Dear friends,
Governor Dayton introduced his budget plan for fiscal years 2016-17 earlier this week. His proposal invests the state’s $1 billion surplus to help working families and strengthen education.
The highlights of Governor Dayton’s plan include:
-
investing an additional $373 million in PreK-12 education to give schools the flexibility to address local issues.
-
investing $109 million to provide 31,000 four-year-olds access to free, high-quality PreK learning opportunities.
-
investing $250 million to make higher education more affordable for hundreds of thousands of students.
-
expanding the Child and Dependent Care Credit, making child care more affordable for 130,000 low- and middle-income families. (The average family would save $481 per year).
-
expanding broadband across Minnesota.
-
providing tax cuts for middle-income Minnesotans, delivering property tax relief for seniors, simplifying business taxes, closing corporate tax loopholes, and modernizing railroad property taxes.
-
investing $6 billion over the next ten years to address the state’s highway funding deficit and providing $2.92 billion for transit systems across Minnesota—creating an estimated 119,000 new jobs, and building the infrastructure necessary to meet the demands of a growing population and an expanding state economy.
You can find more information on Governor Dayton’s budget proposal
here. The Governor's budget proposal is one of the early stages in working toward a final budget bill. The House and the Senate will each work toward bills. This will most likely be a long process this year, with a divided Legislature.
Town Hall Meeting
Senator Bev Scalze, Representative Jason Isaacson and I will be hosting a town hall meeting Saturday, January 31, at Shoreview City Hall (4600 Victoria St. N) from 9:00 – 11:00 a.m. We will be discussing a variety of legislative issues and hope to hear from you.
As always, please contact me anytime during the legislative session with your input. I can be reached by phone at
(651) 296-0141, by email at
rep.barb.yarusso@house.mn, or in person at the State Office Building.
Sincerely,
Barb Yarusso
State Representative