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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Jim Knoblach (R)

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Legislative report from Rep. Knoblach

Friday, April 20, 2018

Dear Neighbor,

Budget bills were the main emphasis at the Capitol this week. I am expecting the Tax Bill, which will include the House plan for conforming with the recent federal tax changes, will be released in the next few days.

All the budget bills for individual committees except Bonding and Taxes should have passed out of their committees to Ways and Means by the end of today.

There are a significant number of bills I have authored that are part of these bigger budget bills:

1) The Transportation Finance bill contains three provisions I have chief authored:

  • Funding to add a third lane on I-94 between Monticello and Clearwater in 2020. MNDOT is already planning on resurfacing the right lane of this section in each direction that year, and needs to add temporary third lanes during the construction, so it seems logical to simply spend a little more to make those third lanes permanent;
  • $500,000 to finish the engineering studies on I-94 needed to complete the rest of a third lane from Saint Michael/Albertville to Saint Cloud;
  • My bill to open negotiations with BNSF Railway to extend the Northstar Corridor to Saint Cloud.

2) The Education Finance bill contains three provisions I have chief authored:

  • Additional funding for districts with particularly high special education costs, such as Saint Cloud District #742;
  • A $420,000 pilot program for English Language Learning in District #742, to see how much more progress English Language Learners make if they go to school year round. This was an idea brought to me by Education Chair Jenifer Loon;
  • An $80,000 grant for the Promise Neighborhood program in South East Saint Cloud, which works in particular with students from Talahi and Lincoln Elementary;

3) The Jobs and Economic Development bill contains two provisions I have chief authored:

  • $650,000 in dislocated worker funding to jump start the retraining of employees being laid off at Electrolux;
  • A bill that would build several thousand units of affordable housing around the state by reallocating some federal bonding money the state receives;

4) The Environment bill contains language I chief authored to save Minden, Haven and other townships money by limiting the wastewater and storm sewer (MS4) environmental work now required to only the urbanized areas of those townships, instead of the entire township. This bill is supported by the cities, townships and MPCA;

5) The Public Safety bill contains language I chief authored that would prevent video and audio recording of victims and defendants in courtrooms being available to the media unless all parties consented. This has long been our policy in Minnesota, but there have been recent efforts to bring cameras into courtrooms, which I think would discourage testimony and otherwise make the justice finding job of the courts more difficult. Courts are open to the public, but victims in particular shouldn't have to relive their trauma on the nightly news and have their testimony on the internet forever.

I am pleased with the progress we are making on the above bills. Once these bills presumably pass the Ways and Means Committee next week they will go to the House floor, and then on to a conference committee to resolve differences with the Senate, then hopefully gain approval of the Governor. There is a lot of work still ahead, but I believe this is shaping up to be another very successful session.

Please continue to contact me with your thoughts and concerns. My apologies to those who may not have received a personal email back from me recently if you have contacted me, but it has been extraordinarily busy. I do read the constituent emails I receive.

Sincerely,

Jim