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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Tara Mack (R)

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News from Rep. Tara Mack 05-22-2015

Friday, May 22, 2015


Dear Friends,

I hope you've been enjoying the pleasant weather we've had this week. It's been nice to relax and recharge with family after a very long final week at the legislature. On Monday the House and Senate finished passing our bipartisan budget bills and sent them to the Governor.

Minnesotans expect their legislators to work in good faith and compromise with each other. With the Senate controlled by Democrats and the House controlled by Republicans, I'm proud of the fact that we were able to come to bipartisan agreements and send bills to Governor Dayton that received overwhelming bipartisan support. These are great bills that will make a positive impact on the lives of thousands if not millions of Minnesotans over the next two years.

The Health and Human Services bill, which I worked on extensively as the Chair of the Health and Human Services Reform Committee, includes once-in-a-generation reforms to the way we reimburse our nursing homes. Under the bill, many nursing homes across the state will see increases in funding of over 30% or more. It's important that as our population of aging adults continues to grow that our senior care facilities are able to keep their doors open and provide quality care to our loved ones. These are our grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, and neighbors, and they deserve exceptional care and the ability to stay close to their families.

On the policy side, we expanded telemedicine services to help us take advantage of technology that can make health care cheaper and more accessible, as well as formally entering into the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact that will help make it easier for highly qualified doctors to come to Minnesota, and for our outstanding health professionals to practice in other states as well. We also passed legislation to require the state to seek a waiver so that MNsure customers can have access to tax credits they are eligible for outside of the exchange.

You've probably also heard a lot about the Governor's veto of the education bill. I'm disappointed that the Governor vetoed a bill that received such overwhelming bipartisan support from the legislature. The $17 billion E-12 education budget the Governor vetoed contained dozens of important policies and funding for programs including early childhood learning. We invested $400 million in new, increased funding for schools including historic investments in early learning programs. In total, the E-12 budget the Governor vetoed would have spent $1.3 billion more in 2016-2017 than in the current 2014-2015 budget.

Republicans and Democrats worked in good faith, collaborating to pass a bill that would be good for our schools and good for Minnesota students. Unfortunately the Governor has now decided to send us into special session, so we will continue working to resolve our differences.

As always, if you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me at rep.tara.mack@house.mn or call 651-296-5506. You can also follow my updates on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TaraKMack.

Have a great weekend,

Tara Mack
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