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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Jeff Howe (R)

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The latest from St. Paul

Friday, May 29, 2015

Dear Neighbor,

I hope you had a safe Memorial Day weekend and are enjoying the unofficial start of summer.

The Legislature is waiting for Gov. Mark Dayton to announce a special session will take place so we can re-pass bills he vetoed after the regular session ended May 18. The K-12 budget bill is the one that has received the most attention, but he also vetoed bills pertaining to jobs/energy/natural resources and agriculture/environment.

While no date has been announced, we do know the special session will take place at the State Office Building across the street from the Capitol in St. Paul. The Constitution stipulates legislative sessions must take place in St. Paul, but a renovation of the Capitol makes that building off-limits for now. Hearing rooms in the SOB, as it is affectionately known, will be quite cramped during the special session, but we will make it work. The hope is the special session will be limited to one day with a narrow agenda.

The K-12 bill the governor vetoed passed the Legislature with bipartisan support, 123-73 in the House and Senate combined. As noted in last week's email, the final legislation which passed provides school districts with $400 million in new funding (an increase of 1.5 percent in 2016 and 2 percent in 2017). This budget dedicates more per pupil than Dayton proposed in his own budget.

A recent St. Cloud Times editorial criticized an environment where the governor vetoes an entire bipartisan education bill simply because it does not contain his top priority.

This discussion is not about wanting our 4-year-olds to develop – we all agree that is important. The question revolves around determining how we get the best results and there is strong concern universal pre-kindergarten is not the best method, especially as it pertains to narrowing the achievement gap. The governor's plan would blanket the state with funding instead of targeting those who need it most as the Legislature's plan would do.

Many schools also have expressed uneasiness over a lack of space to accommodate another grade level, not to mention issues related to personnel, transportation and more. Adding a 14th grade level is likely to complicate funding matters within the other 13 grades currently in our schools.

For these reasons and more, I will continue to support plans to do more in terms of targeted funding and scholarships to get help where it is needed and oppose universal pre-kindergarten approaches

The other bills which Dayton vetoed have important components of their own that would benefit Greater Minnesota but are being delayed in enactment. For example, the agriculture/environment/natural resources bill contains $16.5 million in funding to help us combat the avian influenza outbreak that continues to devastate Minnesota's poultry industry. It is disappointing this veto is slowing the state's response to this issue. There are also provisions relating to water for both the Paynesville and Cold Spring communities. I anticipate these important provisions will be included in the final version.

The jobs/energy bill contains funding to help alleviate a workforce housing crunch in Greater Minnesota, train workers and expand broadband access. All are important and would help parts of the state like ours grow.

Stay tuned and I will provide more as these issues are ironed out in anticipation of a special session. As always, your input is welcome.

Good luck,

Jeff