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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Steve Sandell (DFL)

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Column: Woodbury will be safer and healthier with new laws in place

Thursday, August 1, 2019

Though we’re one of the nation’s only divided governments, the Minnesota Legislature isn’t in the business of logjams and shutdowns. This year, we passed several significant measures to improve the lives of Minnesotans by working across the aisle to get some important things done. Three of those measures, which take effect August 1, will ensure families right here in Woodbury will be safer, healthier and more economically secure.

 

Our law requiring drivers to use their phones only in “hands free” mode will help cut down on drivers who swerve, stop, or disrupt traffic while they’re behind the wheel and focusing on their phone. Not only do those drivers make us uneasy, they pose a real danger on the road. Distracted driving is a cause in one in four crashes, and it contributes to nearly 60 deaths per year in Minnesota. States that have passed hands free while driving measures have already seen major decreases in traffic fatalities. Minnesotans deserve safe transportation and roads and this is a common-sense solution to keep drivers safe.

 

Too many Minnesotans are struggling with the high costs of health care and prescription drugs – it’s the number one issue I hear about from Woodbury residents. Minnesotans shouldn’t lose their lives or their loved ones simply because they can’t afford the life-saving medication they need.

 

A bipartisan group of lawmakers this year took on the challenge of high drug prices by tackling a powerful but little-known middle man in the drug industry. Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs), who can control the drug market as an intermediary between manufacturers and pharmacies, will now have to open their books and show Minnesotans exactly how much money is going toward the pockets of pharmaceutical executives at the expense of patients in Minnesota.

 

I was proud to support this measure in the House because we’ve seen too many lives lost – like 26-year-old Alec Smith – when they couldn’t afford the medication they needed to survive.

 

Finally, we will help the 40,000 workers who lose up to $12 million in wages each year when employers skim money off the top of their paychecks, refuse overtime pay, or misclassify workers. The new "wage theft" law will be among the strongest of its kind in the country.

 

Minnesotans deserve an hour’s pay for an hour’s work, and our wage theft enforcement will hold those who ignore their employees as a business strategy accountable. This law will help ensure all Minnesotans are paid the wages they’ve earned.

 

While these bipartisan, common-sense measures will improve peoples’ lives, we have much more work to do to strengthen our state by improving education opportunities, increasing economic prosperity for Minnesotans, and keeping Minnesotans safe and healthy. I look forward to continuing that work through the interim and when we return to the Capitol in February. I hope you will stay in touch. I appreciate your calls, e-mails and letters.