Dear Neighbor,
The 2013 legislative session included some good, like passage of a bill to create the Officer Tom Decker Memorial Highway in our district and Legacy funding for a couple of local trails.
There also was some bad, as in a $2.1 billion tax increase.
And passage of a bill to unionize private day care providers and personal care attendants? That was just a plain ugly process in the House as it was continually tabled and brought up again.
It was interesting to see how things unfolded during the last week or so. We met through the night on a number of occasions and the session ran right up to the deadline to adjourn at midnight Monday. Here is an overview of some key bullet points from the session:
AQUATIC INVASIVE SPECIES
The Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment includes a 3/8 of 1 percent statewide sales tax to generate revenue for projects pertaining to the environment, arts and trails. This year’s bill provides crucial funding to help protect our waterways from aquatic invasive species.
ROCORI AND WOBEGON TRAIL FUNDING
Funding for both ROCORI and WOBEGON trails was also included in the Legacy bill. There was $920,000 for the ROCORI trail and $1,000,000 for the WOBEGON Trail. These funds should go a long way toward completion of these trails.
TOM DECKER MEMORIAL HIGHWAY
A bill Sen. Michelle Fischbach and I worked on to name a stretch of Highway 23 between Cold Spring and Richmond “Officer Tom Decker Memorial Highway” received Gov. Mark Dayton’s signature in mid-April. I was honored to see this bill to enactment.
“BUY THE FARM”
Legislation passed this session to improve the process of transferring property from landowners to utility companies that operate high-voltage power lines. It still needs work and we will continue to refine the process.
CAPITAL INVESTMENT
House Republicans rejected an $800 million capital investment bonding bill late this session and then negotiated a more responsible, slimmed-down $177 million version on the final night of the session. It will fund important projects throughout the state, including much-needed restoration of the state Capitol, flood relief, a veterans home and more.
ENERGY BILL
The Energy bill that was passed mandates that most utility companies get a minimum of 1.5 percent of their energy sales from solar generation. This and a host of other additional solar mandates will increase costs to everyone. Except for those in the Northeast Iron Range, as that area is exempt from the mandates as it will raise rates for industries located there making them less competitive. The rest of the state will be less competitive due to the same rise in energy rates but we get no relief.
TAX INCREASES
A $2.1 billion tax increase passed the Legislature. I did not support this bill and am concerned it will cause a setback of our economic recovery from the recession. The tax bill includes a new business-to-business sales tax, which I firmly oppose. We should be doing more to make our state competitive in the global market, but this will take us the wrong way. It will worsen our business climate and also result in higher costs for consumers as these taxes get added to the price of goods and services. Other new taxes passed late this session include raising the income tax on top earners to one of the nation's highest rates, adding $1.60 per pack to the cigarette tax and implementing sales taxes on all internet purchases, digital downloads and TV satellite services.
SAME-SEX MARRIAGE BILL
The much debated and very controversial same-sex marriage bill was passed. I supported an amendment to the bill that would have taken marriage out of state law and preserved marriage for churches and clergy, it failed. There is no protection for business owners who have strong religious beliefs or for private non-religious controlled educational institutions that disagree on this issue. The additional costs to hardworking taxpayers is estimated at over $600,000 annually for additional benefits.
UNIONIZED DAY CARE and PERSONAL CARE ATTENDANTS
The very controversial day care provider and personal care attendant (PCA) unionization bill received very little support – except for union heads, Gov. Mark Dayton and fellow Democrats in the Legislature – on its way to passage. The vast majority of day care providers and PCAs oppose this push and I voted against it. This proposal brought the session’s most strongly contested debate on the House floor. It appears unionization would lead to higher costs and fewer choices for parents, while providing no improved quality of care being provided to children. Interested parties must continue to be involved in the process to try and influence the outcome.
This has been a very active and interesting session and I thank everyone that continue to contact me with their thoughts and views. Please continue to do so as I am always interested in your comments. I hope to see you while we are out of session in our great district taking part in all the great activities it has to offer.
Thanks and good luck,
Jeff