By Rep. Jeff Howe, R-Rockville
The Legislature’s metro-centric approach continues to short change Greater Minnesota.
The new majority took control last year and we ended up with a House Speaker from Minneapolis and a Majority Leader from St. Paul. The roster of committee chairs that followed also displayed a heavy tilt toward the metro.
The trend continued when they changed the former committee structure by combining agriculture finance with the environment committee, which is chaired by a Minneapolis legislator. They went on to pass significant new taxes that damaged farmers – especially on equipment repairs. The House voted to repeal those business to business taxes this week; now it is up to the Senate and the Governor to enact.
This session bills authored by majority members continue to favor the Twin Cities at the expense of people like us in Greater Minnesota. I sat in a recent committee meeting where two separate bills – one for Minneapolis and another for St. Paul – would spend $3.3 million apiece to help disadvantaged students in those cities.
I am all for helping disadvantaged children but when are we going to stop picking locations for where we are going to provide that help? Why not make this funding available to areas that need it statewide? Are those bill authors telling us only children in Minneapolis and St. Paul are disadvantaged? What about those that live in Duluth, Moorhead, Rochester, St. Cloud – or even in our own towns around District 13A? Do they have to move to the Twin Cities to get help?
Let us pass legislation that provides funding for programs that help people all over our great state not just certain areas. If it will work there it will work here! This discussion needs to involve the best interests of people of Minnesota, not just what helps those in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
We also need to take a statewide approach to appropriating the $1.2 billion surplus revenue the state anticipates receiving. There are a lot of different ideas for how we should handle it, but one thing we learned from the Gov. Jesse Ventura rebates is administrative costs eat up a lot of money if the choice is to cut checks for citizens.
I advocate using a portion of the surplus funds to pay for work on roads and bridges all across Minnesota. Infrastructure projects would provide lasting benefits and we could avoid having to borrow and pay interest to fund for them. I continue to hear from people who say we need to improve our roadways and this is a way we could do it right now. I have spoken with the chair of the Transportation Finance Committee on this very topic to examine what the legislation needs to look like in order to get bipartisan support.
I’d like to hear your thoughts on these and other issues. Your input is welcome through a survey I am conducting online. Visit www.house.mn/13A to find the link and let me know your position on some of the biggest issues we face in St. Paul.
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