Week of February 10, 2008

Schedule: On Monday, I attended the Environmental Finance Committee where the topic was about chemical contamination that is showing up in umbilical cord blood of newborn babies. The same group that presented, the Environmental Working Group, also has an on-database of people who receive farm subsidies. Another presenter from the Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy presented on green chemistry. In the afternoon, I attended a House DFL Caucus fundraiser at Pipefitters local 455. (I have a lot of pipefitters in my district!) In the evening, Senator Rummel, Rep. McFarlane, and I attended a meeting sponsored by ARC Twin Cities at someone's home with parents of children with disabilities.

On Tuesday, I attended two committee caucus meetings; and had a conference call with telephone directory publishers about my solid waste bill; attended a House DFL Caucus meeting; and attended the floor session that was mostly procedural in nature.

On Wednesday, I met with representatives of the MPCA and the Environmental Finance Chair about upcoming MPCA bonding requests before my drinking water subcommittee. In the afternoon, I attended the Energy Policy & Finance Committee where we considered bonding requests for three energy-related projects and attended a House DFL Caucus meeting.

On Thursday morning, I heard DNR bonding requests in the Environmental Finance Committee. Later in the morning on the floor, we passed the bill to put a question on the ballot about raising the sales tax by 3/8 of a percent for the outdoors, clean water, and the arts. In the afternoon I met with the Sergeant at Arms about a security matter and attended the Environment & Natural Resources Committee. We passed Rep. Hortman's Clean Cars bill. I also presented my bill (HF1665) to the Commerce Committee that would allow consumers to use any method of payment to pay for their $5 credit freeze report. A constituent brought this issue to my attention when he tried to pay for his mother's report and one of the credit bureaus would only accept a credit card. If you are trying to freeze your credit report on a credit card because maybe your card was compromised or stolen, it's kind of hard to use it to pay for the credit report! The bill passed quickly and will go to the floor. Now I need the Senate author to proceed with the companion bill.

On Friday, I worked with DFL media staff on a video project outside (more next week on this). It was cold! Later I attended the first meeting of the Ethnic Heritage & New Americans Working Group. I was one of two House members appointed to the working group by the Speaker. (The other is Rep. Rod Hamilton, R-Mountain Lake.) The group has ten total members, with several appointments made by the Governor. According to statute, the working group "must undertake activities it determines are necessary to assist state government to foster an understanding and appreciation of ethnic and cultural diversity in Minnesota, identify underutilized resources within the immigrant community, and to facilitate the full participation of immigrants in social, cultural, and political life in this state." It looks like I will be on a subcommittee on the ethnic heritage part of the group's responsibility. I have already received an e-mail deriding the goals of the working group and suggesting we make sure we celebrate Irish, German, and Norwegian heritage. (In case anyone is interested, my ethnic heritage is English, Scottish, and Scots-Irish.) Around noon, I attended a press conference outlining several of our proposals for meeting climate change objectives for the 2008 session. After that, I was in the Environmental Finance Committee for the rest of the afternoon hearing bonding requests, mostly for local park projects around the state as well as wastewater treatment requests.

State of the state address: Because I couldn't make the bus in time to go (I get the kids off to school in the morning), I was unable to attend the Governor's State of the State address in St. Cloud, but I listened in on the radio. Obviously there will be conflicts with the Governor this year in the Legislature, but I think there will be some things where we will be in general agreement or at least not gridlocked. Transportation will be the major impediment, but we will likely agree on some major health care reform, environmental initiatives, and energy legislation. There were other ideas he mentioned that most people would agree on--address property taxes, attract good people to be new teachers, create a business-friendly environment, and so on. But how he would address them and the way that I might address them would be different. One thing that I wish the Governor and newer legislators like me could do is sit down for more "out-of-the-box" ideas on the future of the state. The Governor has been pretty good at talking about the use of technology and thinking globally, and I would love to get going on those ideas. He talked about downloadable curriculum for Minnesota students, for example. Great! Let's go! But I was also surprised that he did not talk about education reform in the areas that legislators are working on, like testing, accountability measures, and high schools. There was also no discussion about how to tackle the deficit.

Biomonitoring: The Health Department is working on an initiative that might apply to residents of North Oaks concerned about the health effects of vinyl chloride from the leaking Highway 96 landfill.

My colleagues in the east metro who are dealing with perfluorochemicals (PFCs) in drinking water passed legislation last year for biomonitoring of residents in those areas. The purpose of the resulting biomonitoring pilot program was to see what the long-term health effects were of these chemicals. The Health Department is carrying out the program along with an advisory panel. The program is to look at the effects of four chemicals in different parts of the state--PFCs, arsenic, mercury, and a chemical yet to be named.

