Friends and Neighbors,
It's been a long winter and we finally have some great weather to get out and enjoy. Below is an update about what we've been up to at the Capitol. Have a great weekend!
Education Bill Prioritizing School Safety Passes House
On Thursday, the House passed bipartisan education legislation on a vote of 94-29 that puts students first. House File 4328 prioritizes school and student safety, increases transparency in school finance and performance reporting, and helps prepare kids for a bright and successful future.
I am proud of our commitment to ensuring every Minnesota student has access to a world-class education. In this bill, we provide critical resources and flexibility for our schools to address student safety and mental health.
Highlights in the education portion of the bill include:
- Championing a multifaceted approach to give school districts the resources and flexibility they need to address student safety and security. That includes expanding the use of long-term facilities maintenance revenue for facility security upgrades, strengthening the state’s commitment to school-linked mental health grants, supporting suicide prevention training for teachers, increasing funding for Safe Schools Revenue, and more
- Strengthening and clarifying state law to address teacher misconduct and teacher licensure including prohibiting sexual relationships between educators and students, even if that student is 18; requiring periodic teacher background checks; and prohibiting the issuance or renewal of a teacher/administrative license or bus driver endorsement for certain felonies or gross misdemeanors involving a minor
- Requiring the Minnesota Department of Education to create a School Report Card —a one-stop-spot for summative and easily accessible school and district ratings that will provide families with a place to research, compare and help determine which school will work best for their child
- Enhancing the transparency of school funding and our commitment to tackling our state’s achievement gap by doubling the number of school audits each year. These audits will discern whether or not education dollars allocated to school districts and dedicated to special education, English-learner and low-income students are reaching the students intended
- Ensuring students are exposed to a wide variety of post-secondary options including the trades and branches of the military
- Strengthening laws that protect kids from school lunch shaming
- Creating a Special Education Working Group to engage stakeholders and to examine the factors that are driving rising costs
A number of higher education provisions are also included in the package. Highlights include measures to fund student loan debt counseling, bring new sexual harassment reporting requirements and policies to the University of Minnesota, and to back a textbook affordability initiative.
Tax Conformity - Simplifying and Providing Relief
One of the most important things we have to do this session is to pass a tax conformity plan to make sure Minnesota's tax plan conforms to the major changes passed by Congress in 2017. Our goal in the House is to hold as many Minnesotans as possible harmless, provide meaningful tax relief to taxpayers and simplify our tax code so people can take full advantage of state and federal tax relief.
Highlights of our plan include cutting the second-tier income tax rate from 7.05 percent to 6.75 percent by 2020, letting middle-class Minnesotans keep more of their hard-earned money. We also lower taxes for people of all income levels by increasing the standard deduction from $13,000 to $14,000. Third, we help families by protecting state personal and dependent exemptions of $4,150. To encourage affordable homeownership, our plan allows state-itemized deductions of up to $30,000 in property taxes. Finally, we support our hometown businesses by reinvesting extra revenue from corporate tax changes into Section 179 conformity and overall rate reductions.
Governor Dayton is proposing a supplemental budget that raises $1.4 billion in taxes on Minnesotans. An analysis done by his own Department of Revenue showed his plan would raise taxes on every income level—not just the "rich" —hitting households that make $32,000 or less the hardest. The governor is proposing reinstating more than $1 billion in health care tax increases, repealing tax reductions we passed last session, and other measures surrounding federal tax changes.
Minnesota Leading Fight Against Sexual Harassment
On Monday, Majority Leader Joyce Peppin introduced bipartisan legislation (HF4459) signed by myself and 34 other House co-authors—the maximum for any bill—that would make Minnesota the first state in the nation to nullify the existing "severe or pervasive" standard that sexual harassment cases must meet in order to be actionable in court. The bill came in response to feedback from employment law attorneys and other experts who testified before the subcommittee that this standard was a barrier to many severe sexual harassment cases moving forward in court.
The bill makes no changes to the existing state laws for what constitutes sexual harassment, but simply states that "an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment...does not require the harassing conduct or communication to be severe or pervasive." This simple but substantive change would give judges more discretion to proceed with sexual harassment cases that previously may not have met the incredibly high standard set by the Supreme Court in 1986.
In addition to the proposed legislation, the subcommittee reviewed proposed changes to the House Discrimination and Harassment Policy, as well as a House Resolution that would allow the subcommittee's work to continue during the interim in the form of a Task Force. Proposed changes to the House Discrimination and Harassment policy include empowering non-partisan staff to independently hire an outside investigator to investigate complaints, requiring that investigation results be submitted confidentially to the minority leader and Speaker of the House, and strengthening expectations for reporting and retaliation.
We want the Minnesota House to be a safe, respectful, and welcoming environment for everyone. These policies send a clear message that discrimination and harassment won't be tolerated in the Minnesota House, and shouldn't be tolerated anywhere in our state. These changes are a major step in the right direction.
As always, it is an honor and privilege to serve you and your families in the Minnesota House of Representatives. If you would like to get in touch with me, you can email me at rep.cindy.pugh@house.mn or call my office 651-296-4315.
Have a great weekend!
Cindy