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Minnesota House of Representatives

State Representative Kelby Woodard

221 State Office BuildingState Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-7065

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Posted: 2011-01-28 00:00:00
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E-mail update

Recap of bills in the House

Neighbor-

Here’s a quick rundown of the latest developments at the Capitol:

ERASING THE BUDGET SHORTFALL
A bill to take the first step in erasing our $6.2 billion state budget
shortfall passed the House on Thursday. Much of the bill extended the
“unallotments” passed last spring. There has been some confusion over
a provision pertaining to Local Government Aid, so I want to make this
clear: Units of government within District 25B will receive the same
amount of money in 2011 as they received in 2010. They will not receive
the increases some had hoped for, but there will not be an actual
reduction in funding from this last year to this year.

BUDGET-SETTING BILL
A bill I mentioned in my last e-mail update brings a new approach to
state budgeting. It passed a House committee on Wednesday, inching
closer to becoming law. The new budgeting process is designed to bring a
kitchen-table approach to government spending through a process called
"zero-based" budgeting. We would first determine how much revenue the
state has and then pay the bills according to our priorities

SYNTHETIC MARIJUANA
A bill to outlaw synthetic marijuana came moved a step closer to
becoming law when it passed a committee. It has been banned in 17
countries and 11 other states and there was no opposition in the
committee hearing. The executive director of the Minnesota Board of
Pharmacy said in the first 11 months of last year there were more than
2,500 calls nationwide to poison control centers because of synthetic
marijuana use.

Please continue to provide your input on the issues by e-mailing me at
rep.kelby.woodard@house.mn. I also encourage you to forward this e-mail
to anyone you think may be interested in receiving my periodic updates.
Anyone can sign up to receive them at www.house.mn/25B.

Sincerely,
Kelby

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