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State Representative Jeanne Poppe
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-4193
For more information contact: Sandy Connolly 651-296-8877
NEWS COLUMN
LEGISLATURE ADJOURNS AFTER MOST CHALLENGING SESSION IN A GENERATION
The Minnesota State Legislature adjourned at midnight on Monday night, ending one of the most challenging sessions in Minnesota’s history. Balancing the budget with a historic budget deficit of $6.4 billion was the top priority of this session. The amount of this large deficit, in actual dollars about 1/6 of the 2008 – 2009 general fund, and how to provide solutions to manage this significant shortfall was the political and policy discussion of the year.
Throughout last summer and fall every meeting was an opportunity for me to share with groups and individuals the potential for a $2 - $4 billion budget deficit. It wasn’t until early March 2009 when we realized these estimates were low based on new forecasted revenue figures.
Since the legislative session began in January, I continued to lay out the severity of the problem to educate constituents about the harshness of potential cuts to our hospital, schools, college and city or county budgets. As the MN House developed fiscal budgets for 2009-2010 we did so with the goal of minimizing the damage to constituent’s priorities of education and health care. We also wanted to invest in job creation.
The Governor signed the budget bills, putting in place many good provisions that support veterans, protect schools from deep cuts, reduce mandates for local units of government and provide jobs through a capital investment bill.
We finished this legislative session with many bills I authored signed into law. Probably the most talked about legislation will keep all of the wind production tax revenue local, keeping 80 percent of the money with the county and increasing to 20 percent the amount received by the city or township.
A bill to exempt the Associate of Applied Science degree in our community colleges from the 60 credit limit was included in the Higher Education bill. A stand alone bill updating the statutes related to subsurface sewage treatment systems was signed by the Governor on May 19th. Mower County will financially benefit from the state taking back responsibility for the short term offender program, and a provision in the omnibus gambling bill allows charities to use debit cards as payment for raffles.
The Capital Investment Bill included funding for improvements at Riverland Community College, and Austin is on the list of cities able to benefit from flood mitigation dollars.
There will continue to be consequences to the lack of agreement between the legislature and the Governor with budget setting. There will be no special session to work out the disagreement. Governor Pawlenty will unallot (take away) funds which are scheduled to be distributed beginning July 1. The final outcome of these decisions will be felt throughout the summer and fall.
As always, please contact me with your questions and suggestions on issues important to our district. I can be reached at (651) 296-4193 via e-mail at rep.jeanne.poppe@house.mn.
News Items
- POPPE SELECTED AS AGRICULTURE POLICY COMMITTEE CHAIR - (Posted: 2012-11-16 00:00:00)
- Rep. Jeanne Poppe Encourages High School Juniors to Apply for Minnesota House of Representatives Page Program - Application Deadline is November 19th - (Posted: 2012-11-12 00:00:00)
- HORMEL INSTITUTE EXPANSION SIGNED INTO LAW - 2012 legislative session adjourns sine die - (Posted: 2012-05-11 00:00:00)
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