Legislative Update - October 11, 2019

Dear Neighbors,

You guessed it, I have more Town Hall events coming to St. Cloud! In the coming days we’ll have two within 48 hours of each other! There are also some important, informative surveys I’d greatly appreciate your input on.

Be Heard on Cannabis

Minnesota’s current cannabis laws are doing more harm than good, and it’s time to start the serious conversation on what responsibly legalizing adult-use cannabis should look like for our state. My colleagues and I in the Minnesota House are taking the lead on this, and that includes the community conversations we’ve been having across the state.

This Saturday, I hope you’ll join me as House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler, Assistant Senate Minority Leader Jeff Hayden, and Minnesota Veterans for Cannabis Founder Jeremy Sankey start that conversation in St. Cloud. We’ll be at the St. Cloud Public Library at 1:30pm on Saturday, where we’ll have an informative presentation and take questions. Regardless of whether or not you’ll be able to attend, please consider taking Speaker Melissa Hortman’s survey on the issue here.

Health Care Community Conversation

If one event wasn’t enough for you, I have good news! The following Monday, October 14, I’ll be holding a Health Care Community Conversation as part of the DFL House’s Minnesota Values Project. This’ll be more of a broader conversation than my recent event on the skyrocketing prices of insulin and prescription drugs, and for this event I’ll be joined by Health and Human Services Chairs Rep. Tina Liebling and Rep. Rena Moran as well as Commerce Chair Laurie Halverson.

Health Care is time and again one of the top subjects brought to me by constituents, and while we made significant progress this last legislative session in increasing the access to affordable health care, more remains to be done. We’ll be in the Sun Room at the Lake George Municipal Complex at 7pm, and I hope to see you there!

Minnesota Values Project Survey

Another way we’re touching base with constituents is through our Minnesota Values Project Survey. The successes of our recent legislative session are rooted in the conversations my colleagues and I had with Minnesotans across the state. We talked to folks to find out what’s important to them, and we want to continue our efforts in fighting for your values.

Please consider taking a moment to fill out our survey here.

 Talahi & Madison Elementary

I had an absolute blast this week visiting with students and staff at our local elementary schools. A special shout out to Ms. Woods’ kindergarten class at Talahi Elementary, and to Principal Flynn for showing me around Madison Elementary. The education of these bright young minds is incredibly important to our community, and while I’m proud of the investments we made in education this year, more needs to be done to close our achievement gap and make Minnesota THE education state.

LCCMR Survey

The Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR) is also seeking input for a strategic plan that will guide Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund (ENRTF) investments for the next six years. I encourage you to take our short, anonymous survey and share it with anyone who might be interested in participating! The survey will be open until Monday, October 28.

If you have any questions on these surveys, any of the topics in this update, or the legislative process, please feel free to reach out to me. You can reach me at (651) 296-6612, or email me at rep.dan.wolgamott@house.mn.

Go Vikes!

 Rep. Dan Wolgamott