Greetings,
The annual Cold Spring Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual Community Showcase will be 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. this Saturday at Rocori High School and I hope you can come out and support our local businesses. A town hall meeting will take place during the event (at 11:15 a.m.) and I will be joining Sen. Michelle Fischbach and other officials to talk with area residents during that session.
In other news, two bills I have authored this year to assist veterans are ready to be brought to the floor for votes of the full House. One bill (H.F. 2907) follows up on a bill I led to enactment last year making it easier for disabled veterans to receive their homestead market value tax exclusion. This year’s proposal allows data sharing to occur between county veterans’ services offices and county assessors in order to better coordinate application of the veterans’ exclusion.
The other bill (H.F. 3387) is geared toward helping veterans access state sponsored life insurance programs for National Guard members. A lack of program awareness has caused veterans to miss out on services they are entitled to carry into retirement. This is something I personally encountered and I my goal with this bill is to make sure veterans understand their options with SSLI.
School safety was a big topic at the Capitol again this week as Tuesday was Student Safety First Day in the House. Hearings related to student safety took place in a number of House committees. The Public Safety Committee which I serve received a presentation regarding the $405,000 investment in the School Safety Center we enacted last year, which is part of the Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. The Safety Center conducts 200 training sessions around the state each year and provides recommendations for school safety assessments, threat assessments that can help identify red flags and behavioral clues, intruder responses, and access controls to better secure our schools. In addition, a bill enacted last year authorizes the Safe Schools Levy, which provides revenue for School Resources Officers (police in schools), school security measures, and school mental health professionals.
Developments continue at the Capitol in an effort to fix the IT nightmare that has been created by a poorly executed roll-out of the state’s new vehicle licensing and registration system. I am on the House Transportation Committee which this week approved a bill that would have the governor source the $10 million his administration says is needed immediately to keep MNLARS operation going.
We already have spent nearly $100 million on this project, the Dayton administration says $43 million more is needed to maybe make it work – and then there is another $28 million commitment down the road.
I am having a hard time giving another red cent to this failing project that seems as if it may never get off the ground. We need – and people expect – a functioning vehicle registration system. If the state proves to be as far in over its head as it appears on this project, a provision in the bill we heard could be the saving grace by looking to outside vendors.
On a final note, it was great seeing the Highway 23 Coalition in St. Paul this week. I strongly support their efforts to improve that highway throughout western Minnesota, especially in our region west of Richmond. Earlier today I attended the Coalition’s annual meeting in Cold Spring. A number of other legislators from the state and federal levels were there as well to show their support.
Good luck,
Jeff