Greetings from the House Floor,
I introduced two bills over the last two weeks pertaining to agricultural property taxes. HF 2200 expands eligibility of the Property Tax Refund and Special Property Tax Refund to the value of all property classified as agricultural homestead. Under current law, only the value of the house, garage and one acre are eligible for the Property Tax Refund and Special Property Tax Refund. HF 2260 appropriates $100,000 for a study conducted by the Departments of Revenue and Agriculture to evaluate moving from market value based assessments to value or production based assessments for property taxes on agricultural land. Sen. Eken, Rep. Marquart and I were invited to two meetings over the last couple of months by farmers in Clay County to discuss high agricultural property taxes in relation to low crop prices. The biggest concern farmers expressed was the assessment system for agricultural property taxes and moving to value or production based assessments would more accurately measure the true value of agricultural land.
On Thursday, I had an informational hearing in the Transportation Committee for HF 640, which is a Capital Investment funding request for the 20th/21st Street grade separation crossing as well as the planning and development for a grade separation at 11th Street in downtown Moorhead. The House Capital Investment proposal was introduced on Friday. The bill includes funding for the 20th/21st Street grade separation, the Oakport flood mitigation project and a Clay County solid waste facility. This is a very big first step for these projects; however, we still have a ways to go before a final bill comes to the House floor for a vote.
Bills passed off the House floor this week were:
· SF 1563 (Bureau of Criminal Affairs to Do Background Checks at the Request of Indian Tribes)
· HF 1725 (Electronic Filing for Hearings in Contested Cases at Office of Administrative Hearings
· HF 4 (Omnibus Transportation Finance and Policy)
· HF 843 (Omnibus Jobs, Commerce, Energy and Housing Finance and Policy)
· HF 846 (Environment Finance and Policy Omnibus Bill)
· SF 888 (State Government Finance Omnibus Bill)
· HF 844 (K-12 Finance and Policy Omnibus Bill)
I’d be happy to share additional information about any of these bills if folks would like. Please contact me and I can provide any information requested.
Also on Thursday, Governor Dayton issued an Executive Order to declare a Peacetime State of Emergency in Minnesota to respond to the Avian Flu outbreak. Under the Executive Order:
· The Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (HSEM) will activate the Minnesota Emergency Operations Plan to support the efforts of the Minnesota Board of Animal Health and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, to coordinate response efforts across all agencies of state government
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Relief to certain motor vehicle drivers and carries pertaining to hours of service, in addition to a previous exemption of weight restrictions is extended (similar to the Executive Order issued to respond to the propane crisis last year).
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The Adjutant General of Minnesota will order to state active duty such personnel and equipment of the military forces of Minnesota as required, and for such a period of time as necessary to provide assistance and emergency relief services.
Thank You for the Opportunity to Serve,
Ben