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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Jennifer Schultz (DFL)

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Legislative Update - April 7, 2017

Friday, April 7, 2017

Dear Friends,

This week I’ve spent my days and nights at the State Capitol debating omnibus finance bills. These bills contain funding and significant policy changes. The following bills were heard this week.

Higher Education

The Republican Higher Education bill significantly underfunds the University of Minnesota and Minnesota State, and underfunds students by not fully funding the Minnesota State Grant Program. This bill will lead to tuition increases at our public universities and will undoubtedly lead to more students accumulating more debt.

You can hear my speech on the House floor about the Higher Education bill here.

Public Safety

Our Public Safety Bill doesn’t go far enough to protect Minnesotans and reform our criminal justice system. Republicans chose to underfund 21st century public safety tools such as bomb squads, criminal investigation analysts and correctional institution security upgrades.

Regrettably, the bill contains a very controversial provision that increases penalties for those who participate in protests. We had a very powerful debate on the House Floor about this provision and it’s important to recognize that social change often doesn’t occur without collective action. This provision attacks First Amendment rights. We should be protecting the rights of citizens to be heard, and not straining our jail system with peaceful protestors.

 

House Image

Photo of the House voting board on the amendment to remove the anti-protest language from the Public Safety bill.

Legacy

Minnesotans take pride and enjoyment from our natural resources and the arts. The Legacy bill allocates constitutionally dedicated funds to clean water, parks and trails, and arts and cultural heritage. The package funds all parts of the state and includes many diverse projects and initiatives, including $1.5 million for water quality improvement projects in the lower St. Louis River and Duluth Harbor, and funds for the Duluth Children’s Museum, Lake Superior Zoo and the Aquarium. On the House Floor, we also adopted an amendment to increase funding to combat Emerald Ash Borer, a slow moving but serious threat to trees in our community. I’m happy to say that the bill passed unanimously. 

E-12 Education

The education bill underfunds our schools—likely amounting to cuts that could result in teacher layoffs, larger class sizes, and less resources for our kids. The level of funding doesn’t cover inflationary costs for our classrooms and the bill eliminates the voluntary pre-K program, hurting Minnesota’s youngest learners.

Our top priority should be providing a quality education for all Minnesota children, but unfortunately, this bill makes it harder for them to succeed and for our state to succeed.

UMD Hockey

Congratulations to the UMD Men’s Hockey team for their victory in the first game of the NCAA Frozen Four yesterday, defeating Harvard 2-1. They go on to play Denver for the National Championship Saturday night at7:00 p.m., and you can catch the game live on ESPN. Go Bulldogs!

House Image

 

Town Hall Meeting

As another reminder, Sen. Simonson, Rep. Olson and I are holding another Town Hall Meeting later this month. We hope to see you Saturday, April 29 from 10:00 a.m. to noon at Ordean Middle School, on 4th Street. Please attend and share your thoughts as the legislative session enters its final weeks. I also hope you will visit me at the Capitol or send me an email any time with your feedback.

Sincerely,

Jen Schultz

State Representative