Dear Neighbor,
It’s been another busy week in the House, with much of our time spent in committee, bookended by longer floor sessions Monday and last night.
One interesting bill we heard in an ag. committee meeting this week would build out the state’s infrastructure to accommodate more use of E-15 fuel. For example, retailers’ tanks need to be upgraded to meet regulations associated with the higher blend.
This gasoline is cheaper, contains higher octane, burns cleaner and is one component in the all-of-the-above approach we should be taking on energy. House Democrats may say shifting to more E-15 use doesn’t go far enough and conflicts with their push for electric vehicles to dominate our market. But, from a realistic standpoint, shifting to electric cars is going to take time, where using more E-15 is something we can immediately do to help reduce C02 emissions.
H.F. 1474 is the E-15 bill we heard and the ag. committee set it aside for possible inclusion in an omnibus bill later this session. I personally have authored similar legislation, H.F. 1293.
The most significant bills to reach the floor this week started with child care funding and concluded with sick leave.
On Monday, the House majority approved increasing funding for the Child Care Assistance Program by more than $350 million in state general funds during the next two years. This program helps families obtain child care while parents are working or attending school and passage of this bill comes at a time our state is losing providers at an incredible rate.
While I support the intent of this program, we also must acknowledge it has been plagued by large-scale fraud in recent years and there are no provisions in the bill to make sure these dollars are reaching their targets. Measures of accountability should have been implemented before we put hundreds of millions more taxpayer dollars toward CCAP.
Another bill the House majority passed on Monday appropriates more than $52 million to early learning scholarships ($40 million) and the Child Care Stabilization Grant Program ($12.5 million).
This bill also is a mixed bag. Early learning scholarships are a good approach to child care/early education because they empower parents to make decisions for their families. However, child care stabilization grants have their own fraud concerns. Child care centers closely linked to those indicted by federal authorities also received stabilization funding and centers facing license revocations are funded with these grants.
The common thread here is we all want to support children and families, but we need to make sure those tax dollars are being used for their intended purposes instead of being subjects of fraud, waste and abuse.
The last big bill of the week approved by the House majority, last night, pertains to sick time for workers. It is the first of several bills that will significantly impact small businesses that, in turn, could hinder our workforce and economy in general.
There are numerous reasons for concern with this bill (H.F. 19), specifically how new mandates will damage Minnesota’s job creators and Main Street businesses who are still recovering from COVID, while also facing ongoing inflation, supply chain issues and workforce shortages. Furthermore, this bill does not include most of the employer protections under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, such as employers with less than 50 employees being exempt. This one-size-fits-all bill applies to all Minnesota employers who employ one or more persons.
Look for more from the House soon and, as always, your feedback is welcome.
Sincerely,
Paul