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Minnesota House of Representatives

State Representative Denny McNamara

359 State Office BuildingState Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-3135

For more information contact: Jason Wenisch 651-296-2317

Posted: 2011-01-24 00:00:00
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NEWS COLUMN

NEWS AND VIEWS WITH REP. DENNY McNAMARA

Hi everybody,

Now that we’re three weeks in to the 2011 Legislative Session, I’m
pleased to report that lawmakers have hit the ground running. No longer
are we going to sit and wait until the last minute to solve the
state’s most pressing issues – particularly Minnesota’s
projected $6.2 billion budget deficit.

On January 18, House Republicans unveiled an “early action” budget
bill, which would eliminate $1 billion of the projected deficit . Last
session, the Democrat-controlled legislature approved hundreds of
millions in cuts to the budget – on a one time basis. One portion of
this bill centers on making their previously established cuts
permanent.

Other spending measures include removing millions in automatic
increases set for next year; reducing funding for the Legislature,
constitutional offices and other state agencies; permanently eliminating
the taxpayer-subsidized Political Contribution Refund; and preventing a
“Christmas in June” scenario where agencies spend whatever’s left
in their budget on non-essential items in order to prove their future
budgets shouldn’t be reduced.

The plan is to have this legislation passed and ready for Governor
Dayton’s signature early next month.

You may recall that I am serving as Chairman of the House Environment,
Energy and Natural Resources Policy and Finance Committee, so I will
likely be giving you updates on what is happening there from time to
time. The biggest news is that we recently approved a bill that would
end the nuclear power moratorium in Minnesota. Current law forbids us
from even discussing nuclear energy as a viable energy option in
Minnesota much less constructing a new nuclear power plant. Approving
this legislation means we also could discuss how to deal with storing
nuclear waste since the federal government has not taken charge on this
issue. The bill will now be heard in the House Commerce Committee, and
I expect it to receive a vote on the House floor in the coming weeks.

For your planning purposes, I’m beginning to choose questions for my
annual constituent questionnaire and am also beginning to plan my town
meetings. Expect both of these to be finalized some time in February.
When I have dates confirmed, I’ll be sure to let you know.

Keep in touch,

Denny

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