Dear Neighbors,
A very happy Friday to you! We’ve had quite the busy week in St. Paul, but I’m happy to have good news to report.
Early this morning, we finished passing our final budget bills in a number of areas. These bills marked significant compromise between the House, Senate and Governor. One of the biggest pieces of legislation we passed will provide property tax relief for farmers, a tax credit for those paying off college loans, beginning a phase out of the tax on Social Security for our seniors, and much more. In total, this bill provides $650 million in tax relief.
We also passed a large bill to invest in our state’s roads and bridges. The good news is we didn't have to raise taxes or tab fees to pay for these upgrades. Tax relief and transportation funding were two priorities for Minnesotans, and we were able to work together to come to a bipartisan compromise on both of these issues.
We also passed education funding to invest $1.3 billion more into Minnesota schools. There are a number of needed reforms in this bill, including a much-needed reworking of our teacher licensure system.
I think it’s important that we put the majority of the education increase into the general fund where school districts can have the most flexibility and the dollars can get right down to the classroom level. In addition, we put a significant amount of additional funding into early childhood education to target our at-risk youngest learners.
Many of you had indicated to me throughout these last number of months that you would like to see a significant bonding bill this year. We passed a solid bonding bill that focuses heavily on roads and bridges (25% of the funding), includes almost $173 million in water-related projects - including the long-awaited sewer project for the Albert Lea Stables area (yay!) - and many statewide asset preservation projects.
Though there were times of disagreement, as there always are in politics, we were able to work across party lines to agree on substantive bills that will help Minnesotans in every corner of the state. It involved some long days and nights, but we finished what we set out to do.
A fun story from this busy week: I felt blessed to be asked to open the legislative special session with prayer when we began a session at midnight. I didn't have but a few minutes of lead time notice, but I was fine with that. I'll always jump on the opportunity to pray - especially when it's for our people and our government. I believe prayer makes a difference! You can watch our opening here if you'd like.
Though we’re finished passing our budget, I’ll be sure to stay in contact this summer. If you have questions about anything we passed, please call or email my office.
Have a great weekend, and please take a minute to say a prayer on Memorial Day for all those brave men and women who we’ve lost in the service of our country.
Peggy