Minnesota House of Representatives

Accessibility menu

Menu

Minnesota House of Representatives

State Representative Tara Mack

345 State Office BuildingState Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-5506

For more information contact:

Posted: 2011-01-28 00:00:00
Share on: 



E-mail update

The latest from the Capitol

Hello from the Capitol!

Here's a quick rundown of this week's top news-makers in St. Paul.

ERASING THE BUDGET SHORTFALL
The biggest news this week was the House's passage of a bill which
takes the first step in erasing our $6.2 billion state budget shortfall.
This is the first phase of a plan to balance the budget and a
significant portion of the bill extends the “un-allotments” passed
bipartisanly last spring. Our budget picture could change somewhat when
updated information comes out in mid-February, but this bill gets us
headed in the right direction.

BUDGET-SETTING BILL
Another budget-related bill was approved by a House committee this week
and it would give us a whole new approach to setting the state budget.
The plan is called zero-based budgeting and, just like our families and
small businesses, government would first establish the amount of revenue
available and then set spending according to our priorities. That is a
dramatic shift from government's habit of putting spending on auto-pilot
leading to unsustainable growth.

SYNTHETIC MARIJUANA
A bill I co-authored to outlaw synthetic marijuana (aka K2 or Spice)
moved a step closer to becoming law when it passed a second committee
this week. This drug has been banned in 17 countries and 11 other states
and there was no opposition in the committee hearing. This drug has had
a significant impact on families, communities, schools and public safety
officials across the state with its dangerous impact. I became active in
proposing this bill after hearing about its growing presence in our
schools and community. I appreciate the diligence of our local police
officers who have worked hard to educate both me and people across the
state about the dangers of this drug the need address the problem with
legislation.

I will keep you posted as things develop. As always, feel free to
e-mail me your thoughts at rep.tara.mack@house.mn.

Sincerely,
Tara

News Items

Audio & Video

Galleries

No image galleries found

Minnesota House of Representatives  ·   100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Saint Paul, MN   55155   ·   Webmaster@house.mn