Dear Neighbor,
Congratulations to the SCSU Huskies hockey team for a fantastic 2013-14 season, including winning the first National Collegiate Hockey Conference championship and advancing to within one game of the Frozen Four. Also, hats off to the Huskies’ Nic Dowd for being named one of three finalists for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award, hockey’s version of the Heisman Trophy. Good luck with the L.A. Kings, Nic!
As for legislative news, it is disappointing when an important, good proposal with bipartisan support is lumped into a bill chock full of unrelated items that may or may not warrant passage on their own merits.
Take, for example, Thursday. We spent many hours on the House floor debating a supplemental budget bill. It is a bill that spends $1.2 billion through 2017 by, among other things, putting $442 million toward bailing out Minnesota’s MNSure program. This comes less than a year after all-funds spending in the state rose by $1,500 for every man, woman and child in our state.
I did not support most provisions in this wide-ranging supplemental bill that spends even more, but firmly backed at least one good provision that I am pleased to see pass the House. That provision is the “5-Percent Campaign” – which increases funding for the home- and community-based services and intermediate care facilities for Minnesotans with developmental disabilities. We in the minority successfully worked to see the full 5 percent was achieved after the majority tried to reduce this to 4 percent.
This 5-percent proposal was ready as a stand-alone bill earlier this session and should have received an up-or-down vote. We asked to bring it to the floor for a vote multiple times but, unfortunately, it was delayed until now when it was rolled into a 436-page bill that combines nine individual bills with much narrower support.
On a side note, the Minnesota Department of Revenue has given the green light to file your taxes if you have been waiting for the state to update the tax code with recent changes. If you are using tax software on your personal computer to file your taxes, be sure to accept and install updates from your software provider since this version will reflect the latest state changes.
As for those who already filed their taxes: Revenue will contact citizens who are eligible for new deductions. The department will either let people know what changes they made or ask for additional information in order to file additional deductions.
Good luck,
Jeff