Dear Neighbors,
I hope you all enjoyed the holiday season, and it was full of good times with family and friends. As we’re now into 2018, I hope this year will lead to your wishes and goals being realized. Here is an update from the State Capitol.
Martin Luther King Celebration
On Monday, I attended Mankato’s annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Celebration at MSU. This is the oldest celebration in the state honoring Dr. King, who visited Mankato himself in 1961. It was a privilege to be there not just to honor his legacy, but to recognize this year’s Pathfinder Award recipients. Congratulations to honoree Diana Joseph, recognized for her work with the Good Thunder Reading Series, Young Pathfinder award winner Lauren Senden, honored for her efforts with the Backpack Food Program, and Cambria, the Business Pathfinder award winner.
Minnesota Human Rights Commissioner Kevin Lindsey provided keynote remarks. He discussed the efforts of his department, which recently turned 50 years old, and spoke about the need for all of us to break out of whichever silos we may find ourselves in, and listen to others.
Governor’s Public Works Proposal
This week, Governor Mark Dayton announced his proposed public works bonding package for the 2018 legislative session. The recommendations contain investments totaling $1.5 billion to update higher education facilities, fix clean water infrastructure, build affordable housing and address other public infrastructure needs across the state. The proposal would also create 22,950 jobs.
I’m pleased the Governor recommended funding phase 2 of the Clinical Sciences Building at MSU. The project re-purposes space recently vacated by programs that moved into the new Clinical Sciences building, which was funded in 2014 and opened in January 2017. Overall, much of the attention in the proposal is placed on our aging higher education facilities, with $299 million for the University of Minnesota and $243 million for Minnesota State campuses. Much of this is directed toward Higher Education Asset Preservation and Replacement (HEAPR) to fix broken and inefficient heating and cooling systems, replace roofs and plumbing, improve disability access, and other updates and deferred maintenance needs. As we know, it’s cheaper in the long run to take care of the assets we have now than to start over with new construction.
Phase II of the MSOP remodel in St. Peter is also included, as well as HVAC and electrical replacement at the campus’s Dietary Building, where approximately 2,000 meals per day are prepared for the 650 clients at the Minnesota Security Hospital and MSOP.
Clearly, there will be further conversations between Governor Dayton and legislators, but right now, I’m pleased he came forward with such a robust proposal. I’m hopeful we can come together on a bipartisan basis to make many of these important investments.
New Laws
While most laws go into effect in July and August after the legislative session, a few new laws went into effect on January 1st. Of the new laws that went into effect, one is especially important for those who are losing their hearing. Hearing loss associated with aging can lead to depression, dementia, hospitalizations and falls. A new law will allow home care providers to be trained on recognizing it how to improve the lives of those experiencing hearing loss. A different law gives us the opportunity to register for new license plates honoring fallen officers. You can read about the handful of new laws here.
The legislative session gets underway in just over one month, on February 20. Please feel free to call or email me anytime with questions, comments, or feedback. It’s an honor to represent you at the Capitol.
Sincerely,
Jack Considine
State Representative