With High School Page Allison B. from Chisago County. The Minnesota Page Program is a great way for high school juniors to learn more about state government and the legislative process. I encourage eligible students from our community to sign up. You can learn more about the program here.
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
My 2016 Legislative Survey is available to take online, giving me another opportunity to gather valuable feedback from my constituents in Chisago County.
To take the survey, just click this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Barrett2016
Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with me. Also, don't forget to share it with your friends and family in District 32B! I will share the results with you soon.
Fantasy Sports Act
More than one million Minnesotans participate in fantasy sports on a regular basis, including many people in Chisago County. It's a cultural phenomenon and to protect those who play the game, the House voted recently to affirm the legality of fantasy sports by a strong bipartisan margin.
The legislation was put into place for a few reasons. First, current law does not specifically layout fantasy sports as lawful, leaving open the possibility that existing language in state statute might mean that participants would be criminally liable. Additionally, some other states have had activist attorneys general move to bar fantasy sports in their state, and this bill would help prevent that from happening here in Minnesota. Finally, the bill implements a number of important consumer protections for Minnesotans participating in fantasy sports.
This was an initiative I was advocating for before session began. You can see a story KSTP did about it here.
Senate DFL Budget Targets and Transportation Spending
Governor Dayton, House Republicans and Senate Democrats have all stated they want a comprehensive transportation this session, so why aren't Democrats focusing more on our shared priority this session?
Last week, the Senate DFL released their proposed budget targets that dedicates less than four percent of our state's $900 million surplus for transportation. With so little money earmarked for our roads and bridges, it means they want to raise a regressive gas tax increase on Minnesota drivers that rises as the price at the pump increases. Many Chisago County drivers have long commutes every day to and from the metro, and this would hit them hard and take a significant chunk out of their family budget.
Furthermore, Senator Franken and the MET Council recently came out to urge legislators to pass state funding for the Southwest Light Rail this session. The MET Council Transportation Committee estimates that the total cost of this project has grown from $1.2 billion to $1.77 billion—a nearly 50 percent increase!
Instead of wasting taxpayer dollars on another light rail boondoggle, we should be focusing on a transportation package that fixes our roads and bridges, something 98 percent of Minnesotans use every day to get to work, school and the grocery store. For the money they want to use to pay for one train in Minneapolis, we could repave six lanes on every interstate, fund four years of Metro Transit bus operations, make a historic investment in the new small cities road and bridges program and fund local road projects across Minnesota.
If fixing our roads and bridges is really our priority, and a majority of Minnesotans oppose a regressive gas tax increase, then we should be funding infrastructure improvements in a way that makes sense for Minnesotans. The House Republican plan uses taxes Minnesotans are already paying on car parts, auto repairs, vehicle leases, and rental cars and dedicates that revenue through a special fund called the Transportation Stability Fund. By adding in a portion of the $900 million budget surplus and bonding, this plan would fix 15,500 lane miles of roads and 330 bridges statewide.