Dear Neighbor,
Much more work has taken place this week regarding omnibus finance bills as the majority continues bringing packages forward to fund various sections of the state budget for the next two-year cycle. Here’s a look at some of those notes and more:
Ag. conference committee post
I’m pleased to have gained a spot on a conference committee that will prepare a package of agriculture provisions for final passage in the Legislature. I hope we can make significant improvements to the bill (S.F. 1955) and make it worthy of bipartisan support after an initial partisan-line House vote last week.
In particular, we should address new fees and regulations included in the preliminary bill that would make Minnesota’s farmers less competitive and less profitable. Another area of concern remains how the bill would change the Board of Animal Health, increasing it from six members up to 11, with at least one member coming from each of Minnesota’s congressional districts.
On the other hand, I also will work to ensure some legislation I supported in the preliminary package is retained for final passage. This includes establishing a grain indemnity fund to protect farmers in the event they deliver grain to an elevator which files for bankruptcy before the farmer is paid. I also support language providing financial support for Minnesota’s dairy farmers to sign up for the federal Margin Protection Program for Dairy.
I’m grateful for this appointment so I can keep working to make this bill better. Minnesota has a long history of bipartisan ag. bills and it is my hope we can live up to that expectation again this year. I look forward to working to make that happen.
Lack of nursing home funding
The majority approved a bill this week which ignores a long-term care crisis in our state by severely underfunding this portion of the state budget.
The House Human Services Finance omnibus package (S.F. 2934) came to the floor accounting for just .01% of the Democrats’ $72 billion budget proposal that consumes the state’s $19 billion surplus and increases state spending by 40 percent across the board.
Nursing homes provide 24/7 care for our elderly residents and the rates charged by nursing homes are totally dependent on state reimbursement rates. The pandemic and inflation have posed significant challenges to nursing home operations and they are finding it difficult to attract and keep workers. With our huge state surplus in mind, not providing significant financial help to those providing long-term care is a travesty.”
This is unfortunate at a time Minnesota is in the midst of a “silver tsunami,” with more than 1.3 million state residents aged 65 or older. As these residents age , their need for care grows and Minnesota is not keeping up with these needs. In fact, 2,597 nursing home beds have been taken out of service in Minnesota since 2020, the equivalent of shuttering 52, 50-bed homes.
Let’s hope a conference committee can work some magic with this bill so it comes back to the floor in better shape for final passage.
Public safety
The House majority this week passed a public safety bill (S.F. 2909) which includes provisions of major concern for our constitutional rights.
One measure in the bill causes questions over the First Amendment by creating a hate-incident registry where the state would create a government database of perceived “hate incidents” that fall short of criminal acts. To be clear, we’re not talking about “hate crimes” because those already are tracked. In other words, the bill gives state authority to collect data about crimes of bias that have not been reported to law enforcement – so there is no documentation that the event happened – but people still could be placed in a “hate incident” registry.
The bill also features anti-Second Amendment language from two controversial gun control bills: H.F. 14 (universal gun registration) and H.F. 15 (red flag). I support our law enforcement officers’ concerns about provisions that are unworkable and unrealistic to enforce on the streets. Instead of addressing the root causes of violent crime, this bill will create strict and impractical hurdles for law-abiding Minnesotans seeking to exercise their Second Amendment rights. Criminals looking to acquire firearms will not follow the complex new process laid out in the proposal and it will do nothing to stop the flow of firearms among criminals.
Our efforts should be focused on enforcing the numerous laws we already have governing firearm transfers before the Legislature creates new ones that will harm law-abiding citizens and are unlikely to deter those with bad intentions.
Watch for more from the Capitol soon as we make our way through the final month of the 2023 session and these omnibus bills come back for votes on final passage.
Sincerely,
Paul