Legislative Update
Happy Mother's Day to all our local moms, and happy fishing opener! However you're celebrating, have a wonderful weekend and stay safe out on the water!
News from St. Paul
This week, we began hearing conference committee reports on the House Floor. On Monday, the Veterans bill came back largely the same as it left the House floor, and I was proud to vote in support of our veterans again. The bill passed with unanimous support.
We also debated the Housing committee report on Monday, but unfortunately it came back from conference committee with a lot of inadequacies, and I could not support it. The bill imposes a quarter-cent sales tax increase for Metro counties, which is the most regressive tax we have in Minnesota. The bill is also weighted towards the metro, and largely ignores the need for workforce housing in Greater Minnesota. It also does nothing to address the burdensome regulations that make it more expensive to add housing in Minnesota.
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On Tuesday, we heard both the Legacy conference report and the Higher Education one. I voted for Legacy, which allocates money from four funds: the Clean Water Fund, the Outdoor Heritage Fund, the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, and the Parks and Trails Fund.
The Higher Education bill was unfortunately one I could not support. We want to fund higher education in Minnesota, but we need to make sure we're investing our funds in the right places. This bill funds administration, not students, and provides inadequate funding for campus safety, which has become a serious concern for students and parents in recent years. The bill came back from conference with even less school safety funding than it left with. In addition, it spends $80 million to fund free (not actually free) college for some students, which it paid for by cutting scholarships for underrepresented teacher candidates and high-need industries. Finally, the bill includes a massive spending increase at a time when student enrollment is declining. This bill could have been written in a much for effective way.
Most other conference committees are still completing their work, however a lot of the negotiations are being done behind closed doors, with no input from the public or other legislators. The conference committee process is largely being ignored, with agreements being hammered out between the chairs and then being passed with little to no scrutiny. I continue to hope these bills come back better than they left the House.
You can hear more on my perspective on how the end of session is playing out in this week's Mueller Minute.
News from District 23B
Congratulations to the GMLOKS girls track and field team on winning the Section True Team Championship, and to the boys team who took second!
I had two school groups come visit me at the Capitol today - Leroy-Ostrander on Tuesday and IJ Holten on Friday! I always love visiting with local students while I'm up in St. Paul.
This Saturday, there is electronic recycling at the Mower County Fair, and next Saturday, May 20, is the Taste of Nations in Austin!
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