Minnesota House of Representatives

Accessibility menu

Menu

Minnesota House of Representatives

State Representative Glenn Gruenhagen

241 State Office BuildingState Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-4229

For more information contact:

Posted: 2011-02-11 00:00:00
Share on: 



GUEST COLUMN

State of the State response; local town hall meetings scheduled

By Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen

It’s been another busy week at the Capitol. We passed some key bills
and also hosted Gov. Mark Dayton as he delivered his State of the State
Address from the House floor.

The governor spent most of his time talking about where he wants to
spend money, but provided little in terms of how he'll pay for that and
simultaneously erase our budget shortfall.

We'll learn a lot more about the details of Dayton’s plan next week
when he unveils his budget proposal. We know he’s going to push tax
increases, we’re just waiting to find out how many Minnesotans will get
whacked and how big the price tag will be.

I wholeheartedly disagree with taxing our small businesses and
entrepreneurs to support government growth, especially since these are
the people who will lead our economy back to prosperity. Taxing these
folks is counter-productive to our goals of helping Minnesotans get back
to work and showing Minnesota is once again open for business.

It was good the governor showed support for House File 1, a bill we
just approved in order to streamline our cumbersome process for business
permits and environmental review. I hope we can use areas like this as a
building block to jump-starting our economy and growing new jobs.

Other bills we passed this week will allow alternative licensure
pathways for teachers (SF 40), and also eliminate nearly $1 billion from
our $6.2 billion budget shortfall (HF 130). The governor vetoed the
latter Thursday, so it's back to the drawing board with that one.

Your thoughts on the issues would be greatly appreciated and I’ve set
up a series of seven town hall meetings throughout the district so we
can talk face-to-face. The meetings will be casual and there’s no need
to RSVP. Here is the complete schedule:

Saturday, Feb. 19:
9 – 9:45 a.m., New Auburn City Hall (8308 Eighth Ave.)
10:15 – 11 a.m., Green Isle Community Room (390 Parnell St.)
11:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m., Bittersweet Coffee/Gifts, Henderson (522 Main
St.)
12:45 – 1:30 p.m., Arlington Haus, Arlington (147 W. Main St.)

Saturday, March 5
9 – 9:45 a.m., The Branch, LeSueur (206 Valley Green Square)
10:15 – 11 a.m., Hilltop Hall, Montgomery (201 First St. S.)
11:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m., Schumacher’s, New Prague (212 Main St. W.)

Hope to see you there,
Glenn

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