Dear neighbors,  

This week the House Capital Investment Committee wrapped up our fourth regional tour, visiting stops in Southern Minnesota and along the Mississippi River. All throughout the fall, our group of bipartisan legislators have been meeting with local leaders to hear their proposals for next year’s bonding bill, which funds infrastructure projects across the state. 

Last night, the tour ended in our district, and I was proud to host members of the committee in Newport and South St. Paul! 

We heard from Newport mayor Laurie Elliott about the need to fund inflow and infiltration infrastructure, which cleans our residents’ water. Our neighbors in Newport have to pay higher than average costs for water and sewage, and state funding can help alleviate rising property taxes and lower costs for residents. 

In South St. Paul, we met with Mayor Jimmy Francis to hear about the need to modernize our public works facility so it can better serve the needs of our residents. We also heard about the need to update our public swimming pool, which has been in operation since 1956 and currently leaks 12,000 gallons of water per day. South St. Paul already has the lowest tax capacity in Dakota County, so state funds make a huge difference in ensuring we’re improving the lives of residents. 

I was proud to vote to invest in Minnesota’s libraries and honor my friend and late former representative Mary C. Murphy. I served with Mary for over a decade; she was a dedicated public servant and teacher who ensured we always invested in our kids and our libraries. This fund carries on her legacy. 

We are investing in Minnesota libraries with the Mary C. Murphy Library Construction Grant for public library jurisdictions to use for renovation, construction and improvement projects to make libraries more accessible. Minnesota libraries can learn more and apply by December 1 here.  

This week the Legislative Audit Commission, which I serve on, met to hear the Office of the Legislative Auditor's financial audit of the Governor and Lieutenant Governor’s offices. 

The report found that “the Office of the Governor and Lieutenant Governor generally did not comply with the criteria we tested. We identified a significant number of instances of noncompliance and internal control deficiencies related to receipts, inventory, and payroll and nonpayroll expenditures.” 

My colleagues and I dug into the findings, and while there was no evidence of misuse, we made it clear that the public needs to have confidence that appropriate procedure is used when it comes to spending taxpayer dollars. You can find the full audit here, and you can watch the meeting here.