Friends,
Thank you for being involved in our political process. I appreciate hearing many of your thoughts as the legislative session progresses. I’m very proud of our work in the legislature, and I have been hard at work proposing legislation that will better the lives of all Minnesotans.
Family Law
My colleagues and I have introduced a package of bipartisan bills that aim to improve family law in Minnesota. Simply put, these bills do the following:
Revise the best interest of the child factors to evaluate custody situations based off of the child’s needs, not a comparison between parents; incorporate a consideration of a child’s past, present, and future parenting arrangements based off of current and revised best interest factors; and encourage courts to consider the impacts of domestic violence between parents or other immediate family members on the child.
Make changes to child support statutes, such as removing the current child support percentage of parenting time tiers; eliminating the link between custody labels and child support, allowing sole physical custodians to be child support obligors; changing a method of determining income to reflect current employment trends and minimum hourly wages, encouraging all parties to ensure adequate financial resources in both of the child’s homes; and creating a new statute governing how and when the Department of Human services may report a support obligor to a credit bureau.
Improve and clarify family law statutes, including adding a notice to the Recognition of Parentage form that specifies what the form does, and what it does not accomplish for the legally recognized parent; require courts to enforce penalties when a parent repeatedly, intentionally, and unreasonable denies the other parent court ordered parenting time; setting guidelines for courts to determine and modify the allocation of child income tax dependency exemptions; ensuring the right of parties to enter into private agreements; removing family court judgments from the presently-required application of a 10% interest rate on judgments in excess of $50,000; and clarifying that the 25% parenting time presumption is a minimum standard.
I’m confident that our bills will protect children and clarify family law statutes, helping to ease a complicated and stressful process for all parties.
Data Privacy
As Chair of the Civil Law and Data Practices committee, I have been hard at work to introduce bills protecting your privacy, and have been discussing privacy problems with my colleagues’ bills. We will be having an informational hearing on the shelf life of license plate reader data and police body camera footage on Tuesday, February 10th at 8:15am, and I am confident that we will reach a solution that will allow for zero-tolerance of misuse of this data. You are welcome to attend the hearing in Room 10 of the State Office Building, or watch it live on the House website.
My Appointments
I am honored to have been appointed to the Legislative Commission on Planning and Fiscal Policy by Speaker Daudt. On this commission, my colleagues and I will evaluate the fiscal needs of the state and determine the Legislature’s roles in providing for these needs through an analysis of revenues and expenditures. I’m looking forward to bringing a fiscally conservative voice to this commission.
Additionally, Speaker Daudt has appointed me to serve on the Legislative Commission on Data Practices. This commission studies the ever-increasing issues relating to data practices and security in an increasingly technical world. I’m passionate about this topic and am looking forward to further evaluating good data practices and making recommendations for upcoming legislative proposals that will protect your data.
Congratulations to Our Teachers
I am proud to represent the largest school district in the state, and am even more proud to hear of the fantastic work that our teachers do every day to teach our students with creativity, commitment, and integrity. Congratulations to Julia Stock, Kelly Wierman, and Susan Zemlin on their nomination to the 2015 Minnesota Teacher of the Year award, and best of luck to them as the finalists are revealed in the coming months. Thanks for your service to our students and their families!
Please do not hesitate to contact me to discuss your thoughts and concerns regarding the legislation before the House. You can call my Legislative Assistant at (651) 296-5813 to set up an appointment to meet with me in my office at the Capitol. As always, please feel free to contact me via email at rep.peggy.scott@house.mn. If your friends and neighbors don’t receive my email updates, encourage them to stay up-to-date on the legislative session by signing up for updates here. I look forward to continuing to hear from many of you as the legislative session progresses.
Sincerely,
Rep. Peggy Scott