They have not decided on the fourth chemical, so I have asked the Health Department if they have considered vinyl chloride. The staff member heading up the effort will pass on this idea to the 13 member advisory panel in March. If there is interest, they will make a decision at a future meeting.

The fourth project would have to be at a smaller scale than with PFCs because of budget constraints, so I thought we might have a chance with North Oaks. The PFC project includes taking blood serum from selected residents and testing it for contaminants.

Visitors: Senator on solid waste issues; lobbyist for the MN Builders Association about construction and demolition debris recycling components of my draft bill; lobbyist for MN Sheriffs Association and the County Sheriffs of Wright, Sherburne, and Anoka Counties supporting the proposed regional forensic lab in Anoka County that would handle evidence collected in those counties (there is a proposal for the bonding bill for this lab since the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension has a lab that has a huge backlog); four county solid waste officers giving comments on solid waste legislation; lobbyist and staff for Hennepin County with comments on my solid waste bill regarding composting promotion; lobbyist for the Department of Administration on my solid waste bill; lobbyist for the Met Council about my bill to allow wastewater effluent to be a renewable energy source; lobbyist for a wind and solar energy company about pending legislation; lobbyists for Solid Waste Management Coordinating Board on my solid waste bill; Circle Pines resident and U of M-Morris student who lobbied in favor of that campus's bonding requests

Constituent contacts: Shoreview resident supporting Clean Car emission standards bill; two Shoreview residents supporting early childhood education; Shoreview resident supporting an increase in the minimum wage (she was accompanying the Archbishop of the Twin Cities--who testified in support of the bill) at the Commerce Committee hearing I attended on Thursday; two Circle Pines residents thanking me for vote on the dedicated funding bill; Circle Pines resident about recycling; Circle Pines resident, Shoreview resident against Rep. Kahn's stem cell research bill; Shoreview resident with suggestions for administering elections; three Circle Pines residents, five Lino Lakes residents, four Shoreview residents supporting "rule of 90" retirement benefit for teachers; Lino Lakes resident promoting single-payer health care; Shoreview resident promoting taxes on gas and alcohol; two Shoreview residents supporting Castle Doctrine ("stand your ground") bill; North Oaks resident against excessive health care premium increases; North Oaks resident about proposed payment reform in health care; Shoreview resident against ethanol subsidies; Shoreview resident supporting a citizen stakeholder council for the proposed dedicated outdoor funding bill; North Oaks resident commenting on biomonitoring ideas for Highway 96 landfill contamination issue; Shoreview resident against transportation, outdoor, and arts taxes; Lino Lakes resident supporting early passage of a public employee contract; Circle Pines resident against transportation taxes; North Oaks business owner against minimum wage increase; Shoreview resident against taxes; Shoreview resident supporting legislation banning use of cell phones while driving; Shoreview resident supporting more competition for cable service; Blaine resident against taxes; Shoreview resident supporting legislation on homeowner warranty enforcement; Shoreview resident about animal viruses in hog feedlots; Shoreview resident about employment issue

Week of January 13, 2008

Governor's Bonding Proposal: On Monday morning, the Governor outlined his recommendations for capital investment. You can see copies of the presentation and a list of the detailed projects at the Department of Finance website. There is a lot of good stuff in there, and the legislature will now take a look at this proposal and incorporate its own ideas as well. The bonding bill will total about $1 billion. In particular, I noticed that the state is proposing $1 million for additional groundwater monitoring wells in the Twin Cities metro area. There is also a proposal for trunk highway bonding for the Urban Partnership Agreement (UPA) that would likely provide support for park-and-rides in the north metro area, including Lino Lakes. The Governor is also proposing $225 in borrowing for local bridge replacement. The legislature may move this into the transportation bill but I'm not sure yet. I will point out that transportation still has a dedicated source of funding (the gas tax and license tab fees) while this transportation bonding has no plan for paying back the bonds. Our interest payments on trunk highway bonds have increased by 1000% in the last five years!

A Little Bit on Health Care: The documents we're given on possible health care reform in 2008 are pretty overwhelming, so I'm digesting them a little bit at a time. The legislature's Health Care Access Commission Working Group on Cost Containment has an interesting report that talks about "health care homes" or what some call "patient centered care." My colleague Rep. Erin Murphy (DFL-St. Paul) is a co-author and she is one of four nurses in the House. The report talks about successful pilot projects where one person or clinic helps patients wade through a complex system to figure out the best care. Very outcome-based!

