Dear Neighbors,
It’s been an eventful few weeks at the Legislature. I got sworn in on January 8th and work started right away. I’m serving on the Agriculture Policy, Capital Investment, and Judiciary Finance & Policy Committees, so my committee work is fairly broad. But with Governor Dayton’s budget proposal coming out last week, we’ve all put our focus on balancing the budget and investing in what makes Minnesota great.
Overall I think Governor Dayton’s budget proposal was a good step in the right direction. It created a balanced budget, invested in economic development, increase funding to education by $640 million, and with more than $120 million going to Local Government Aid and County Program Aid the budget will help decrease local property taxes as well.
Now I know the budget isn’t perfect. There are some parts of Governor Dayton’s proposal I want to look at more closely. Broadening the sales tax to include business services and taxing clothing over $100 are two pieces in particular that I’d like to have more conversation about with people in our district. I also think we might be able to tweak the way we distribute property tax rebates and pay back the school shift. But all of those issues are still in the beginning phases.
We are going to continue to look at all the details of the Governor’s budget proposal and make the necessary changes to ensure that we are investing in what makes Minnesota such a great place to live. Putting money towards schools, our local communities, and job creation will help our economy improve. Those are aspects of the budget that I am strongly in support of.
If there are things you think are important, let me know. I’m always open to talking about the needs of our district and any ideas you may have. You can contact me by phone at (651) 296-4929 or by email at rep.jay.mcnamar@house.mn. If you go to my legislative website, www.house.mn/12a , you can sign up to get email updates from me throughout the session. And if you’re ever in St Paul, swing by my office in room 431 of the State Office Building next to the State Capitol.
Rep. Jay McNamar
House of Representatives
District 12A