boomers are retiring. Businesses are concerned that there will not be enough college graduates to fill needed positions over the next two decades. The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce also supported this position. The group ISAIAH has some other rationale for this legislation at http://www.gamaliel.org/isaiah/issues/CRI/DreamAct/ResidentTuitionRatesOPEN.htm.

Sanctuary Cities

I voted for an amendment to allow local law enforcement to ask about immigration status at traffic stops in so-called sanctuary cities but I voted against an amendment to withhold local government aid unless law enforcement was required to ask about immigration status. The federal government rarely picks up people who are detained over their immigration status by local officers, so we end up picking up the tab as we clog up our courts enforcing federal law. Law enforcement agencies in Minneapolis and St. Paul have been against this legislation because it keeps otherwise law-abiding residents from assisting police in solving crimes.

Gas Tax Refund

An amendment was introduced to make undocumented immigrants ineligible for the $25 tax rebate that Minnesotans in the lowest income tax bracket can qualify for to offset the recent gas tax increase. Why would someone here illegally A) file a tax return to draw attention to themselves and B) push their luck with the authorities by applying for a $25 tax refund?

Photo ID to vote

In 2006, less than 20 people voted as non-citizens in Minnesota out of 3 million voters. A photo ID requirement would suppress many more votes than 20. I’ve got 34 constituents who are nuns who get around on Metro Mobility and don’t drive. They would have to get bussed to the courthouse and show a birth certificate to PAY for a photo ID just to vote. Election judges are already empowered to challenge a voter’s eligibility at the polls. The League of Women Voters has a very good explanation why requiring a photo ID at the polls is not a good idea at http://www.lwv.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=PAVP1&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=11254

Also see this Politico article about the myth of voter fraud: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1008/15155.html

Welfare

Minnesota has prohibited the use of welfare benefits for immigrants who are here illegally. You have to provide a social security number anyway to get benefits, thus allowing increased protection against fraud. It should be noted that a staff member of Gov. Pawlenty's Human Services Department was recently indicted for welfare fraud when he funneled $1 million to a private account, which is just as heinous. Here is a summary of the national discussion: http://www.ncsconline.org/wc/courtopics/FAQs.asp?topic=ImmLaw#FAQ514

Republican Party Mailing: There was another mailing late last week "How Much More Can You Afford?" with someone lighting a $100 bill. It mentions my vote in favor of the comprehensive transportation bill but also cites House Journal 4052 on a vote in favor of higher per diem and year-round housing for legislators. This is a little misleading. With this one exception, I have voted with the Republicans at every turn to allow the House as a whole to vote on the per diem increase. The House Rules Committee voted to increase it from $66 per day to $77 day without a floor vote. (My per diem is $35 per day on weekdays only while we are in session, one of the lowest in the legislature--and lower than that of any Republican.)

For housing for legislators--this only applies to legislators who live 50 miles or more from the Capitol and I didn't feel I had the knowledge to know whether or not the current housing allowance is the right number. The reason I voted in April 2007 in HJ4052 was because Rep. Steve Sviggum was trying to set a specific per diem rate in statute, and I have a problem with putting specific dollar figures into law--for example, we could LOWER per diem but we'd have to repeal the figure in Rep. Sviggum's proposed legislation. This is another case where the minority was trying to come up with all sorts of votes to use at election time.

Late October 2008

2008-10-23T14:30:00.000-07:00

Schedule: On October 14-16, I participated in three candidate forums and attended a House DFL Caucus fundraising event. On Monday, October 20th, I visited a group of senior citizens in Shoreview and the Home of the Good Shepherd in North Oaks.

On Tuesday, October 21st, I visited South Metro Sort & Recycle in Shakopee for a demonstration of grinding equipment for post-consumer asphalt shingles. Asphalt manufacturers have been recycling post-industrial shingles into asphalt for roads at a rate of 5% for some years. Now they are working on using tear-off shingles from roofing companies. If we could recycle 156,000 tons of tear-off shingles in the metro area a year, it would save $12 million a year in road construction costs because shingles have 25% asphalt cement.

On Wednesday, October 22nd, I participated in a candidate forum at Island Lake Elementary School on education. In the evening, I attended a presentation at the Freshwater Society in Excelsior. The Freshwater Society just issued a great report, "Water is Life: Protecting a Critical Resource for Future Generations," about our groundwater supply. (See their report on-line.)

On Thursday, October 23rd, I attended a meeting of the Municipal Legislative Commission (MLC), where I received an award for my legislative work promoting property tax relief for suburban homeowners through the Property Tax Relief (PTR) program. (See picture at left with Mayor of Woodbury.) The MLC is a group of second-ring Twin Cities suburbs, including Shoreview. The Commissioner of the Department of Revenue came to talk about prospects for a budget deficit next year. The meeting was at the corporate headquarters of Great River Energy (GRE) in Maple Grove. The GRE building is a platinum LEED-certified building, which means that it has a lot of environmentally-friendly components. They use a rainwater cistern to collect water from the roof, then use it for flushing toilets. They also use water from a stormwater pond for watering the landscaping. The building uses 90% less water than comparable buildings. (See the link above for more details!)