35-W Bridge Survivors' Web Site: Several survivors of the bridge collapse have put together a web site to encourage action by the legislature. You'll note that seven survivors come from our senate district, plus two people people who died in the collapse.

Per diem issue: I was surprised to see that the Anoka County Watchdog called me the "North Metro Taxpayer Hero" on Friday because of my low per diem rate. Usually I find the watchdog criticisms of public officials to be too subjective (and a little personal), but he does provide a valuable service in shedding some light on public records about government programs and spending.

Schedule: On Monday, I attended a workshop with the Shoreview City Council with other legislators representing Shoreview, including Senators Rummel and Chaudhary and Representatives Scalze and Knuth. The city's legislative platform included: property tax relief through an enhanced circuit breaker mechanism; commitment to the reinstatement of the homestead market value tax credit that homeowners used to get for homes valued at $400,000 or less, which the city has been funding on its own after state budget cuts in 2003; a preference that the state not impose levy limits; comprehensive transportation funding; allowing administrative fines for ordinance enforcement; opposition to any regionalized water supply system; and opposition to the statewide cable franchising bill (as currently written) discussed in a previous post.

On Tuesday, I attended a meeting of the Legislative Electric Energy Task Force. Presenters included an advisor to Governor Schwarzenegger who presented "How U.S. States Will Answer the Energy & Climate Challenges of the 21st Century," with an emphasis on cap-and-trade systems to combat global warming; a U of M professor on "Cap-and-Trade 101"; and one additional speaker from the Regulatory Assistance Project about cap-and-trade architecture. In the late afternoon, I attended a meeting of elected officials to get an introduction to Alexandra House, the only battered women's shelter in Anoka County. It was a very sobering visit. Alexandra House has 35 beds. In 2003, they lost $600,000 in funding during the budget cutting session at the Capitol and have been slowly recovering.

On Wednesday, I attended an all-day legislative policy conference for legislators at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. In the afternoon we participated in an exercise to help us learn how to negotiate with each successfully. We'll see if it actually works this session!

On Thursday morning, Senator Rummel and I met with a group of doctors at Bethesda Hospital in St. Paul as part of the East Metro Medical Society Council on Professionalism and Ethics. Rep. Jim Abeler and Rep. Erin Murphy were presenting on the Governor's Health Care Transformation Task Force. The main complaint of doctors at the meeting about health care reform proposals was that doctors are being pushed to control costs when there are other things that government and society as a whole should do to make people healthier. For example, doctors do not make people obese or poor but they must deal with the health consequences. They don't like the idea of being pushed into larger organizations like HMOs where cost becomes the driving factor. Later in the morning, I attended a meeting of the Healthy Legacy Coalition, which wants the legislature to ban certain flame retardants and plasticizers. The speaker was Mark Schapiro, who wrote a new book on the topic. In the afternoon, I met a few legislative leaders and two commissioners about water policy and ethanol. Later, I attended a joint meeting of the House Energy Committee and the House Committee on Local Government and Metropolitan Affairs. Two speakers came from Portland, Oregon came to talk about their efforts to deal with "peak oil" and declining supplies of petroleum. An MPCA staffer spoke about the agency efforts on sustainability. Finally, in the early evening I spoke to about a dozen phone canvassers at Clean Water Action about my drinking water subcommittee. (Also see under constituent contacts.)

On Friday, I visited the Forest Lake School District's early childhood program. They have a very active parent advisory council and its leaders took me around with the director of the family center. They spoke to me first-hand about how their children became ready for kindergarten, including one example of how one child avoided becoming a special education student (at possibly higher cost to the taxpayer) because of pre-school screening. I represent just a small fraction of this district in Lino Lakes but I really wanted to hear from their program and it was a good visit. As one teacher said, "It's better to build children than to repair adults!" In the afternoon, I met with a staff member of the Freshwater Society about drinking water policy.

