Greetings from the Capitol-
As many of you know, the Verso Paper Mill was recently sold and its future is still being worked out. AIM Development has purchased the mill and I recently told WJON that I have not yet been approached by state officials about future plans. It appears the new developers plan to sell off aspects of the buildings and machines for scrap. I have been in touch with local officials about the purchase and look forward to hearing more in the near future from those involved.
The Legislative Commission on Pensions and Retirement, which I am a member of, began meeting this week to examine Minnesota’s state pension system. Our committee processes proposed pension legislation in advance of the applicable standing committees, dealing with the viability of pensions for state employees, local government, teachers, public safety officers and other public employees.
We will be keeping a close eye on the investment returns for the state pension system to make sure the benefits currently being paid out to retirees are not in jeopardy. The Commission is looking into ways of addressing the investments to ensure all employees receive the pension benefits they have been promised.
As part of the Affordable Care Act, the Legislature is setting up a state health insurance exchange in Minnesota. I was part of hearing and discussing this legislation during this week’s meeting of the Government Operations Committee. While many of our neighboring states have elected to participate in the federal health exchange instead, our legislature has begun the process of constructing this marketplace for health coverage.
Some of the highlights include:
-
A 3.5% user fee that will be applied to all health plans to pay for the exchange
-
Oversight and contract approval by the MN Dept. of Commerce (deciding which health plans will be allowed into the exchange)
-
Many public assistance programs will ultimately be merged into this exchange
I am concerned the exchange will raise the cost of insurance for many Minnesotans because of the processing fee it will add to existing plans. I also have many questions about the new board which will oversee the exchange. You can check out the new website for the exchange at http://www.mn.gov/hix/ and I look forward to hearing your comments about this topic.
The House has selected me to serve on the Permanent School Fund Commission along with Reps. Denny McNamara, Deb Kiel, John Benson, Mary Sawatzky, and John Ward which will begin meeting in a few weeks. We are still waiting for the Senate to choose their representatives. You may remember this panel was created last year through a law that I authored changing the oversight of Minnesota’s school trust lands. These lands benefit school districts financially through the fees they collect (logging, mining, hunting, fishing), but could be used to drive revenue more effectively under new guidance.
Dairy Day at the Capitol was Wednesday in St. Paul, providing us an opportunity to highlight how important this industry - and agriculture in general - is to Minnesota's economy. Dairy production was up 4 percent last year, even though we experienced drought conditions. There are 455,000 cows in Minnesota on 3,900 licensed dairy farms. Each provides about 25,000 of economic activity to the state and Minnesota exported $218 million in dairy products last year, 13 percent of the national total.
MN Factoid Trivia: Which 4 counties in MN have the largest number of Dairy cows?
Answer: Stearns, Benton, Sherburne and Todd Counties make up the counties with the most dairy cows.
As always, feel free to contact me with any thoughts or concerns you may have. I can be reached at 651-296-7808 or by e-mail at rep.tim.odriscoll@house.mn.
Sincerely,
Tim