Constituent contacts: Shoreview constituent concerned about data privacy for newborn DNA screening program at MN Department of Health; Lino Lakes resident about groundwater protection issues; Shoreview resident disagreeing with my St. Paul Pioneer Press endorsement; Lino Lakes resident asking what the Freedom Club PAC is; North Oaks and Shoreview residents asking for state action against renegade ATV riders; Circle Pines resident concerned about U of M's tuition plan for the next two years

Negative Mailing Fact Check #2

2008-10-17T08:30:00.000-07:00

The Freedom Club PAC just sent out a second mailing this week suggesting that I would like to tax people out of their homes through property tax increases. The postcard cites four votes that support this contention.

Well, this is more bunk. The votes include two amendments offered by the Republican minority to a tax conformity bill (HF3201) final passage to HF3201 on March 3, 2008, and one amendment on the omnibus transportation bill (HF2800) on February 21, 2008.

So here's the deal on the votes cited in the mailing.

House Journal page 8099: Rep. Drazkowski introduced an amendment to HF3201 that would establish a property tax levy cap for seniors. House Journal page 8060 was an amendment from Rep. Buesgens that would impose levy limits on local governments. While these sound good, these amendment came on the fly on the floor and we were unable to receive any input from the public about its fiscal repercussions. We eventually put together other legislation that provides targeted relief to senior for property taxes. Indeed, I authored a bill in cooperation with the MN Senior Federation (HF4171) that would cap property taxes as a percentage of your income and a bill (HF4188) that would increase the amount of dollars for the Property Tax Refund (PTR) program--or the "circuit breaker" program. HF4188 ended up being part of the omnibus tax bill at the end of the session and included about $20 million. We also had levy limits in our final tax bill as well, and I voted for that bill. The overall tax conformity bill (House Journal page 8103) makes sure that we are coordinating our tax policy with federal tax law among other things, and it was a good bill. The tax conformity bill provided property tax exclusions for disabled veterans and it also included National Guard members in the group of people who can claim income tax deductions for out-of-state military service.

House Journal page 7863 was an amendment by Rep. Kohls on the omnibus transportation finance bill on February 21st. This is the big transportation bill that infuses necessary dollars into our roads, bridges, and transit system. The amendment would require that any new state dollars doing to local governments result in a dollar-for-dollar reduction in property taxes. The problem with this amendment (other than it was poorly written) is that our eventual legislation for transportation is helping property taxes GO DOWN in several places in our district. The city tax levy in 2009 in Circle Pines will GO DOWN by six percent due in part to the new transportation dollars going to cities, counties, and townships.

The mailing has a picture of someone hammering in a "foreclosed" sign in front a house. This is ironic, since I introduced legislation that the Governor signed to provide foreclosure protection and predatory lending protections for owners of manufactured homes (aka mobile homes).

Negative Mailings, Polling, and Independent Expenditures

2008-10-15T09:35:00.000-07:00

By now, constituents may have received a negative mailing or two and perhaps some calls asking about candidates. I wanted to mention something about "independent expenditures."

According to Minnesota law, candidates usually cannot coordinate their activities with outside groups. You may have seen this kind of thing in the presidential and senate races, where some outfit sends a mailing or pays for a TV ad and they have a disclaimer at the end--such as "no candidate is responsible for the content of this ad." These groups, which include the political parties, raise their own money. My opponent, John Kappler, and I have talked about this briefly with each other we find these negative independent expenditures to be unhelpful. Both of us have volunteers from the community working hard trying to make the case for each candidate, and it is always a surprise to suddenly find a postcard from some outside group in our mailboxes.

One mailing just came out from the DFL called "Blind Obedience," suggesting that Republicans in the legislature do not have a mind of their own. There is a legitimate discussion to be had about how the House Republican Caucus treated its six members who voted to override the Governor's veto of the transportation bill. However, this was an action in the past. I think the tone of this mailing is pretty over the top and I hope that both political parties would avoid doing these kinds of negative mailings. In 2006 and 2008, I've been targeted by the House GOP Caucus and outside groups attacking me with mail and push polls, so I know what the experience is like. Both Mr. Kappler and I are interested in talking about issues and I hope that voters will avail themselves of information from our own literature, our web sites, voters' guides, and so on to make their choice on November 4th.

There are also so-called "push polls" going on, although the nastier ones don't seem to be happening in 53A. A push poll is where a caller might say, "Would you still vote for X if you knew that they did this awful thing?" They are clearly intending to bring down one candidate with a negative attack. A constituent complained of a call from the Sierra Club where they were doing "positive persuasion," where the caller was suggesting that if the voter was interested in the environment that he should vote for me. There was no attack against the opponent. Again, this is an independent expenditure and my campaign was unaware that these calls were taking place until the constituent brought it up. I don't find positive persuasion calls to be as objectionable as the negative attack push poll, because they tend to be positive.

Stay tuned for updates about other mailings coming out.