ST. PAUL, MN – Today, House DFL lawmakers visited Austin as part of a statewide media tour across Minnesota to highlight the incredibly productive 2013-14 legislative session.
State Representative Jeanne Poppe and House Majority Leader Erin Murphy discussed significant progress on priorities like education, property tax relief and job creation, as well as specific local benefits for the city of Austin.
“I’m very pleased with what we accomplished,” said Poppe, chair of the House Agriculture Policy Committee. “I think the investments DFL lawmakers made in education will have a positive impact on our state for generations to come. We also focused on the needs of Minnesota’s family farmers by boosting the Ag Homestead Credit for 90,000 farmers, investing in a Farm-to-Food Shelf program and funding research to halt the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus. Those are important steps toward ensuring a strong agriculture sector right now and into the future.”
“We have a story to tell – one of sharp contrast,” said House Majority Leader Erin Murphy. “Minnesotans will have a choice – a productive legislature that will continue to deliver for working families, or a return to the ideological gridlock that only benefited the wealthiest Minnesotans and big corporations.”
Poppe and Murphy underscored a broad list of accomplishments benefiting Austin residents and southeastern Minnesota, including:
Progress for our Kids
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Paid back all of the money borrowed from our local schools by the previous Legislature.
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Increased funding for Austin Public Schools by over $3.2 million, including funding for all-day Kindergarten for every child beginning this fall.
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Froze tuition for students at Minnesota’s public colleges and universities, including Riverland Community College, and increased financial aid.
Progress for our Seniors
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Provided a 5% funding increase for local nursing homes and caregivers.
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Provided additional funding for rural nursing homes.
Progress for Middle-Class Taxpayers
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Property taxes for homeowners in Austin fell by 14.8 percent (before factoring in Homestead Credit Refunds).
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Over 1,500 homeowners in Mower County will receive a bigger property tax refund.
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Reduced property taxes for family farmers by expanding the Ag Homestead Credit. The result is an immediate $17 million in property tax relief for more than 90,000 homesteaded farms and continued tax relief into future years. An average family farmer in Minnesota will receive $410 in property tax relief, roughly a $200 increase over last year.
Progress for Greater Minnesota
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From the time the Session began in January of 2013, Austin’s unemployment rate fell from 5.6 percent to 4.1 percent.
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Passed a bipartisan bonding bill that that includes funding to acquire land and develop 11 miles of the Shooting Star Trail from Rose Creek to Austin, proceed with the construction of a parking lot for the Hormel Institute, expand affordable housing and improve roads and bridges.
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Invested $20 million in high-speed internet development to create jobs, help businesses compete and grow southeastern Minnesota’s economy.
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Made significant investments in job creation programs, like the Minnesota Investment Fund, to provide competitive loans that are already attracting new businesses to Minnesota and helping existing businesses expand and create new jobs.
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Increased funding for the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation, which specializes in early childhood and entrepreneur development in Mower County.
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Invested $2 million to expand Second Harvest Heartland’s Farm-to-Food Shelf program to compensate farmers for costs incurred when harvesting, processing and transferring surplus crops that would otherwise be discarded or left unused.
Rep. Poppe encourages her constituents to contact her with questions or comments about the 2013-14 legislative session. She can be reached by phone at (651) 296-4193, by email at rep.jeanne.poppe@house.mn or by postal mail at 487 State Office Building, 100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55155.