Dear Neighbors,
We’re entering the final weeks of the 2016 legislative session. Much of the activity has now moved to the House Floor where this week, we’re considering the omnibus budget bills. Considering our $900 million surplus, the amounts the House Majority has targeted to these areas of the budget were underwhelming, to say the least. Instead of investing in critical areas such as our education system and broadband infrastructure, for instance, the surplus is being held over for tax giveaways, the lion’s share of which are set to benefit corporate special interests and the wealthiest Minnesotans.
The E-12 and Higher Education bill, which we passed Mondaynight, had modest one-time spending in the E-12 area – paid for by a projected $55 million of early repayments of loans by school districts – but provided nothing in the way of new funding for higher education, such as relief for either college tuition or student loan debt. Minnesota college graduates experience the fifth-highest average student debt loads in the nation, and our inaction is complicating their efforts to become full participants in our economy. It’s baffling that we couldn’t do anything to address this growing problem.
The Jobs, Agriculture, and Environment bill, which we are considering today, is another package full of shortcomings for Minnesotans all over the state. Specifically, the proposed new dollars for broadband internet expansion is woefully inadequate. While Gov. Dayton has proposed $100 million toward this and the Senate Majority has targeted $85 million for it, the GOP House Majority puts just $15 million toward this. With an identified need of $200 million per year to connect Minnesotans border to border, this will leave businesses, students and families in Greater Minnesota behind those in the metro area. The bill also does nothing to help close racial economic disparities, and cuts job training in Greater Minnesota.
The Health and Human Services, Public Safety and State Government bill, which we take up tomorrow, is another set of missed opportunities. We’ve heard from many Minnesotans about the vital needs that exist such as reducing child care costs, giving those who work in group homes and other community settings a raise, and improving safety at the Anoka Metro Regional Treatment Center and the Minnesota Security Hospital in St. Peter, to name a few. Significantly, cyber security needs go unfunded, and tax refund protection is ignored. Minnesotans expect better than this.
Unfortunately, the tone of the session has become much more partisan as of late and this is evident in some of the legislation moving forward. One enormously disappointing bill is the measure to approve the collective bargaining agreements for state employees. Usually the Minnesota Legislature ratifies these contracts without controversy or steps to interfere with or micromanage this process, but this has been different this year. In this year’s state employee contracts, salary increases are just 2.5 percent, with out-of-pocket increases to health care premiums for workers. While after some time, Wisconsin-style “Right to Work” provisions were eliminated, the bill attacks unions by restricting their political participation. As we’ve seen corporate influence become more and more prevalent in our elections, we should not allow the playing field to become more and more skewed away from workers as this would do.
Provisions like this which go after unions may make good political fodder, but I hope we can move away from this approach and cleanly approve these contracts. By and large, Minnesota’s state government is a lean, productive, and efficient operation with dedicated, hardworking employees at its core. The workers who show up every day and enable us to have a quality way of life by ensuring we have safe roads, our elderly and disabled are cared for, and have a safe food supply, just to name a few things. In return, these employees want nothing more than fair compensation and the ability to provide for themselves and their families. The average salary for members of one state employee union is $40,000 per year; hardly anything extravagant.
As always, I invite your input on the issues that matter to you. Feel free to email me at rep.jennifer.schultz@house.mn or call me at the Capitol at 651-296-2228; I’d love to hear from you.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Schultz
State Representative