Dear Friends,
The committee process is well underway, and we're busy hearing budget presentations from state agencies, as well as the bills that are making their way to the House floor.
The Governor unveiled his budget proposal this week, a starting point for what's sure to be an extensive conversation as we put together Minnesota's budget for the next two years. You can expect to see budget proposals from the House and Senate coming up in the next month or so.
One item of note from this week: The House unanimously passed a disaster relief bill that will help cities and counties fully recover from severe storms and flooding last summer. Dakota County is among the 47 counties who will receive assistance. Most of the funding will come from the federal government through the Federal Emergency Management Agency due to the disaster declaration made last year, but we had to first pass this bill to receive that funding.
In order to pay for the state's part of the relief funding, the legislature used mostly unspent money from previous disaster relief bills. This helped save the taxpayers from using millions in additional new funding.
I'm glad to see that Dakota County and others across the state will be able to get their funding on time to help finish the recovery process this spring. It's once again great to see the legislature cooperating on a bipartisan basis to move this bill quickly through the process and get it sent to Governor Dayton.
There will be many areas of disagreement as session continues, but helping Minnesotans recover after natural disasters is one area where legislators have a long history of putting politics aside and doing the right thing.
Have a great weekend,
Tara Mack
State Representative, District 57A