Week of February 1, 2009

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 November 25, 2007

Schedule: At church on Sunday, the speaker was Tom Gillaspy, the state demographer. He spoke about how our population is aging. That will have massive fiscal repercussions for us as the baby boomers retire. On Tuesday, November 27th, I toured Century College in White Bear Lake/Mahtomedi with the chair of the House Higher Education Committee, Rep. Tom Rukavina (DFL-Virginia), and Rep. Carol McFarlane (R-White Bear Lake). Several hundred of my constituents attend Century so I wanted to tag along for the tour, since I haven't been there before. (The number of students from 53A at local MnSCU campuses is listed in a previous post.
Here are a couple of interesting items that I heard at Century:
* The state is not going to have enough dentists in the near future. Century is training hygienists and other dental technicians.
* The state has a nursing shortage, and Century's nursing program now has the state's first paramedic-to-RN accelerated program. (My neighbor is participating in this program.)
* Century has one of just seven orthotics and prosthetic labs in the U.S. The campus is cranking out graduates who then--among other things--are producing artificial limbs for returning veterans. In fact, some Iraq vets are in the program.
* The student body comes from 100+ nationalities. Their digital language lab (DLL) assists many students in their English proficiency.
* Minnesota imports engineers from other states and countries. To meet future labor needs, Century has a fabrication lab (the "Fab Lab") where students learn applied engineering. They get an associate of applied science degree and many complete a four-year degree at the University of Minnesota.

We also met with some faculty and members of the student Senate. More than 200 veterans are students. I met three of them in a meeting with the student senate.

Some other interesting factoids:
* For each additional $6 million annually from the state, the Minnesota State Colleges & Universities System (MnSCU) can reduce tuition by 1% for a year. Tuition at Century went up by only 4% this year after much larger increases in past years.
* Seven percent of full-time equivalent course loads at Century are taken on-line
* There is a dispute between the legislature and the MnSCU board of trustees as to how much the MnSCU office should be spending on technology versus tuition reduction.

In the afternoon of November 27th, I attended a meeting of the Eastern Transportation Alliance (ETA), a group of city and county governments that are promoting transit expansion in the greater St. Paul metro area and areas from Chisago County in the north to Olmsted County in the south. The group is asking the Governor and the Legislature for $140 million in bonding money in 2008 to complete the Central Corridor light rail line along University Avenue. The idea is that this line, along with a refurbished Union Depot in St. Paul, will allow suburbs in the northeast and southeast metro to tap into a larger transit network. Our district is kind in the middle of transit proposals to the east (like the Rush Line) and to the west (Northstar Corridor and a proposed passenger rail line from Duluth to Minneapolis via Cambridge). You can get a better idea of what is proposed in the Central Corridor and the Union Depot at the Ramsey County Regional Rail Authority website.

I would like to spend my time relating to transit on bus service and park-and-ride lots for the moment. Speaking of park-and-ride lots, I received a letter from Metro Transit responding to an inquiry regarding lots in Lino Lakes. Metro Transit is trying to build a parking structure at 95th Avenue and 35W (in Blaine) where there is an existing (and full) parking lot of 1,000 spaces. The construction would be from September 2008 to September 2009. A temporary park-and-ride for 200 spaces would be required during construction, and that location could be at the proposed Lino Lakes library site at Highway 23 and 35W in Lino Lakes. Metro Transit also wrote that a park-and-ride for 200 spaces could be possible at the northwest corner of 35E and Highway 14 in Lino Lakes as plans for that intersection develop in early 2008.

On Wednesday, November 28th, I attended a Local Government Officials Meeting for Anoka County in Ham Lake. Anoka County staff presented a draft legislative package. (The 2007 version is on-line and it is very similar.) The most interesting presentation was given by Commissioner Rhonda Sivarajah, who spoke on Anoka County Human Services. The presentation gave the facts about what we might otherwise call "welfare" and the myths that are out there about it. Here are some factoids I picked up:

* A breakdown of benefits issued by the county in 2006 for public assistance included 89% ($268,818,008) for health care (especially nursing homes, Medicare), five percent for food assistance ($13,805,648) , and six percent ($17,888,007) for cash assistance. These are state and federal dollars and the county only pays for staff to administer the benefits.
* The average costs for nursing home care are about $3,500 to $6,500 per month.
* 70% of people on MFIP (Minnesota Family Investment Program, a cash program for families with children) in Anoka County have only been on public assistance for less than two years. The cash benefit is $532 per month and $378 for food stamps per month.
* 69% of MFIP recipients are children.
* The average monthly caseload for the County for MFIP is 1,798.

After viewing the Star Tribune's web site on the 35W bridge collapse, I found that there were three of my constituents on that bridge, including one who was killed. I was pleased that the Governor announced some temporary relief for survivors but I was distressed that it took so long for him to take action. The temporary assistance comes from an existing tort claims fund. It looks like Senator Ron Latz (DFL-St. Louis Park) and Rep. Dennis Ozment (R-Rosemount) worked with the Governor after the 9/11 fund special master spoke on this issue a few weeks ago.

Visitors: On November 27th I met with a House researcher, MPCA staffers, and another House member on some recycling initiatives.

Constituent contacts: district resident about my bill on scrap metal theft because his company provides alarm systems for construction sites, which have been targets for thieves (the company is RSI Alarm, based in White Bear Lake, and it sells globally); Circle Pines resident about property tax assessments; Shoreview resident about special education and transportation policy; Shoreview resident about MN Board of Medical Practice issue; Circle Pines resident about MnDOT rules about audible pedestian signals for blind pedestrians; Lino Lakes resident about environmental issues; Shoreview resident about health care premium increases and the precariousness of coverage and supporting transit; Shoreview resident supporting fewer mandates and increased competition in health care