Dear Neighbors,
This is one of the busiest times at the Capitol when policy committees are hearing as many bills as possible. First committee deadline was Friday, March 20th at midnight. This is the deadline by which a bill must pass its policy committees in at least one body to stay “alive” this year. Instead of committees meeting between 8am and 6pm, they often go late into the night. The grueling schedule will repeat next month when finance committees assemble their omnibus bills. Here are some highlights of the action.
Bill to address Rochester area Nursing Home shortages
This week I had a committee hearing on House File 1824, a bill that would increase reimbursement rates for nursing facilities within 30 miles of Rochester. Mayo Clinic has seen a wave of retirements and is hiring nurses, which exacerbates the normal competition for staff. Low rates are really a statewide problem. I am co-sponsoring H.F. 316, which would completely re-do the way nursing facilities are paid. With a projected budget surplus of almost $2 billion, I hope House Republicans will allocate funding for this critical issue and my individual bill will not be needed. You can read about the bill here.
90% of Minnesotans getting lower taxes
It was great news to hear this week that the tax reform we passed two years ago will result in lower taxes for 90% of all Minnesotans. The Minnesota Department of Revenue’s annual Tax Incidence Study shows that those earning less than $140,000 will be paying less in overall taxes, as a portion of income, than they did in 2012.
The study credits a few reasons for the decrease in overall taxes:
First, wages are starting to grow for Minnesotans and are expected to outpace the growth in new taxes. Second, the budget passed by Governor Dayton and the DFL Majority has helped middle class taxpayers. While the top 2% of earners will pay more and corporations lost some special tax breaks, we gave $177 million in direct property tax relief to nearly 1 million Minnesotans. Finally, the DFL budget cut income taxes for middle class Minnesotans by adopting some federal tax cuts, helping more than 1 million Minnesotans.
Minnesota has a strong economy and a roughly $2 billion projected budget surplus. GOP claims that the sky would fall in Minnesota under our budget have been proven false. We should keep pursuing policies that help for all Minnesotans, not only the wealthy and certainly not the billionaires.
Oil Train Safety a Priority
Over the past several years we have seen more oil trains travel through our state. In the past five weeks alone, there have been five oil trains derailments in North America. One of these trains, which derailed in Illinois, had traveled through Minnesota. Although these trains did not go through Rochester, I am reminded of the struggle our own community went through a few years ago when miles of coal trains threatened to divide our city. We worked hard to get support from Washington D.C. and the State.
In 2014, the legislature improved safety preparedness but there’s still much more to do. . This week, Governor Dayton and legislators introduced a proposal to strengthen oil train safety in Minnesota. The plan would reduce the risk of oil train fires, improve public safety along the state’s rail corridors, and provide property tax relief to areas with rail safety issues. A map of Minnesota’s most endangered communities can be found here.
The legislation would pay for these improvements through assessments and property taxes on railroad companies. Some railroad companies have seen their profits increase by as much as 600% in recent years, and it is reasonable to ask them to pay a fraction of those profits to keep our communities safe. Thus far this session Republican Party Leaders have sided with railroad companies. This should not be a partisan issue. I hope all legislators listen to their constituents and help keep Minnesota communities safe.
Governor Proposes Tuition Freeze
Governor Dayton has released an updated budget proposal for the larger-than-expected surplus. A key component of his plan is to maintain tuition freezes at Minnesota public universities. $288 million would be allotted for public colleges and universities in order to maintain an undergraduate tuition freeze for two more years. The money would keep pace with inflation and be spent on operating costs. Officials from the University of Minnesota and MNSCU have backed the proposal, along with student groups and teachers. I’m very glad to see this, because the high cost of higher education weighs heavily on Minnesotans and is a damper on our economy. I wish we could provide free public higher education to all qualified Minnesota students. Some other countries do this with great success. It’s a vision to work toward, even if it seems far away.
Follow the money
Minnesota spends billions of dollars on public health care programs, most of it through HMOs that contract with the state, such as including U Care, Medica, Blue Plus, and HealthPartners. About 10 Days ago, the Legislative Auditor reported on deficiencies in the way we audit these HMOs.
Legislators have been trying for years to find out whether the taxpayer dollars we pay these HMOs are going where they are supposed to, but with little success. The difficulty Minnesota has in holding accountable these large, powerful organizations has been discussed time and again. The latest round in this fight is a report released March 10th, 2015, by the non-partisan and well respected Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA). You can read the report here.
With legislative deadlines looming, I worked with key staff from the OLA and the Department of Human Services (DHS) to draft a bill that would give both the Legislative Auditor and the Minnesota Department of Human Services the tools they need to do meaningful audits – as called for in the OLA report. Since the formal bill could not be ready in time, I also had the language made into an amendment and offered it in committee on Friday, the last day it could be heard this session. The Legislative Auditor's staff testified to the specifics of the amendment and the process by which it came to the committee.
For hours, Republicans on the committee attacked the amendment and my motives for bringing it before ultimately changing their minds and voting to move it forward.
The amendment – and the almost-identical bill that I will file this week – still have a long way to go. GOP legislators like to complain about money they believe has been wasted on MNSure, the state's health care exchange. And to be sure, some money was not used as well as it should have been. But if legislators are really serious about accountability for the taxpayer dollar they should enact strong measures this year to make sure the billions of dollars we pay the HMOs are truly spent to buy health care services for the Minnesotans who need and deserve it.
As always, I welcome your questions, comments, and concerns.
Warmly,
Tina