Greetings,
The McDonald family sends you and yours all the best for this Thanksgiving holiday. Here's hoping you are able to spend extra time in enjoying the company of family and friends this week.
Legislative work continues, even during what is technically the offseason. One of the next big announcements we are waiting for at the state level is the Dec. 3 release of Minnesota's November economic forecast. This will set the stage in preparation for the 2016 session, which starts March 8. A positive balance remained as the 2015 session adjourned and it will be interesting to see where the budget stands with the new report as revenue continues to come in above previous projections.
We can circle back to this in more depth after the forecast is issued. For now, suffice to say I advocate using tax collection overages to provide relief for Minnesota families that overpaid in the first place. We also could direct a portion toward roads and bridges.
Stay tuned for more on this subject in upcoming letters. I also want to share my thoughts on rising MNsure rates and how it is impacting local families.
For now, here are a couple hunting-related tidbits I want to pass along:
The deer season is over for much of the state and the DNR indicates hunters are more than 15,000 ahead of the 2014 pace. The total harvest is projected at between 140,000 and 155,000 this year, which would surpass the 139,000 taken last year in what was considered a down season.
My son Jacob and I went out on both openers and didn't get any deer. The first weekend we were up in Effie with cousins. The McDonalds have been hunting there since 1947, but we didn't see any deer this time. The second weekend Jacob and were near Granite Falls. He saw a doe and another friend saw two bucks. No shots though.
There still is plenty of time to hunt on both public and private land this season and reports say plenty of birds remain in the fields. Dry, warm weather made it tough going in the early part of the season, but cooler weather of late and recent precipitation should be helpful in tracking birds. You might want to get out in the fields this weekend to try your luck and burn off some of that pumpkin pie at the same time!
Please be safe on the roads, happy Thanksgiving and God bless.
Regards,
Joe