Dear Neighbor,
Shout-out to local our Future Farmers of America members as we celebrate National FFA Week.
FFA is specifically a career and technical student organization, based on middle and high school classes that promote and support agricultural education. Agriculture is immensely important to our part of the state and I commend all of our area FFA participants for their interest in this subject. I look forward to the day when things return to normal and students wearing those blue corduroy FFA jackets return to the Capitol to speak with their respective legislators.
I also want to mention this is Minnesota School Board Recognition Week. I sent a personal letter to the school board members in our area thanking them for their public service. Your efforts to help our children achieve in the classroom are very much appreciated.
Here are some notes from the Capitol this week:
How big is the state surplus?
We are anticipating Minnesota Management & Budget’s release of a new economic forecast for the state next week, providing a firm set of figures that will guide legislative action for the rest of the session. The last complete report – the November forecast – called for a $7.7 billion biennial surplus but revenue has continued to exceed previous projections in monthly updates since then.
It should be noted this is not a budget year by name and the state is fully funded for this biennium. On the other hand, the state’s massive over-collection of tax dollars presents an opportunity to deliver unprecedented relief at a time Minnesotans face soaring prices on everyday goods and services. Eliminating the state tax on Social Security is just the start of the good we can do with these surplus dollars and I look forward to these discussions as the session proceeds.
We also need to quickly pass legislation to restore solvency with our state’s unemployment insurance fund and prevent a tax increase on businesses that we all would feel one way or another. We only have until March 15 for a bill to be enacted to stop this from happening.
As I noted in a recent newsletter, the governor, House Republicans, and members from both sides of the aisle in the Senate support fully repaying the UI fund. The House majority’s proposal only goes halfway, which would still trigger six years of tax increases for businesses.
The Senate already has passed, with bipartisan support, a bill to fully solve this issue. The House majority is slow rolling this legislation and now we’re running out of time to stop the injustice of a tax increase taking place at a time the state has a historic surplus. Furthermore, every day the House majority delays passing this bill costs Minnesota taxpayers another $50,000 in interest charges, reports indicate.
Addressing childcare shortage
Early childhood is a major focus of my legislative work and this week we heard in a committee meeting that Greater Minnesota alone is 20,252 childcare slots short of capacity. (The shortage in the Twin Cities is 2,688). We also have heard our state’s complicated, stressful licensing structure is a major detriment to childcare providers, and a factor in the shortage we face.
Legislation I authored to help address this issue by creating an ombudsperson office to assist family childcare providers with licensing, compliance, and other issues they face reached enactment last June. It is highly concerning the governor has not yet appointed someone to fill the ombudsperson position this many months later. Meanwhile, DHS also has yet to start disbursing $22.5 million in childcare revitalization grants that were provided. This is a separate issue, but still has an impacts the childcare shortage.
I will continue pressing for answers on these issues because the people of Minnesota deserve better customer service and more accountability from their government. Stay tuned.
Sincerely,
Lisa