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E-Update

Legislative Update - April 20, 2012

Dear neighbors,

The legislative session continues to speed toward a conclusion, but a great deal of work remains to be done. We still have not completed a bonding bill or enough meaningful legislation to help create jobs or strengthen our economy. I hope that we don’t simply speed to adjournment without doing positive work for the people of Minnesota.

Last week I held a town-hall meeting with Rep. Tina Liebling and my usual Second Saturday Coffee. Attendance was great! I appreciate so many of you taking time out of your evenings and weekends to participate in the process and talk about the issues facing our state. You are invited to attend the Second Saturday of any month — any change will be published via email and I’ll let you know when I’m holding any future town hall meetings.

If you have questions, comments or concerns please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you again for the honor of serving you in the legislature. Kim Norton State Representative District 29B (651) 296-9249 rep.kim.norton@house.mn

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UPDATES FROM THE CAPITOL

Nurse Licensing Compact

The Nurse Licensing Compact bill recently passed the Senate on a vote of 38-29. I am the chief author of the House bill, which recently passed the Ways and Means Committee. The bill received its second reading in the House today, I am hopeful that the bill will be voted early next week.

I continue to work with the Minnesota Nurses Association on their concerns and am open to working in language to address any remaining concerns if it is brought forward. To that end, we held a two hour joint meeting this week with the interested parties to identify and clarify concerns. This bill continues to be a top issue for Mayo Clinic and was identified as “essential" by the Governor’s Health Care Task Force.

Shared Parenting Bill

The House recently passed a bill dealing with joint custody and equal shared parenting of children. The bill, HF 322 establishes that parents are entitled to a presumption of joint custody and equal shared parenting time (45.1% for each parent), while also requiring greater evidence to deny that equal shared parenting time. The Senate bill is facing roadblocks in the Judiciary Committee and may not get through the committee process.

I am a co-author of the bill and voted for its final passage. I firmly believe that it’s important to keep families together but in the event of a divorce, we need to do what we can to ensure that children remain safe, healthy, and have both parents in their lives as often as possible. I believe that this bill is a step in the right direction and while there may need to be changes in the language to address opposition concerns, it is an important issue for many.

Safe Routes for Schools

The Minnesota Legislature’s Childhood Obesity Working Group, which I co-chair along with Rep. Bob Dettmer, was created to consider policies and strategies for Minnesota to reduce the obesity epidemic that is gripping our state as it is other states. Of special concern to the Working Group — and to all Minnesotans for that matter — are the eating and exercise habits of the state’s youth. We believe that if we can get youth to eat better and exercise more, there will be a resulting positive impact on the rates of obesity and overweight, which combined today stands at 61 percent of all Minnesota adults, according to the Minnesota Department of Health.

When you consider these facts, it is no surprise that the key legislative recommendation from the Working Group to the 2012 Minnesota Legislature is to create and fund a Safe Routes to School grant program for Minnesota’s towns and cities. We made that recommendation because we believe that doing so will help Minnesota youth become more physically fit.

Creating and funding a Minnesota-based Safe Routes to School grant program will enable children to more safely walk or bicycle to school. The existing federal program has demonstrated success in many schools and communities across the state by improving the transportation infrastructure to and from schools. Unfortunately, the federal grant program is currently unable to even come close to the level of demand in Minnesota for infrastructure improvements related to school safety. Last year there were $23 million in requests for funding from across the state but just $3.8 million was available for grants through the federal program.

We have examples right here in Olmsted County of both the benefits and shortfalls of the existing federal program. We’ve seen projects funded for schools in Dover-Eyota and Rochester to help create and extend trails, improve street crossings and put in speed reduction strategies. But we’ve also seen very worthwhile projects, like the one to build new sidewalks for Bonner Elementary School and Stewartville Middle School in Stewartville, go unfunded.

The safety issues associated with children who walk and bike are well known. Nationally, 25 percent of all children’s traffic fatalities and 15 percent of all children’s traffic injuries occurred when they were walking or biking. Safe Routes to School is the only program designed to address these tragic statistics. But the health-related facts also make clear why we need to do more to encourage youth to be more physically active and to keep them safe while doing so.

If left unchecked, by the year 2020 nearly 31 percent of the overall increase in Minnesota’s health care costs will be due to projected increases in obesity alone. And if current trends continue, treating Minnesota’s overweight and obese populations will cost an additional $3.7 billion by 2020.

Few bills have the endorsement of so many organizations and strong bipartisan support at the legislature. I am proud to be one of twenty-two House authors and Sen. Carla Nelson is one of the ten Senate authors. The thirty-three organizations supporting the bill range from health groups, like the American Heart Association, to school interests such as the Minnesota School Boards Association, and individual cities as well as the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities. I urge my colleagues in the House and Senate to establish and fund the Minnesota Safe Routes to School program.

Creating and funding a Safe Routes to School program for Minnesota will not only help to encourage more youth to walk and bike to and from school, and help to keep them safe while doing so, it will benefit taxpayers, health insurance policy holders and those who pay into the health care system. It’s seldom that any program has that broad of a positive impact on Minnesota and its people.

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STAY INFORMED
In addition to these email updates, there are a number of ways for Minnesotans to follow major issues and get a behind-the-scenes look at the legislative process. Please encourage your friends and neighbors to subscribe to this listserv at www.house.mn/29B.
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The Senate and House produce award-winning weekly and daily news magazines during the legislative session online and in print. To subscribe or for general information about the House (651) 296-2146, Senate (651) 296-0504, and legislative process, visit the Legislature’s website at www.leg.state.mn.us and click on “general information.”

You can also track bills I’m working on at my House website: www.house.mn/29B.