Greetings from the Floor,
Happy New Year! The House came to order on Tuesday to open the 2017-18 biennium. This is the 90th session of the Minnesota Legislature. The star of the day was the newly renovated Capitol building. With newly designed public spaces, vivid murals resembling the building’s original beauty and a general excitement about the Capitol being fully open again, it was another chapter in our state’s history. The week proceeded with a conference at the University of Minnesota for all legislators called the One Minnesota Conference, and the state Chamber of Commerce’s Session Priorities dinner where the governor and legislative leaders gave remarks about the new session.
Committees will start up next week and I’ll serve on the Property Tax and Local Government, Higher Education and Agriculture Finance Committees. I’m honored to serve on these committees and am ready to learn about the different agricultural programs of Minnesota. The Agriculture Finance and Property Tax and Local Government Committees will give me an excellent opportunity to work on agricultural property taxes. I’ll also be able to continue working on higher education affordability and the job skills gap as a member of the Higher Education Committee.
On Wednesday, Governor Dayton released his Capital Investment proposal. Included in his proposal are funding for the Moorhead 20/21 St railroad underpass project, and a new Clay County resource recovery facility. Sen. Eken and I are busy drafting bills to match the governor’s language. The questions surrounding us getting funding for these projects are 1) will the Legislature take up a Capital Investment Bill in 2017 and 2) how large may the bill be? If we act on a large bill, around $1 billion in bonding, we will have a better chance of getting these projects funded. I certainly support a large bill, especially because a Capital Investment Bill was not passed into law last session and we are now that much further behind in infrastructure project funding around the state.
On Thursday, the House passed a tax conformity bill to align the state’s tax code with changes made to the federal tax code. These provisions were part of the 2016 Tax Bill, and I’m glad we acted on them quickly before the income tax filing season begins.
We also debated health care on Thursday. The bill before us was HF 1; a bill to provide health insurance premium relief and reforms. Although I may ultimately agree with some of the reform provisions proposed by the House Majority, they have not been properly vetted by state agencies, health insurance companies or House health care committees (Thursday was the first time I saw the bill). We need to be sure the proposed reforms will be effective and implementable before we pass a bill with such wide ranging consequences. A more expeditious and judicious move would have been to pass the premium relief bill to which legislative leaders and the governor agreed in early December. This would provide immediate relief to people in the individual insurance market place who do not receive tax credits through MNSure, while stakeholders and legislative committees work on further health insurance reforms. I’m sure taxes, health care and bonding will continue to dominate the conversations at the Legislature this year. As always, please contact me at any time with concerns or questions you may have. I’m always happy to hear from you and assist in any way I can.
Thank You for the Opportunity to Serve,
Ben