Dear Neighbor,
This week was somewhat quiet on the House floor as much of the focus was on getting bills through committees as we approach March 20, the first deadline for legislation to receive hearings.
Two bills I have authored were heard by committees this week. One which passed through Higher Education Policy and Finance is H.F. 228. It allows students with scholarships to not have scholarship and fellowship money counted as income for purposes of getting renters property tax refunds. This will give students more money in their refund. Amazingly, while scholarships are not counted as income for federal and state income tax purposes, they are considered income when it comes to receiving your renter property tax refund. I don't think that students should be penalized for having worked hard and gotten a scholarship.
In addition, H.F. 798 is eligible for inclusion in the omnibus tax bill after being heard in the Taxes Committee. This bill adjusts the education deduction and education credit for inflation and makes private school tuition eligible for the tax credit just as tuition is now eligible for the deduction. These deductions and credits are used by parents of both public and private school students, as well as home schoolers, to offset the expense of things like books, school supplies, tutoring, computer software, and other educational expenses. The inflation adjustments will make far more lower and middle income families eligible for these benefits.
Meantime, work on the House budget proposal continues as we put the pieces in place on various portions of state spending. I have also been very busy working on the new House Republican transportation proposal which should be coming out in the next week or so.
I had breakfast at the Governor's mansion this week with Governor Dayton, Lieutenant Governor Smith, four other legislative leaders, and a few of Governor Dayton's key staff. This is the third time I have had a chance to do this since the start of session, and it has now turned into a once-every-two-weeks event every other Thursday morning. It's one of the perks of being one of the ranking legislative leaders in the House, and it gives me a chance to directly talk to the governor about issues that affect the Saint Cloud area. Today I talked extensively with the Governor about the MNSCU system, funding issues at MNSCU, and talked again about Saint Cloud air service. We also discussed the upcoming release of the Governor's supplemental budget, which will be released next week.
As always, I was please to meet with a number of constituents and groups this week:
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A representative from the Inter Faculty Organization
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Constituents with ARRM, a group that supports Minnesotans with disabilities
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Representatives of Gillette Children's Hospital, which now maintains a clinical presence in Saint Cloud and works with children with serious medical issues
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Constituents from the Saint Cloud YMCA
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Constituents who are members of MAPE, the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees
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A physician from Saint Cloud discussing a medically related piece of legislation
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Chancellor Rosenstone and other representatives of Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MNSCU)
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A number of constituents with NAMI, the National Association of the Mentally Ill
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Representatives of the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities
As always please feel free to contact me to convey your concerns, and feel free to stop in if you are in Saint Paul.
Best regards,
Jim Knoblach