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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Dennis Smith (R)

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Fall Sports & MNLARS Update

Friday, November 3, 2017

Friends, 


I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween! While it was cold, at least we avoided a blizzard this year. But the 1991 one did come with a World Series for our Twins, so maybe that's a worthy trade-off? 


Fall Sports Update

Soccer Boys and Girls State Championships took place this past week. Local teams were involved in both 2A title matches with the Wayzata boys defeating Stillwater to become state champions and the Maple Grove girls losing in heartbreaking manner to Eagan for their second place finish. In volleyball, Maple Grove lost to St. Michael-Albertville in five sets in the section semifinals. Congrats to everyone on outstanding seasons! 

In a match-up of two football teams in our area, the Maple Grove Crimson defeated the Wayzata Trojans 33-10 to move on to the next round of the 6A Playoffs. Maple Grove faces off against Roseville at Roseville high school tonight at 7:00pm. Go and cheer on the Crimson tonight! 

 

Housing Leadership Award

Last week I was named Housing First's Legislator of the Year for 2017. I am extremely honored to be recognized for my work to help address one of the biggest problems in the Minnesota housing market -- the lack of affordable and starter homes. My bill to ease burdensome regulations placed on condo and townhouse construction has already began to deliver results. Permits for building new condos and townhouses is up considerably. This is good news for everyone, but especially those young and in the middle class looking for the financial stability of home ownership. 

House Image

Rep. Smith and son, Buck, attended the Lions Club waffle breakfast this week 


MNLARS and REAL ID

Last month's announcement that Minnesota received an extension to October 10, 2018 to start issuing REAL IDs was welcomed news. However, the issues that MNLARS, the system that the Department of Public Safety is using to issue IDs, tabs, etc., is putting even that date in jeopardy. Minnesota needs to at least have started issuing REAL IDs by that October 10, 2018 or we will need further extensions. I spoke with Tom Hauser of KSTP about this issue for his "At Issue" program. You can view the entire episode here. I also have a clip from the program here on my Facebook Page

Problems have persisted this week, including problems highlighted by KSTP at the Maple Grove center. And then again yesterday a state-wide outage was reported. The fact these problems continue to persist is completely unacceptable. They must be rectified and we must make sure this does not happen again. The legislature will continue to monitor this situation and demand answers from the Dayton Administration on this inexcusable failure of the MNLARS program. 
 

Upcoming Townhall

I will be holding a townhall on Monday, November 13th beginning at 6:30 pm. Mark you calendars and stay tuned for details! 
 

High School Page Program 

The Minnesota House of Representatives High School Page Program is now accepting applications. Over the last 40 years the program has provided high school juniors with hands-on access to our state government in action. I encourage any high school junior who may be interested in learning more about the legislative process to apply for the page program by December 1st. Click here to apply

Please continue to share your thoughts with me about our state government; bill ideas and concerns are welcomed! I am honored to serve you at the Capitol. My email address is Rep.Dennis.Smith@house.mn, phone number 651-296-5502, and by mail: 375 State Office Building, 100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55155.

Have a great weekend!
 

Dennis