Dear Neighbors,
We need to take a stand for rural Minnesota and protect our best interests at the State Capitol. Please read through this email update to find out how you can get involved!
Over the last two years I’ve worked closely with DFL legislators to pass bipartisan bills that help rural Minnesota. Back home, I work with people from all parties to make sure I’m representing the needs of our district—not political interests. To me, the bottom line is getting the job done for Northwestern Minnesota.
As you know, this fall Minnesotans elected a DFL Senate and House to join power with DFL Gov. Dayton. It is the first time in 25 years that all three bodies were controlled by Democrats, and I remain confident I will continue to work cooperatively with my colleagues across the aisle to get legislation passed for the benefit of our area.
But what concerns me is that the new majority appointed leadership and chairs from Minneapolis and St. Paul. The most glaring of the chair appointments is an Agriculture Finance committee lead from Minneapolis—only the second representative from Minneapolis or St. Paul to chair an agriculture committee in nearly 150 years. What’s more, I am concerned that the importance of agriculture will be minimized because the new majority has placed Ag Finance within the Environment and Natural Resources Finance committee—only the third time this has ever happened.
(I co-authored an opinion piece in the Grand Forks Herald about this issue. You can read it here, or listen to my audio commentary from the Capitol here.)
Over the years, the new Ag Finance chair has prized environmentalism (think: regulations, higher fees, higher energy/water rates) over agriculture. And in particular, the member has favored the metro at the expense of rural Minnesota, including consistent votes against some of the most bipartisan bills ever passed in the Legislature: agriculture bills.
The new chair has also voted to create burdensome regulations on farmers and rural business owners; voted to move funds from various programs to the Met Council; and voted to maintain a large and unequal education funding gap between rural Minnesota and the Metro.
On the House floor yesterday, I co-authored an amendment to move Ag Finance over to the Ag Policy committee that is chaired by someone from Greater Minnesota. Every single member from the DFL voted against it, even the rural DFLers who told us they wanted to vote in favor of our amendment, but were pushed to side with their caucus.
I urge everyone whose livelihood is tied to agriculture (one in five of you), or anyone who simply believes the House of Representatives should put in place chairs who appropriately represent their committees, to contact the new leadership and request that the Ag Finance committee be joined with the Ag Policy committee.
2011 compared to 2013
The 88th Legislature is operating in a much different economic climate than just two years ago. When I was first elected, Minnesota’s economic outlook was bleak. We were $6.2 billion in debt and unemployment was on the rise.
Today, because of the Republicans’ conscientious work to make government work for the people, and not the other way around, the state’s budget shows a $2.5 billion budget surplus for 2012-13 and unemployment has dropped to 5.7 percent, far below the national average.
In fact, new reports state that nearly 61,000 new businesses were registered and 55,000 jobs were created last year alone!
It is my commitment to Northwestern Minnesota to work to keep the economy improving in a way that is helpful, not harmful, to our state’s families. My door is always open to the needs and priorities of our district. Please do not hesitate to contact my office to talk about issues related to state government.
Have a great week,
Dan
**Encourage your neighbors and friends to sign up for my email updates at www.house.mn/1A