Legislative Update
Greetings,
You may notice a little bit of tardiness on my part as I was out of town for a portion of last week. Please accept my apology!
Legislative Energy Institute
Last weekend, I had the honor of attending the Legislative Energy Horizon Institute (LEHI) event in Richland, Washington. The weekend started with a tour of the Columbia Generating Station Nuclear Facility. Next, we spent three and a half days in Energy Bootcamp learning the basics of Conventional Electric Generation and Transmission, Nuclear Electric Generation, Renewable Energy, Petroleum and Natural Gas Energy, Artificial Intelligence and Energy, and several other policy-related topics. Later in October, the same group will be traveling to Washington D.C. to continue our education on Energy Policy, which I intend to bring back to Minnesota and apply while serving on the Minnesota House Energy Committee.
Farmamerica Check-In
Next, I visited with the Farmamerica team and several Farmamerica board members as they shared how well their season is going and how successful the school visits were this year. In addition, we are looking other opportunities for expanding the reach of Farmamerica while ensuring all audiences can visit. Stay tuned for more updates.
Owatonna Exchange Club
On Thursday, I was the guest speaker at the Owatonna Exchange Club meeting. After providing a brief summary of the highlights of the most recent legislative session, we discussed many important questions the Exchange members expressed. One of my favorite questions, included "when will Minnesota stop taxing Social Security?" This is a great question! In Minnesota we must overcome two key issues. First, our huge fraud problem. As you know, we set up a dedicated Fraud committee, which has continued to meet even while we are out of session. The committee continues to address Fraud with more investigations and more accountability. Second, a portion of the legislature really likes to spend other people’s money in the form of taxes. Last session, we addressed the $6 billion dollar forecast budget shortfall over the next four years by reducing spending and avoiding a proposed $8B tax increase. We are addressing the spending problem by curtailing the runaway State of Minnesota government growth and spending. As we continue to reduce spending, we can address the broken promise to stop taxing Social Security during prior legislative sessions.
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Honoring Marvin Landkammer
On Friday, I had the honor of standing in formation with my fellow American Legion and VFW veterans while we saluted and honored the service of United States Navy veteran Marvin Landkammer. As veterans, we appreciate the opportunity to salute our fallen comrades and remind their families of the honorable service each veteran performed for our great nation.
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