Dear Neighbor,
Greetings and I hope your Thanksgiving went well and your Christmas season is off to a good start. As we count our blessings, please remember this a difficult time of year for some people. I encourage citizens to help out friends and neighbors who may need a hand. Also, food shelves often are stretched thin in the winter, so please make a contribution if you are able.
As for legislative news, it was good to recently receive an updated state economic forecast which projects a $1.87 billion surplus through the 2016-17 biennium. State law dictates a certain portion of the excess revenue is placed into reserve accounts, leaving around $1.2 billion available.
There will be a great number of ideas floated as for how this money should be used, but the focus should be on returning this over-collection of taxes to the families and businesses that overpaid in the first place. A number of proposals House Republicans offered in 2015 should be enacted in 2016, including a bill that stops the state's practice of taxing Social Security benefits. This would be a huge lift for many seniors, especially those living on a fixed income. Our state is an outlier in that it fully taxes Social Security and there is no better time than the present to change that.
The state is also an outlier in that we are not considered a veteran-friendly state as we tax veterans' retirement pay. We are one of the few states that tax veterans retirement pay and as a result many choose to live elsewhere and therefore those federal dollars do not get spent in our state or stimulate our economy.
We also could put a portion of the excess tax collections toward transportation to provide an immediate bump for work on roads and bridges without having to pay interest on bonds. Note: I will continue working to advance legislation I authored that would direct existing sales taxes collected on purchases of auto parts toward roads and bridges. That bill passed the House this year but was blocked from enactment by people who insisted on raising the gas tax.
Gov. Mark Dayton recently said the gas-tax increase is dead, so we will look for my bill and other provisions in the 10-year, $7 billion Road and Bridge Act proposed by House Republicans to receive renewed consideration.
On another topic, I continue attending numerous meetings in the area. Two recent ones – the Stearns County Chiefs of Police, and the Association of Minnesota Counties' Annual Conference – were especially interesting and included some overlap in the issues we discussed. One concern both groups share is the high number of calls they are receiving to assist people with mental illnesses.
One piece of the problem is the state does not have the facilities in place to treat some of these people since it closed/converted its mental institutions years ago in order to provide more mainstream care for citizens.
This has led to a vicious cycle where people with acute mental illnesses are receiving treatment at facilities that are ill-equipped to handle them. The state has too few beds for people who need them and homes often refuse to serve patients who have acted aggressively. Those people often end up self-medicating with drugs and/or alcohol and land themselves in jail and/or the emergency room. Then they are released and repeat the same process, creating a safety hazard and straining other parts of our system once again.
This issue is a complicated one that needs to be addressed by the state. A new mental health approach is needed to ensure people are getting the type of help they need and I look forward to continuing this work in establishing solutions.
Veterans also were a subject at the meeting of counties. I shared information with them regarding veterans-related bills I have authored. It is good to hear counties are looking to hire people who have served in the military.
Good luck,
Jeff