Dear Neighbor,
National Ag Day was this week and I’d like to start this newsletter with some notes on that subject.
I want to thank farmers for their efforts to help keep Minnesota the ag powerhouse that it is. We certainly face significant challenges and, now, with spring planting rapidly approaching, it’s difficult to come up with crop plans that show a profit. That issue, along with livestock disease issues, are just a couple reasons for concern in today’s industry.
 I chair the House committee on ag and we are doing what we can at the state level to help farmers. Our omnibus finance bill on agriculture has made its way to the last committee stop before it is available for a vote of the full body. As mentioned in my last newsletter, the ag bill we propose is 10 percent more than the current 2024-25 budget. It addresses urgent issues such as livestock disease and emergency preparedness, while supporting the full range of farms, large and small, organic and conventional, rural and urban. On a related note, it always nice to see FFA students from back home at the Capitol. This week, I enjoyed seeing Minnewaska FFA members during their Day on the Hill event: |
The FFA program plays a very important role in bringing along our next generations of agricultural leaders. It teaches students valuable skills in farming, leadership, and business, preparing them for careers in agriculture. Thanks to everyone in FFA for all you do to keep the ag industry going strong in Minnesota.
In other news, some bills I have personally authored this session are moving through the House, and another has now been signed into law. Earlier this week, the governor enacted legislation authored to help small-town elevators manage their auditing requirements. The bill (H.F. 1063) provides common-sense flexibility while following national or international accounting standards when preparing annual financial statements.
Similarly, I have authored a bill (H.F. 1956) to help small towns, such as De Graff, that own municipal liquor stores, deal with high costs of annual audits. That proposal was well received during a House hearing this week and remains in the mix to pass this session.
The common thread between the grain elevator bill and the municipal liquor store bill is our state has a shortage of certified public accountants. Fellow Rep. Scott Van Binsbergen of Montevideo is carrying a bill (H.F. 1458) to help address that larger issue by reducing unnecessary barriers to becoming a CPA. That bill has strong bipartisan support among its authors, which is encouraging, so we’ll see where it goes this session.
Look for more from the House soon and, in the meantime, hope you have a good weekend.
Sincerely,
Paul