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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Ben Lien (DFL)

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Legislative Update - March 2, 2015

Monday, March 2, 2015
Greetings from the Floor,
 
The February budget forecast was released on Friday and brought very good news with a projected surplus of $1.87 billion for the 2016-17 biennium.  This is another indication of the strength of Minnesota’s economy as more people are working and earning higher wages.  We need to take advantage of this surplus opportunity and continue investments into education, Minnesota’s working families and long-term/senior care to keep our prosperity moving forward.    
 
Governor Dayton held a press conference on Friday morning to discuss some of his priorities for the surplus, which include universal pre-kindergarten ($238 million), a full tuition freeze at the University of Minnesota ($65 million) and a tuition freeze for the first year of the biennium at the Minnesota State College and University system ($95 million)—the system would have to pay for a tuition freeze during the second year through internal savings, a $25 million increase to the State Aid Grant program for higher education students, funding for the Minneapolis Park Board ($3.7 million) and full implementation of the recommendations from the Governor’s Task Force on the Protections of Children ($50 million).
 
With the announcement of the February budget forecast, Governor Dayton will release his official supplemental budget proposal on the week of March 9th.  Legislative committees will receive their spending targets from leadership (House and Senate) over the next couple of weeks and put together the budgets for the different policy areas in which they have jurisdiction.  I anticipate the overall direction of the session will now take shape as the committees begin to focus on their budget work. 
 
Bills passed off the House floor last week were House Files 8 (Child Protection Provisions Updated), 262 (Technical Changes to Real Property Laws) and 510 (Changes to Human Resources for Hennepin County).  The most notable of these bills was HF 8 which contains provisions recommended by the governor’s Task Force on the Protection of Children (the task force’s full recommendations will be released by the end of March).  HF 8 allows the inclusion of reports that were previously “screened-out”, or not considered evidence of child maltreatment by child protection workers, in reviewing cases of child abuse.  These “screened-out” reports will now be incorporated in reviewing cases of child abuse.  I think this was a very important bill for the House to pass and is the start of our work to strengthen child protective services in Minnesota.
 
Thank You for the Opportunity to Serve,
Ben