Visitors: Staff from the MN Department of Health about a proposed water supply interconnection between Minneapolis and St. Paul; a Senator about Board of Medical Practice

Constituent contacts: Circle Pines resident and Lino Lakes resident supporting early legislative approval of the MAPE (MN Association of Professional Employees) contract; Circle Pines high school student with an idea about the minimum wage; Circle Pines resident against the Q-Comp teacher's compensation program; Shoreview resident about MN Board of Medical Practice; Circle Pines resident supporting a citizen stakeholder council for the proposed outdoor heritage fund in the proposed dedicated outdoor funding sales tax bill; Lino Lakes resident supporting lower property taxes for unimproved lakeshore property; Lino Lakes resident pleased with constituent communication and blog; about two dozen constituents supporting tougher enforcement on illegal immigration (these were all form letter e-mails); North Oaks resident concerned about lack of opportunity for public comment on the MPCA's proposed amendment to a decision document on the Highway 96 landfill situation; two Shoreview residents and Circle Pines resident opposed to government intervention in health care; Shoreview resident against a gas tax increase and local projects in the bonding bill

The folks at Clean Water Action gave to me on Thursday THIRTY-FIVE handwritten letters from constituents in Shoreview thanking me for supporting the global warming mitigation act in last year's energy bill. Wow.

Week of January 6, 2007

Additional Town Hall Meeting Scheduled: In addition to the Town Hall meeting that Senator Rummel and I will hold on January 23rd at 7:00 p.m. in Lino Lakes, we will also hold a meeting on January 30th at 7:00 p.m. at Shoreview City Hall.

Per Diem: I understand that KSTP-TV did a report on legislators' per diem and how high it is. In a previous post when all the per diem rates were decided, you will see that I voted during a rules debate to force the full House of Representatives to vote on the per diem increase to $77 per day. My own per diem is $35 per day, which is the lowest of any legislator who accepts per diem. So I'm #199 out of 201 current legislators. (#200 is a member who just won a special election, so he hasn't received any regular session per diem yet.)

Postage Returned to State: In 2007, the House alloted $1968.00 in postage for my office. (I suppose it is the same amount for other representatives.) By December 31st, I used just $820.22, which means that $1,147.78 goes back to the state treasury. I still have a bunch of stamps left over too. Anyway, it's not a huge amount, but I saved some for the taxpayer!

Income Growth Report: The U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis just reported that Minnesota was number 50 (dead last) in "seasonally adjusted personal income growth" from the second to the third quarter in 2007. You can see a press release and accompanying tables on-line.

Vikings Stadium Talk?: A constituent called me the other night reporting on activities of the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission related to a possible new Vikings Stadium. While the chances for a taxpayer-funded stadium in Blaine across the highway from my district seem to have passed (FYI, I was against the stadium and supported a referendum on any proposed Anoka-County only sales tax increase), the team is looking at the possibility of tearing down the Metrodome and building a new stadium. The MSFC is touting a recently completed McGladrey Report showing the economic benefits of sports stadiums. I don't buy it and cannot support taxpayer funding for a football stadium when we have so many other needs right now. There will be an open house and public meeting in Minneapolis on January 16th at 6:30 p.m. Here's a story on the economics of the Twins stadium that will give you a flavor for any future stadium discussion.

Schedule: On Monday, I met with Senator Rummel on issues of mutual interest. In the afternoon, I attended a joint hearing of the House Environmental Finance Committee and the Senate Environment & Natural Resources Finance Committee on wastewater. Speakers included the U of M on its onsite sewage treatment program; the U of M on using phosphorus and nitrogen from wastewater treatment to create algae for biofuels; the U of M on endocrine disruptors and pharmaceuticals in wastewater; and the MPCA on wastewater project financing. In the evening, I attended a meeting and presentation by Education Minnesota members from the Mounds View and Centennial School Districts. The presentation was on their legislative agenda for 2008. Major priorities include a statewide health insurance pool for teachers and the Rule of 90 retirement rules.

On Tuesday, I participated as a Project Citizen judge at Irondale High School in New Brighton. Rep. Knuth, former Rep. Steve Dehler, and I listened to 9th grader presentations on six different issues and how those students would solve a problem. Projects included arsenic in playground equipment, phosphorus in Long Lake, E-waste recycling, the Hennepin County waste incinerator, juvenile detention alternatives, and the Mounds View Community Center. The kids did a good job, although for the rest of the day I found myself using the words "like" and "whatever" a bit too much! During mid-day, I met in St. Paul with a staffer for a Congressional campaign. In the afternoon, I spoke to a group of canvassers for Clean Water Action in Minneapolis about the work of my Drinking Water Source Protection Subcommittee. Later I met by phone with some of my House colleagues about some potential legislation on consumer issues.

