A Preview of the 2024 Legislative Session
The 2024 Legislative Session is just a few weeks away and will likely be just as fast-paced as last year given the long wish lists I know many members are coming up with and the slightly shorter timeline with the February start of the second year of the biennium. I have my own fair share of issues I would like to see addressed in the coming months as we get back into the swing of committee meetings and floor hearings. One bill I plan to introduce in the first few weeks of this session is the direct result of talking to a constituent and learning about the challenges they have been facing.
Currently testing centers for a Commercial Driver?s License (CDL) are facing a massive backlog that is creating a shortage of drivers for these important jobs that get any number of goods where they need to go. An easy, free-market, solution to this is allowing privately owned testing centers to administer this test similar to how many 3rd party sites already administer class D license tests. This an important issue for districts across the state and I believe we can get strong bipartisan support to get more CDL drivers on the road.
Another bill that I hope we can get bipartisan support for will be a fix for the School Resource Officer (SRO) mess that was created in the education omnibus last session. With a number of districts removing their SROs this school year because of the law and contradicting interpretations from the Hennepin County Attorney and Attorney General, this needs to be a top priority when we return to the Capitol on February 12th. The Governor has already stated his desire to get this done early in session. I believe a truly bipartisan solution to this statute will be needed to ensure that school districts across the state have their concerns heard as we get our recourse officers back in schools to continue their important work.
The next fix that should be top of mind for the coming session will be reigning in the out-of-control spending from last year. In the last budget the majority party spent the entire 17.5 billion dollar surplus and raised taxes by nearly 10 billion dollars leading to a massive 38% increase in spending from the previous biennial budget. Now in the most recent November budget forecast Minnesota Management and Budget (MMB) is predicting a 2.3 billion dollar deficit by 2025. This is the warning sign that the legislature needs to address this imbalance sooner rather than later.
I?m sure there will be other important issues that come up this year and I?m looking forward to working to bring the best solutions to the people of District 22B as well as Minnesota as a whole. As with the CDL issue, some of the most important bills come directly from listening to constituents. My office is always available to hear about important legislative issues and can be reached by phone at 651-296-7065 or by email at [email protected].
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