Dear Neighbor,
The House has spent most of its time this week as a full body discussing, debating, and voting on the majority’s numerous omnibus bills for this session. Before we get to those details, I want to say the House is expected later today to take up legislation to repay the deficit in Minnesota’s unemployment insurance trust fund, reversing the recent tax hikes that Minnesota employers were needlessly suffering.
While this legislation easily could have been approved months ago, I am pleased to see we may finally be resolving this issue that has needlessly caused additional hardships for employers in our state. I may take a closer look at this subject in an upcoming email.
As for omnibus bills, among the first to come to the floor as an omnibus finance package with agriculture, broadband and housing components. Overall, this bill spends a great deal of additional money but failed to garner bipartisan support. The agriculture portion of the bill (H.F. 4366) included an 81-percent increase in related spending for 2023, without tangible benefits for mainstream farmers or consumers. The bill takes away an important management tool for farmers that helps them manage their fertilizer applications.
Notably, this bill does not have more funding for E15 fuel infrastructure. We had high hopes to further fund that project, but the majority left that funding out of the bill. President Biden recently announced retailers will be able to sell E15 year-round again this year. This bill should have done more to expand availability of this lower-cost variety of fuel at a time gas prices are at historic highs, so this bill is something of a missed opportunity.
The bill also features legislation related to housing. Those measures are more geared toward programs and regulations instead of providing changes that address rising construction costs. Our state has a whole host of questionable regulations that continue driving up the cost of construction, putting home ownership out of reach for many. It seems like this is just more spending without getting to the real root of this issue.”
The bill also provides $25 million for the state’s Border-to-Border broadband program. Earlier versions of the bill provided $100 million for this purpose, but House Democrats reduced the figure by 75 percent in the late stages of the committee process.
The bill was approved 70-62 along party lines in the House. While I could not support this current bill on the House floor, I remain hopeful the upcoming conference committee will make positive changes to the finished product so that it comes back worthy of broad, bipartisan support ahead of the Legislature’s late May adjournment. Bills related to agriculture typically are among the least controversial at the Capitol and, in the end, I hope that’s the case again this year.
Look for more news from the House soon. I am hoping we have something to report on drought relief soon as that legislation remains the subject of conference committee negotiations in preparation for final passage. A $13 million appropriation House Democrats added to the drought bill to fund DNR trees remains the largest obstacle to agreement. The Senate’s legislation has no DNR tree funding.
Sincerely,
Paul