Dear neighbors, I attended a groundbreaking ceremony in South St. Paul yesterday! Construction has started on The Yards, a 111-unit apartment building near the Historic Stockyard Exchange. The building will be completed later this year.  Carlo LaManna took this photo of Mayor James Francis and I with an illustration of the new building.  Improving Public Transit in Our Area I presented one of my bills to the Transportation Finance and Policy Committee this afternoon. HF 3623 provides $80 million of funding for the G line project. The new bus rapid transit (BRT) line would run from West St. Paul to Little Canada, along the corridor currently served by Route 62 and Route 68. 43 percent of the Minnesotans who use these routes are people of color or live in low-income households.  The G line would provide access to about 74,300 jobs in West St. Paul, St. Paul, Roseville, and Little Canada. It would help Minnesotans get to school, run errands, and travel within their communities as well. Planning for the project will begin this year, pending full funding. Construction is scheduled for 2026-2027 and service is expected to start in 2027. New OLA Report ReleasedThe Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) – a nonpartisan group that reviews government programs and makes recommendations to the Legislature – released a new report this morning. They examined the Minnesota Department of Education’s (MDE’s) role in addressing the “achievement gap” and found that state law doesn’t clearly define this term, how it should be measured, or what role MDE should play in addressing it. You can read the entire report and the OLA’s recommendations here. If you have any questions, you can always contact me at rep.rick.hansen@house.mn or (651) 296-6828. Sincerely, Rick Hansen
State Representative |