By Rep. Paul Anderson
It all comes down to this week as the legislative session heads into the home stretch. The official adjournment time is midnight Monday evening, May 18, and we may go right up to that point.
The schedule has us coming into session for eight straight days, including this Sunday, as we attempt to wrap up what needs to be done. All of the major finance bills are in conference committees and must be agreed upon there before returning to each chamber for final approval. New spending targets are given to those committees, and once those numbers are agreed to, the pieces could fall into place quickly. The three areas where the differences between the House and Senate are the largest are in taxes, transportation, and education. In addition, the House version of the HHS bill contains a new payment structure for long-term care reimbursements while the Senate bill does not. It’s important that we keep the House language as it pertains to that provision in the final agreement.
A bill I carried dealing with conservatorships was passed by both chambers and signed into law by Gov. Mark Dayton recently. A situation was brought to my attention by a district resident, and we worked throughout the session to come up with language that was suitable. The new statute will now allow judges more discretion when setting the amount of money that must be held in a bond for the protection of those assets.
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On the avian influenza situation, the number of cases reported last week slowed down. Hopefully, that’s good news as recent warmer weather is thought to have slowed the virus. On two days last week, no new cases were reported for the first time since April 15. The official count, as of May 8, was 84 confirmed cases in 21 counties. The two leading turkey-producing counties in the state, Kandiyohi and Stearns, continue to be the hardest hit with 32 and 14 cases, respectively. The next counties with the most cases are also in central Minnesota as Meeker has eight reported outbreaks and Swift County six. In total, over 5.5 million birds have been affected or put down because of the disease.
It was also reported by the Board of Animal Health that in all the control areas of the affected farms, over one thousand backyard flocks have completed the first round of mandatory surveillance testing, and only one positive test result has come back. In addition, 54 of those flocks have undergone the second round of sampling, and none of those results has been positive.
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Following an open winter and fairly dry spring, moisture and rainfall were on the minds of many. The lack of rain made for good planting conditions, and work was ahead of schedule. Most of the corn has been planted, and many soybeans, as well. Finally, the skies opened on Sunday and general rainfall was reported all across Minnesota. My gauge showed nearly 1.5 inches of precipitation. Some corn fields have already emerged, and one neighbor even reported soybeans that were “up.” The concern now is cold temps that are forecast later this week and what they will do to newly emerged crops. One legislator had pictures on his phone of a farmer near Roseau planting soybeans last week. If it dips into the middle 30s around here, I’ll bet the frost will really be on the pumpkin up there.
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