Dear Neighbors,
With one month left to go in the legislative session, I want to thank all of you who have provided me with your input over the last several months through your attendance at my community coffees and town hall meeting, emails, and phone calls. By and large our committee work in the House of Representatives has finished for this session. From now through May 20 we will spend many hours on the floor doing the serious business of the people as we vote on various omnibus budget bills. We are making crucial decisions right now at our state Capitol, and our continued partnership is essential to ensure that I am your voice in St. Paul.
In this newsletter I would like to provide you with the highlights of our bipartisan Jobs bill, which recently passed the House. This bill makes strategic investments to grow jobs and improve our economy. One of the largest single investments proposed is to the Minnesota Investment Fund (MIF), which helps companies bring quality jobs to the state by delivering funds to Minnesota cities. Our locally elected officials can then use these funds to offer incentives for businesses to relocate to or expand in Minnesota. This program has been shown to bring $33 in private investment for every $1 loaned out, and is a great example of bringing the public and private sectors together to create jobs and economic growth.
In additional efforts to create a business-friendly environment that will enable our businesses to add jobs, the bill includes a substantial tax cut for MN employers. Reducing the rate that employers pay for unemployment insurance by approximately $150.00 per employee (a $350 million reduction state wide) will cut costs for our employers as our economic recovery continues to slowly take hold.
Another issue in the news recently is the potential for water shortages across the state of Minnesota. This is a difficult concept for us to grasp in the land of 10,000 lakes, but parts of our state are actually being impacted. Water shortage is already a big problem in the city of Worthington, which is currently paying to pump in water from Iowa, and around White Bear Lake, where the lake has shrunk 25%. The aquifer which supplies water to much of the metropolitan area will be dry in only a few decades.
In our community, our locally elected officials do a great job in this area, but we do have the potential for issues with our wells and need to always be alert to the possibility of contamination vulnerability. The House on Thursday passed the Omnibus Environment, Natural Resources, and Agricultural Finance bill, and in that bill the Department of Natural Resources water monitoring approach is updated to ensure that we, in cooperation with local governments, stay on top of this issue.
Finally, the House Health and Human Services bill makes $150 million in cuts to programs while protecting Minnesota’s seniors and most vulnerable citizens. Over the last two years, $1.23 billion was cut from health and human services. Since the 2008 Special Session, enacted budgets have cut Health and Human Services General Fund spending by $4.2 billion. Making these cuts can be difficult but it is important that we enact cuts and find government efficiencies as part of our overall budget.
Below you will find other Omnibus Bills we will be considering in the coming days, with a link to summaries of these lengthy bills. Please send me your thoughts and views on these issues as we move forward. You can also watch our House floor discussions live on your local cable channel or through this House link: http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/htv/mnhouse.asx.
Omnibus Environment and Agriculture Finance Bill
Omnibus Health and Human Services Finance Bill
Omnibus Higher Education Finance and Policy Bill
Omnibus Judiciary Finance and Policy Bill
Omnibus K-12 Education Finance Bill
Omnibus Legacy Bill
Omnibus Public Safety Finance Bill
As always, thank you for the honor of being your voice in St. Paul.
Best,
Yvonne