Dear Neighbors,
Thank you all who have recently reached out to talk about issues facing our state. This time of the legislative session can get very busy, but the emails and calls from our area help to bring needed perspective to what we’re working on in St. Paul. Again, thank you to all who share your opinion.
Important Event TOMORROW
Tomorrow is National Drug Take Back Day; an opportunity to bring unused prescriptions to local collection sites to safely dispose of the medication. This is such an important way to decrease the number of prescription drugs - like dangerous opioids - that are in the market. The event lasts from 10am-2pm, and we have two local sites you can bring prescriptions - the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office and the Coon Rapids Police Department. For more information on this important initiative, as well as other locations, please click here.
School Safety
Yesterday marked the start of the House passing some of our larger bills. The first initiative was related to education and most importantly school safety. It’s important to help schools throughout the state improve safety in classrooms, and our bill does just that through common-sense safety measures. I’m proud to support our bill that utilizes school safety provisions with legislation to help Minnesota kids now and into the future.
Some of the highlights of our proposal include:
- Championing a multifaceted approach to give school districts the resources and flexibility they need to address student safety and security. That includes expanding the use of long-term facilities maintenance revenue for facility security upgrades, strengthening the state’s commitment to school-linked mental health grants, supporting suicide prevention training for teachers, increasing funding for Safe Schools Revenue, and more
- Strengthening and clarifying state law to address teacher misconduct and teacher licensure including prohibiting sexual relationships between educators and students, even if that student is 18; requiring periodic teacher background checks; and prohibiting the issuance or renewal of a teacher/administrative license or bus driver endorsement for certain felonies or gross misdemeanors involving a minor
- Requiring the Minnesota Department of Education to create a School Report Card —a one-stop-spot for summative and easily accessible school and district ratings that will provide families with a place to research, compare and help determine which school will work best for their child
- Enhancing the transparency of school funding and our commitment to tackling our state’s achievement gap by doubling the number of school audits each year. These audits will discern whether or not education dollars allocated to school districts and dedicated to special education, English-learner and low-income students are reaching the students intended
- Ensuring students are exposed to a wide variety of post-secondary options including the trades and branches of the military
- Strengthening laws that protect kids from school lunch shaming
- Creating a Special Education Working Group to engage stakeholders and examine the factors that are driving rising costs
Tax Conformity
With the passage of the federal tax relief bill comes some amazing benefits for Minnesotans, but also requires certain changes to state law to make filing taxes easier. We recently unveiled our tax conformity proposal meant to simplify our tax code, as well as provide middle class tax relief. Our bill cuts the income tax rate for the middle class, the first such income rate reduction since 2000. In total, more than 2.1 million Minnesotans will see a tax cut because of our bill.
On the other hand is Governor Dayton’s supplemental budget proposal. His budget would raise taxes on Minnesotans of every income level, all while making our tax code more regressive. We have a budget surplus right now; Governor Dayton shouldn’t be trying to raise your taxes.
Please Contact Me
As always, please don’t hesitate to call or email my office if you need anything. We have just a few weeks left of session but there’s plenty of issues we can discuss. If you would like to get in touch, please email me at rep.peggy.scott@house.mn or call 651-296-4231.
Have a great weekend,
Peggy