Dear Neighbors,
Thank you for your continued correspondence this legislative session. Your ideas and questions were instrumental in helping me be a better voice for our district. Again, thank you.
Budget Completed
We finished our legislative work last week, and just yesterday, Governor Dayton signed ALL of our budget proposals into law. I was fortunate to join leadership from the House and Senate yesterday in Rochester to talk about all the good things these bills will do for the entire state.
First, our tax relief bill provides $650 million of overdue relief for Minnesotans. Our budget surplus allowed us to give back to farmers, small business owners, working families, recent college graduates and more. This was truly a bipartisan effort to give back to middle class residents who’d been paying too much in state taxes.
We also passed a plan to invest billions in our state’s roads and bridges. The state hasn’t made a sizable investment in transportation in recent years, yet we were able to do so without raising the gas tax. To put it in a historical context, our proposal is the largest transportation funding plan in a decade that doesn’t raise the gas tax or tab fees.
I was fortunate to have a number of my own provisions included in these bills that will become law. These include a tax credit to help beginning farmers, funding for the Rochester Reading Center and the Rochester International Airport, as well as needed reforms for adoptive and foster families, among a number of others. It’s rewarding to see simple bill ideas work through the process and now become law. Many of these ideas come from you, so thank you for your input!
Recent Award
Last week, I was honored to receive a certificate from the Minnesota Commission of Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard of Hearing Minnesotans. This session, I worked to increase funding for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services division, and met some truly amazing people in the process. I’m humbled by this award, and will continue to be an advocate for the deaf, deafblind, and hard of hearing.
Please Contact Me
Although we aren’t in session, I hope you’ll continue to call or email my office. It’s important for me to hear from you; please reach out!
Have a great rest of the week and weekend,
Nels