Dear Neighbor,
The House has been busy discussing and voting on budget bills this week. The first one to come to the floor for a vote of the full House pertains to transportation.
The Road and Bridge Act of 2015 passed the House as the major part of a plan which invests $7 billion over the next decade. The bill creates a special fund called the Transportation Stability Fund that collects existing proceeds from dedicated tax revenues and deposits them into accounts for each of their dedicated purpose.
In contrast to what the governor is proposing, the House package provides $7 billion over 10 years for badly needed transportation projects without raising taxes. Dedicating sales taxes already being collected on purchases of things such as auto parts and tires is a logical common-sense way to put additional money toward roads and bridges.
Cities of 5,000 or fewer residents would receive $282 million over the next decade for transportation-related projects through the House plan. Towns in our District 12B would receive more than $700,000 annually. Here is a rundown of approximated distribution:
Pope County: Glenwood, $78,815; Long Beach, $21,231; Lowry, $20,051; Sedan, $14,341; Villard, $20,660; Westport, $16,163. Note: Starbuck is not in District 12B, but would receive $47,262. Douglas: Forada, $17,653; Garfield, $18,615. Stearns: Albany, $67,733; Belgrade, $31,085; Brooten, $31,490; Elrosa, $18,083; Freeport, $28,667; Greenwald, $19,583; Lake Henry, $15,469; Meire Grove, $16,697; Melrose, $85,705; New Munich, $20,626; Sauk Centre, $110,083; Spring Hill, $13,545; St. Anthony, $15,476; St. Martin, $18,961; St. Rosa, $14,566.
The package will advance to a conference committee where it receive consideration alongside respective transportation plans from the Senate and Gov. Mark Dayton.
We also passed a bill pertaining to jobs and energy. This package of provisions is geared toward making energy cleaner and cheaper, creating more market-based workforce housing, expanding high-speed broadband Internet access and bringing job growth to Greater Minnesota.
Incentives are included to encourage extending natural gas lines in rural areas. The bill also includes measures to expand access and affordability of propane in parts of the state like ours to mitigate shortages we have faced in recent years. Sales-tax credits would be available for people getting additional storage tanks for propane. Another provision would allow those on fuel assistance to contract propane purchases in the summer when prices tend to be cheaper and supplies generally are more plentiful. I authored a number of propane-related bills last year and am pleased to see these provisions pass the House this year to help us avoid repeating problems of the past.
Another issue that has come to the forefront in recent years pertains to a shortage of long-term care workers and the stability of facilities that provide care. This bill directs DEED to review existing workforce development programs to determine how we can further address this worker shortage in parts of the state like ours.
A House-Senate conference committee also will work on this bill and it is subject to change before being sent to the governor for his consideration.
On another note, the state's avian influenza outbreak remains a topic of discussion and action at the Capitol. We want to do all we can to help in the fight against it and protect producers from significant losses of income that could result. The USDA has officials in Minnesota working to determine exactly what is causing avian influenza to spread so we can stop it. I continue to be impressed with the way federal, state and other officials are working in co-operation to stop the outbreak.
Legislation is making its way through the process to provide more funding and assist in efforts and I will keep you posted as more news is available.
Sincerely,
Paul