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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Jim Davnie (DFL)

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Legislative Update & Town Hall Notice – January 27, 2017

Friday, January 27, 2017

Dear Neighbors:

The first month of the 2017 legislative session has been fast-paced. This week Governor Dayton delivered his State of the State Address and unveiled his complete 2017-2018 state budget proposal. There were also several controversial pieces of legislation heard on the House floor and in various House committees, including proposals to create neo-vouchers for private schools, proposals to criminally and financially punish individuals participating in public protests, and proposals to limit healthcare coverage for certain medical conditions as part of health insurance relief and reform legislation to be voted on this week. More on the status of those bills below.

Town Hall Engagement

Senator Torrey Ray, Representative Wagenius and I hosted our first community engagement town hall on Women’s Rights earlier this month and were excited with the attendance and response. Because of concerns you’ve shared with us, we are inviting residents of Senate District 63 to attend our next town hall meetings in the series we’re hosting to address changes being generated by the new Presidential Administration and Republican-controlled legislature in areas of special concern to many of you.

Meeting on Climate Change:

WHAT: Town hall joined by representatives from MN350, Fresh Energy and Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light.

WHEN: 6:30-8:00 p.m. Tuesday, February 7, 2017

WHERE: Mayflower Church

106 East Diamond Lake Road

Minneapolis, MN 55419

Meeting on Civil Rights:

WHAT: Town hall joined by representatives from ACLU-Minnesota, League of Women Voters-Minnesota and Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation.

WHEN: 6:30-8:00 p.m. Tuesday, February 21, 2017

WHERE: Communications Workers of America Hall

3521 East Lake Street

Minneapolis, MN 55406

Governor Dayton’s Budget: An Opportunity Agenda

Governor Dayton delivered the State of the State to a joint legislative session of the House and Senate on Monday. The headline grabbing news was that he fainted just before finishing the speech. Thankfully, he’s OK and doing well. During his speech and in the two year state budget he released on Tuesday, he outlined a broad vision.

As someone who cares deeply about improving education for our students, I appreciated his continued focus on investing in our students, from pre-K to college. The Governor proposed expanding voluntary pre-kindergarten for all of Minnesota’s children, a 2% increase in education funding this year and the next, and to plan to hold down college debt. I’m committed to making sure we help the next generation succeed just as Governor Dayton outlined.

Just before he was going to finish his speech on Monday, Governor Dayton was going to call for new reforms to make insurance more affordable. Among those reforms was a public option to increase competition and drive down health insurance costs. This is a very exciting proposal that both responds to the real challenges in the individual health insurance market and positions the state for the future.

I look forward to working with him so everyone in our community has the opportunity to get ahead. You can read his full remarks here and his full budget release with details on many other parts of the state budget here.

Health Insurance Premiums Relief

There are 120,000 Minnesotans who buy their health insurance on the individual market facing sharp premium increases. Everyone at the legislature recognizes this is a crisis, but we’ve seen politics slow down help for those struggling to afford their insurance. This should have, and could have been dealt with in a special session last year. As I shared in early January, Governor Dayton’s plan for immediate rebates of 25% of premium costs was the fastest and simplest way to get relief to Minnesotans this year. I initially opposed HF 1, the GOP proposal, because it would delay relief until 2018 and allow insurance companies to sell policies that didn’t cover things like cancer, emergency services, Lyme’s disease and nearly 100 other conditions or services. These policies don’t provide security for Minnesota families, and they weaken our overall health care system.

Legislative leaders and the Governor reached a compromise to remove the portions of the relief bill that would have made the bad insurance policies with incomplete coverage legal. They also removed a few other costly and unvetted provisions, but still included substantial policy changes. One change will be to allow for-profit companies to move into the HMO market. For-profit companies already offer insurance in Minnesota but have not been able to operate HMO’s. I am pleased that we were able to provide relief immediately this year. I’m not at all confident that this bill will solve the problems of the collapsing individual health insurance market. Still its premium relief that needed to pass and I supported it. The bill passed 108-19.

School Neo-Voucher Proposals

A bill that would provide $35 million a year in tax subsidies for private schools was heard on Tuesday in the Education Finance Committee. I strongly oppose “neo-voucher” proposals like this for several reasons, including the fact that they would provide a form of public subsidy for schools that discriminate against students and families based on immigration status, sexuality, special education needs or other criteria. There are several related provisions that have been introduced this year and I expect a significant push for greater public subsidy for private schools.

Protest Legislation

Republican lawmakers around the country and in Minnesota are attempting to chill the use of First Amendment rights. There was a packed committee hearing on Tuesday for a bill that would seek to criminalize peaceful protest by making it legal to sue protesters for costs associated with protests, similar to the women’s march that drew 100,000 people to Saint Paul streets last Saturday. The bill is poorly crafted and advocates were unable to answer obvious questions on the bill. I oppose measures like this that attempt to restrict our first amendment rights to peacefully assemble.

Stay in Touch

I hope to see you at the upcoming town hall meeting. You can always contact me if you have questions or concerns at 651-296-0173 or by email at rep.jim.davnie@house.mn .

Sincerely,

Jim Davnie

State Representative