Friends and neighbors,
Congratulations to the Osseo football team for beating Totino Grace last night in a very close game to move on to the state championship! Way to go, Orioles!
Let’s be ready to cheer on the Maple Grove football team as they take on East Ridge tonight at 7:00 p.m. at Eden Prairie High School. If the Crimson win, they move on to face the Osseo Orioles in the state championship!
Before you head to Eden Prairie to cheer on the Crimson tonight, below is my update from the Capitol.
Auditor Lawsuit
You may have seen recent news articles detailing a lawsuit by State Auditor Rebecca Otto against the Legislature. The auditor is taking issue with a bipartisan law passed by the House and the Senate and signed into law by the governor. The new law allows counties to contract with Certified Public Accounting (CPA) firms to perform mandatory audits. Under the old law, 28 counties had the power to contract outside of the Office of the State Auditor (OSA) in order to save taxpayer dollars. These audits must still be approved by the OSA ensuring government oversight but allows counties to possibly save on costs at the benefit of their residents.
The new law could save tax dollars and gives counties freedom from a government-imposed monopoly. Auditor Otto insists on fighting this bipartisan legislation all while wasting over $100,000 in taxpayer money. I’m hopeful the auditor will drop this frivolous lawsuit before we misuse another penny of hard-earned family budgets.
MNsure Complications
Since it’s inception, Minnesota’s Obamacare exchange, MNsure, has been fraught will errors and malfunctions. Just last week, news broke that MNsure will spend $850,000 to upgrade a MinnesotaCare system that, according to the Star Tribune, “could not accurately and reliably generate bills for enrollees in the program.” This means many people were not even billed for their insurance, shorting the state of uncollected payments. We don’t even know how much money the state is missing because of this broken system. I’m happy to see that steps are being taken to ensure that the state receives all outstanding bills, but I am discouraged we need to spend more money for a problem that shouldn’t even exist.
Predatory Lawsuits Update
As you may recall from my update a few weeks ago, many small businesses in our state are facing predatory lawsuits regarding noncompliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. I firmly believe that all businesses and organizations should be accessible for people of all abilities, but am wary of these lawsuits and the impact they may have. I met with some interest groups earlier this week to discuss ways we can help these businesses become compliant in order to prevent them from facing unnecessary legal action. I’m currently working on a bill for the 2016 session to address this issue and welcome any input from you.
If you would like to discuss these or any other issues, please feel free to contact me via email at Rep.Dennis.Smith@house.mn, via phone at (651) 296-5502, or US mail at 13570 Grove Drive, #370, Maple Grove, MN, 55311.
Have a great weekend and go Crimson!
Dennis