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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Kathy Lohmer (R)

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REVIEWING MINNESOTA'S STATE BUDGET AGREEMENT

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

The 2015 legislative session has ended, and during the final days of session both the House and Senate approved legislation that creates a new state budget for Fiscal Years 2016-17.

As you can imagine in a budget compromise between House Republicans and Senate Democrats, nearly all lawmakers can find new provisions they like, and most can also find reasons to express their displeasure over certain initiatives that did not make it into the final agreement.

On the positive side, local nursing homes will directly benefit from the $138 million that has been allocated to implement a statewide rate of reimbursement – which will help improve the wages of care providers and provide a permanent solution to statewide nursing home needs.

In K-12 Education, lawmakers approved $400 million in new funding for schools statewide. The proposal increases biennial per pupil funding for every student in every school district across the state by an average of $205.

We were also able to enact several provisions that recognize your 2nd amendment rights, including handgun conceal/carry reciprocity with North Dakota and legalizing suppressors.

On the negative side, because House Republicans would not agree to raise transportation taxes and fees by $9 billion, Senate Democrats and Governor Dayton would not consider providing tax relief to hardworking families, Main Street business owners, senior citizens, farmers and veterans. They also ignored our proposal that would have dedicated $7 billion to statewide road and bridge needs without raising taxes.

Reforms to MNSure and MinnesotaCare were dropped. Had they been included, Minnesota could have saved hundreds of millions of dollars. A provision that would phase out the Minnesota tax on Social Security income was also left out, as was the Student Safety and Physical Privacy Act, which required that bathrooms, showers, and locker rooms in a school be separated based on that student's biological sex.

Know that I will continue pushing for all of these bills again next year.

Our budget proposals have now been sent to Governor Dayton for his approval, and with $1 billion remaining unspent, it's clear we will be revisiting a number of these finance topics again in 2016.

Just because the 2015 session has concluded, please don't let that stop you from contacting me with any legislative questions or concerns. You can e-mail anytime at rep.kathy.lohmer@house.mn or call my office at 651-296-4244. You can also send mail to my office address: 501 State Office Building, 100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55155.

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