On Wednesday, I visited two power plants with members and staff for the House and Senate energy committees. The first was Xcel's Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant. This is one of two nuclear power plants in Minnesota and it generates about 600 megawatts. The second was Xcel's Sherburne County Plant (Sherco) in Becker. This is the largest coal burning power plant in the state at 2,400 megawatts. (Xcel's power plants in MN generate about 15,000 megawatts by comparison, or roughly half the state's electrical capacity.) The comparison was interesting. At the nuclear plant, security was very tight. I don't want to reveal that much about it, but let's just say that security knows where you are at any moment as a visitor and the guards are heavily armed with automatic or semi-automatic weapons! The plant is upgrading so that it can produce about another 90 megawatts over the next few years. Nuclear plants make people nervous because of the possibility of an accident, but the physical footprint of the plant was quite small and the fuel rods are good for about 22 months. The Sherco plant by contrast is a sprawling site with a coal ash landfill and a huge pile of coal (about 400 tons burned an hour), it's dirty, and it is probably the biggest emitter of greenhouse gas gases--mostly carbon dioxide--in the state. As a member of the energy committee, I do the math about our electrical supply. We've set the nation's most aggressive renewable energy goal. We've passed aggressive conservation and efficiency goals. We're investing in alternative technologies. But that still won't replace big existing power plants yet because renewables and conservation won't add up to 100% of our current supply. So the question arises--if carbon emissions from coal plants are now considered really bad, and nuclear power is considered undesirable, what public policy tradeoffs will there be?

On Thursday morning, I attended a meeting in Blaine where Anoka County presented its 2008 legislative agenda. The 2007 one is on-line so perhaps the new one will be on-line soon. Later in the day, I attended a presentation of "checks" to two arts groups in our area that came from the Metro Regional Arts Council. One of the recipients was the City of Shoreview, which got a $1,600 grant for the summer concert series at its pavillion. In the evening, I attended a reception for legislators at a joint meeting of the Metro North, Anoka, and Twin Cities North Chambers of Commerce. I was sort of expecting the chambers to tell us (there were about 15 legislators present) what their platform is but they wanted us to talk.

On Friday, Senator Rummel and I attended a legislative breakfast with the Centennial School District board, administration, and parent advocacy groups. Our education budget in 2007 included a significant down payment on special education mandates for school districts, so Centennial received some much needed funding that way this year. Two other legislators in attendance brought out the issue of "equity", saying that the formula dollars currently allocated should be shuffled differently among school districts without consideration for the number of special education students or those with language issues. Respectfully, this is just code for "I don't want to put in any more money into education," and I've seen these statements before! The most compelling argument for education funding reform is from a groups called P.S. Minnesota, which is suggesting that we need to figure out what it actually costs to educate a child and work backwards from there in the budget process. The Centennial Legislative Action Committee also has a platform available on-line.

Later in the morning, I attended a joint House-Senate hearing on the Minnesota Climate Change Advisory Group (MCCAG), which is recommending policy options for the 2008 legislation on how to combat global warming. The MCCAG gave us tables showing us dozens of ways (no till agricultural crop management, urban forestry, lowering the speed limit, better appliance standards, etc.) to reduce carbon emissions through 2025 and the cost per ton of those reductions. Of particular interest to me are the components that involve recycling, solid waste, and composting. (Recycling gives an extremely big bang for the buck on carbon emission reductions, FYI.) The MCCAG will complete their recommendations by the end of the month.

In the afternoon, I attended another joint House-Senate hearing on state parks and trails from the DNR. The DNR showed us a list of $143,640 in projects that have not been completed due to lack of funding. They include things like facility protection, campground renovation, and the like. In addition, the agency is discussing the possibility of acquiring a new state park on Lake Vermillion for roughly $40 from U.S. Steel, which would otherwise sell the land to developers. Much discussion ensued as to whether we have the money to secure the land and meet the needs of other state parks.

Constituent contacts: North Oaks resident supporting treatment for adolescent depression and school violence; Lexington resident supporting legalization of marijuana for medical purposes; Lino Lakes resident supporting use of lottery proceeds for additional purposes; Lino Lakes resident and Shoreview resident supporting a ban on hunting of mourning doves; four Lino Lakes residents against a ban on hunting mourning doves; Lino Lakes resident supporting the Governor's latest initiative against illegal immigration; North Oaks resident about buckthorn; Lino Lakes resident asking about Met Council rules and procedures; five constituents sending form letter e-mails asking for crackdown on illegal immigration; Lino Lakes resident against taxpayer funding for a Vikings Stadium; Blaine resident about crime issues in her area; Shoreview resident regarding MN Board of Medical Practice; Lino Lakes resident supporting dedicating funding bill for the outdoors