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State Representative Duane Quam
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-9236
For more information contact: Jason Wenisch 651-296-2317
NEWS COLUMN
STATE RESPONDS TO THE WANTS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENTS
From my time on the Byron School Board, and in meeting with local government officials over the years, I've experienced and often heard about mandates that are forced on us by the State of Minnesota. In most cases, not only does the state tell your local elected officials what to do, but forces them to waste their own financial resources in order to live up to the state's ridged ideas of how we should do our jobs.
With Minnesota facing a multi-billion dollar gap between what government wants to spend and what is taken from its hardworking citizens, most of our city councils, school, township, and county boards have recognized the financial reality we are in and budgeted with the assumption that they will likely receive no increase from the state.
But like many Minnesota lawmakers I strongly desire to ease the burdens of local governments, which is why I am co-authoring a bill which removes certain state mandates and allows the locals to spend the money saved as they wish. So far, the bill would eliminate these initiatives:
*Setting aside 2% of a schools basic revenue funding for teacher staff development. The school board could then spend this money as they deem necessary.
*Teachers contracts must be settled by January 15. This prevents school boards from paying a financial penalty to the state if they don’t meet this deadline.
*Learning and Development Credit. Instead of telling schools they have to spend their funding to maintain a 17 to 1 student/teacher ratio between grades Kindergarten through 3rd, the schools can spend this money as they see fit.
*Maintenance and Effort requirement for libraries. This required spending for local libraries would be eliminated for counties and cities.
*Pay Equity Compliance. This law forces a local government to pay for an equity study to make sure workers in women-dominated fields are being paid at the same levels as those in men-dominated fields. We’re told that this mandate is no longer necessary and leads to inflated employee costs.
*Limitation of part time officers on a police department. Instead of forcing communities to hire only a certain amount of part-time officers, this would allow them to hire as many as they want or need.
There are other mandates that are also included in the bill as it remains a work in progress. We've heard suggestions from some units of local government, but not all. If there are any board or council members or residents reading this that have other mandate elimination ideas that could save money, I strongly encourage them to contact me. Lawmakers can’t do this alone, so I urge you to come forward with your thoughts as to how to make this bill better and create a more efficient state.
News Items
- Legislative Update from Rep. Duane Quam - (Posted: Jan 11 2013 3:55PM)
- CLARIFYING MISCONCEPTIONS ON SEVERAL BILLS - (Posted: 2012-04-05 00:00:00)
- SIGNIFICANT BILLS BEING PASSED OFF HOUSE FLOOR - (Posted: 2012-03-30 00:00:00)
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