Dear Neighbor,
The 2017 legislative session has officially begun. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve as your representative for a second term in St. Paul.
Preserving Tax Deductions for Minnesotans
The legislature has many important issues to tackle this session and we have started quickly. Yesterday, the House passed House File 2, which conforms Minnesota tax code to the federal tax code, on a vote of 130-0. The financial result of this bill is $21.7 million in tax relief for 220,000 Minnesota tax filers. It was urgent to get this bill passed in the beginning of session to avoid any complications for Minnesotans filing their 2016 taxes this year. The Senate is expected to pass this bill as well. It will then head to the Governor's desk for his consideration and signature before the Department of Revenue's deadline of January 11th.
Health Insurance Cost Relief
In addition to passing federal tax conformity on the first day of session, the House moved to declare an urgency and suspend the rules to vote on House File 1, The 2017 Health Care Emergency Aid and Access bill.
House File 1 consists of three key aspects: providing $300 million of premium relief for those Minnesotans who qualify on the individual market; ensuring continued access to doctors; and making individual market reforms, such as ending surprise billing, conforming with federal law to allow small businesses to offer a direct contribution toward health insurance premiums, and allowing for-profit health maintenance organizations (HMO) to enter the individual market.
Unfortunately, due to needing 90 votes for the motion to suspend the rules to pass, instead of a simple majority, the motion failed on a vote of 75-55. It was my understanding, as well as my other Republican colleagues, that we had an agreement with House Democrat leadership to be able to pass this bill out of the House to send to conference committee with the Senate. I am immensely disappointed that they went back on their word and blocked millions of dollars in premium relief for folks struggling to pay health insurance costs, as well as some good reforms for the insurance market. However, I am optimistic that this bill will be taken up again at a later point in session and be passed and hopefully signed into law.
If you ever have any questions, comments, or concerns regarding any issue related to state government, please feel free to contact me at either 651-296-4929, 701-361-1909, or rep.jeff.backer@house.mn.
Sincerely,
Jeff