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State Representative Barb Yarusso
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-0141
For more information contact: Susie Merthan 651-296-2955
E-Update
2013 Session Update: Jobs, Higher Education, Public Safety and Health and Human Services bills pass
Dear Neighbors,
We are working through the final days of the legislative session and must adjourn on Monday, May 20th. At this time, conference committees are finalizing budget bills. In conference committee, House and Senate conferees negotiate differences between bills and agree on final language. The House conferees are fighting for the positions that were passed in our omnibus bills, including comprehensive property tax relief, paying back our schools, and investing in education and job creation. Once completed, these bills are brought back to the House and Senate floor for final passage.
Things are moving very quickly this week. Many major budget bills, and several smaller bills, have passed, including the Judiciary and Public Safety bill Thursday, and the Higher Education and Health and Human Services bills today. The public safety bill invests in law enforcement, victims, and courts, and includes a bipartisan provision to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill by integrating non-electronic data into the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension computer system. The bill makes further upgrades to the state’s aging 20-year-old Criminal History System – Minnesota’s crime database and top BCA priority to support law enforcement across Minnesota. The legislation will also replace the state’s crime statistic reporting system, which is so old it can no longer be integrated with other systems across the United States.
The Higher Education bill will freeze tuition at MnSCU and the U of MN for undergraduates for the next two years. It also provides increased grants for low-income and part-time students to make college more affordable. The bill also implements new reforms to increase oversight of MnSCU and U of MN spending to ensure that tax dollars are being used wisely. After a decade of rising tuition, I believe that these measures will go a long way to help students pay for their education.
The Health and Human Services bill cuts $50 million from the budget and also provides a much-needed 5% nursing home rate increase. This increase will help senior care facilities to reduce employee turnover and improve senior care. Long term care providers, who work with both seniors and vulnerable adults, will receive a 1% increase. We will be working through the E-12 Education, Elections, Legacy Funding, Environment and Natural Resources and Tax bills this weekend.
We passed the Jobs, Commerce, Energy and Housing Bill Wednesday, which will reverse a decade of cuts to economic development and grow new jobs in Minnesota. Several initiatives to create jobs and stimulate the economy are included, from job training to financial incentives for businesses. I supported this bill because I have heard from many residents and businesses in our community about the need for job creation to help Minnesota’s economic recovery.
The jobs bill is really focused on helping small businesses, and provides Minnesota employers with a $346 million tax cut. This will save employers an average of $150 per employee and is the largest cut of its kind in state history. The cut is made possible by reducing the rate that employers pay into the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund. This will free up more capital to help our local businesses.
In addition to the tax cut to businesses, the bill invests in proven strategies to create jobs here in Minnesota. The bill includes funding for one of the state’s leading job creation tools, the Minnesota Investment Fund (MIF). MIF provides financial incentives to attract businesses to set up shop or expand within Minnesota. This program has brought several companies to Minnesota already, and created corresponding jobs in communities across the state.
The jobs bill will create three trade offices to complement our current trade office in China. These trade offices help Minnesota businesses integrate with other parts of the world. This will help our businesses to stay competitive in the global marketplace.
Our neighboring Representative, Jason Isaacson, has worked hard this session on a new apprenticeship program to help train students and workers for high demand manufacturing jobs. We currently have a “skills gap” in Minnesota, and many of these manufacturing employers have job openings and cannot find properly trained workers to fill them. The program will partner with some of the MnSCU institutions to help both the businesses and students involved in this industry. The jobs bill also includes funding for the Job Skills Partnership and FastTRAC, and will continue to work on efforts that help workers train for the occupations that are in the highest demand. These updates are much needed to make sure that workers are able to find employment and that our businesses have a talented employee pool.
In addition to this jobs legislation, I want to provide a brief update to some of the provisions we have passed recently to protect seniors from scams. One of these measures, HF 131, requires estate sale conductors to be bonded. This comes in response to a scam case in the metro where a so-called estate sales conductor did not return profits to the family members holding the sale. Being bonded will provide legitimacy to those holding estate sales and help to prevent scams such as this from occurring. A measure passed in the Public Safety Conference Committee Report yesterday will require tougher background checks for guardians and conservators to protect Minnesota’s vulnerable adults and seniors from fraud and other financial crimes.
As many of you may know, the legislature passed the Marriage Equality Act on Monday, and Governor Dayton has signed this legislation into law. This will allow civil marriages for all Minnesotans—the kind you get at City Hall—and protect religious freedoms for congregations or clergy who do not support same-sex marriage. The religious protections in the bill are the strongest of any state that has legalized same-sex marriage and strike an important balance between religious freedom and civil liberties. I supported this bill because I believe that marriage provides public support and accountability that goes beyond just legal protections, and that we should be celebrating all couples who want to have this kind of commitment.
I want to thank you for being in touch this session. Please continue to contact me with your questions and comments. We will be busy this weekend wrapping up legislative business, and you can watch our House debates live through this link: http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/htv/mnhouse.asx.
Sincerely,
Barb Yarusso
News Items
- 2013 Session Update: Legislative Wrap-Up - (Posted: May 30 2013 4:52PM)
- 2013 Session Update: Jobs, Higher Education, Public Safety and Health and Human Services bills pass - (Posted: May 17 2013 10:11PM)
- 2013 Session Update: House passes anti-bullying and minimum wage legislation - (Posted: May 7 2013 8:54AM)
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