By Rep. Paul Anderson
Although the legislative session came to a close, there are several questions still unanswered as we head into the interim. The biggest has to do with the K-12 education bill, which the governor threatened to veto because it didn’t include his pre-kindergarten proposal. This, despite the fact both chambers of the legislature had agreed to a bi-partisan bill that increased education funding by $400 million from the previous biennium. The hope among many was that Gov. Dayton would let the bill become law without his signature. That, apparently, is not going to happen.
What makes this frustrating is that nearly everyone I have visited with, from area superintendents to parents to those who run family day care centers, is not in favor of adding this new program onto our school agendas. We are just now finally getting the all-day kindergarten program up to full speed, and to add another program for four-year olds this soon is not practical. The biggest concern I’ve heard from school administrators is a lack of space to add another class of students. It would also hurt our privately-run system of day care centers that rely on this group of children to make their programs viable.
Then there is the expense of adding this new program at a time when schools are already strapped to provide their existing mandated course offerings. There has been a statewide plea to take the money that Dayton is using to fund his pre-K program and put it on the pupil funding formula and let our schools decide how to utilize the money. The final bill passed by the Legislature provides a 3.5 percent increase in per-student funding over two years in addition to increases in other categorical areas. It’s a good bill but the governor has come out so strongly for pre-K that he won’t sign legislation without it.
This makes a special session necessary, and the problem of where to hold it becomes very real. Workers started taking out desks and chairs from our House chamber the day following adjournment as part of the next phase of a large Capitol restoration, leaving it off-limits for now. Dayton had earlier said he would pitch a tent on the Capital lawn and hold the special session there. A downtown hotel has also offered space to conduct business.
The agriculture policy bill that I carried was signed into law by Gov. Dayton on May 19. It contains several key provisions, among which is language that provides a level of legal protection for those who host agricultural events on their farms. Several other states have this agri-tourism law, and we were able to work with the various stakeholders and come up with compromise language.
Also on the positive ledger, both chambers agreed to a major increase in nursing home funding. The state will now pay more of the actual cost of providing care for our seniors. If signed by the governor, this provision will greatly improve our nursing homes’ ability to attract and keep the workers necessary to more fully staff their operations.
I’m disappointed that we were unable to come up with a major transportation bill as the DFL Senate wouldn’t move from their support of the gas tax. It’s difficult to support a major tax increase such as a 16 cents per gallon sales tax on fuel when we have a big surplus in the state treasury. When the GOP House wouldn’t go along with a gas tax increase, the Senate decided they wouldn’t support a major tax bill. That bill contained tax relief for seniors, veterans, and farmers, but will now have to wait until next year for possible passage.
***
Remember to honor the memory of our military veterans this Memorial Day. The sacrifices they made have given us what we have today. We live in the greatest country in the world, and we owe our veterans a huge debt of gratitude for what they did.
-30-