Committee hearings, days on the hill, budget releases its hard to believe it is only the second week of the

2014 Legislative Session. Read below to see whats been going on in St. Paul: Unsession: Most of you have read about the Governors directive to dedicate this Session to getting rid of duplicative laws, eliminating redundancies and removing obsolete references from our statutes. I am not quite sure how big of an impact this will ultimately have on the average Minnesotan, but I appreciate the attempt. The Higher Education/Workforce Development committee took the lead this week on tackling the Governors Unsession bill. My counterpart in the House, Rep. Gene Pelowski, and I have been working for weeks with the Office of Higher Education to agree on language for the Higher Ed Unsession bill. The Office came to us with an 80 page bill, which contained their suggestions on how to clean up Higher Ed statutes. Rep. Pelowski and I thought it was important that we were on the same page. We set a few ground rules for how we would pursue the bill. This being an Unsession bill, we did not think it was appropriate to include any policy changes. We also approached the bill through the lens of keeping it within the Higher Ed realm. There were several suggestions that would have affected other areas of law. It would not have been fitting for our committees to make any changes that would alter any laws under another committees jurisdiction. After several meetings, we finally came to an agreement on the bill. On Tuesday, we heard Senate File 2224. The bill was passed without issue and is now on the Senate Floor waiting for a full vote from the body. I am glad that the process went so smooth. Hopefully, other committees will follow our lead.

Governors Budget
Among all of the action that took place this week, the most newsworthy was the release of the Governors proposed supplemental budget. His release is significant in that it sets the direction for the Legislature and gives a rough idea of where the budget may end up. Click here to view his proposal.

Higher Ed: The Governor did not ignore Higher Education in his budget. He included $17 million for our Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, which would fill a hole that was left in their budget after the tuition freeze last Session. He also set aside $5 million for the University of Minnesota - intended for the University of MN Duluth. I support this as well.

B2B: After the release of the February Forecast last week and the news that we are looking at a projected 1.2 billion dollar surplus, all of us Legislators were eager to see how the Governor would respond. While I did not agree with the Governors tax bill last session I am pleased with his current proposals. I am pleased to see the repeal of the business-to-business taxes that went into effect last Session. The House has already passed the $503 million package of tax cuts. The Governor also indicated that he would like to eliminate the Gift tax and reduce the Estate tax. In addition to these repeals, the Governor is also choosing to leave money in the reserve as a rainy day fund. After the recession, we learned that at any time we can be hit with an economic downturn. We cannot allow ourselves to be caught in the same mess we found ourselves in several years ago, when the Legislature chose to balance the budget by borrowing from our schools and cashing in on our Tobacco settlement. I might additionally look at the current top rate as the new fourth tier hit small business owners particularly hard. 5% Campaign: On Tuesday, March 4th, we met with members of the 5% campaign for their day on the hill. It was great to see the strong advocacy for this critical issue. The 5% campaign is a push to increase pay rates for caregivers to the elderly and disabled in line with rising costs. This will ensure higher quality of care for the elderly and disabled by decreasing staff turnover, which causes stress and instability. The Governor put aside money in his budget for this project. We will continue to support the 5% campaign as it moves forward. This is one of the most important initiatives of the Session.

Angel Investment: The Angel Investment Tax Credit is a strong economic tool that the State funds, which provides money to start ups engaged in proprietary technology innovation by giving a tax incentive to the Angel Investor. I have been the Chief Author of this bill and one of the strongest advocates for the program, which was set to expire this year. Due to the outpouring of demand for this funding and the incredible success of the program, the Governor has recommended an extension to the Angel Investment program for at least three more years. Not only that, but he increased the funding by $3 million per year. I have received much constituent correspondence on this issue, all of which has been in support of the program.

Local Initiatives: Today the Senate Bonding Committee visited our two projects being considered for the Bonding bill; Plymouth Ice Center and St. Davids School. They were warmly greeted and left inspired and impressed. 494 Expansion to a general purpose third lane appears to be moving and on track. We introduced a new Hollydale Bill requiring Xcel to comply with our previously passed law for any new similar filing. We are working with the DNR to make sure the Shavers Lake Cattail Provision can be implemented.