Greetings from the Floor,
The health insurance relief and reform bill passed the House on Thursday, and passed the Senate earlier in the week. I did vote for the final bill. People around the state need to know relief is coming, and what the reforms are going to be for 2017. Specifically, I appreciate the reform provisions around continuity of care (people being able to continue seeing their doctor if they had to buy new health insurance for 2017) and preventing health care providers from billing people more than the payment amounts negotiated by health insurers. The bill passed by the House does delay premium relief until 2018, and I absolutely disagree with provisions allowing health insurers to not cover some services and treatments; however, getting the bill off the House floor and into a conference committee will present an opportunity to get the relief out to people sooner, and improve the reform provisions. Many Minnesotans have been waiting months for real action to be taken on this issue. It’s time to stop the political games with people’s healthcare, and start getting real work done to help folks. This is not an issue with which legislators can play around for political points. These are people’s lives.
I had two committee hearings this week on an agriculture property tax bill, and the local sales tax bill for construction of the new Clay County jail and law enforcement center. The property tax bill would allow farmers who homestead their land to apply for a property tax refund based on the value of their entire homesteaded land, not just the house, garage and immediate one acre. The bill may be included in the Property Tax and Local Division’s report toward the end of session. The county sales tax bill was approved by the Government Operations Committee and referred to the House Tax Committee where it will be heard by the Property Tax and Local Government Division for likely inclusion in the division’s report.
I introduced four more bills this week. The bills pertain to agricultural property taxes (creating a study to look at moving to a production or income based system for agricultural land value assessments), student loans (providing debt relief for people who complete a post-secondary degree and work in Greater Minnesota), workforce development (tax credits for employers that make contributions to Minnesota State school foundations for scholarships) and veterans (exemptions for 100% service related veterans on DMV fees and taxes).
As we begin a new era with a new president, I think it’s important we all take pause on where we want our country to go. 2016 was a year of very high emotions and very strong opinions. Now is the time we must come together and pursue a path forward for all Americans. Regardless of who we supported for president last year, we are all one country. We are all one United States of America. This country, and the issues we face, are bigger than any one of us. We must reject division and fear of each other, and recognize that we are all in this together. We must not let the urge to shut down opposing views cloud our ability to do what is best for all of us. We must allow ourselves to have patience with one another in order to better understand, not just what our country is truly made of, but how the everyday decisions we make impact us all. The time is now to recognize all of our strengths, and build upon them, to keep the United States strong and free. United we stand; divided we fall.
Thank You for the Opportunity to Serve,
Ben