Dear Friends,
Now that the House and Senate have passed most of their budget bills, House and Senate members will be meeting for what are known as conference committees to negotiate and work out differences between the bills passed by each body. I will try to keep you updated as best I can as budget bills come back from conference committee, as they're likely to change quite a bit from what was initially passed by both the House and the Senate.
I'm confident that if both parties come to the table and try to do what's best for Minnesotans that we can get our work done on time and show Minnesota that shared government works, and can get good, bipartisan results.
Other updates from this week:
Avian Flu
The House and the Senate unanimously approved more than $800,000 in emergency funding for state and local officials to continue combating avian flu, and Governor Dayton signed that bill into law this afternoon. More help is on the way in the Agriculture Finance bill that's likely to be passed early next week. This is a serious epidemic that's really hurting our turkey farmers, and it's good to see the state stepping up to provide assistance as we always do when Minnesotans face emergencies and natural disasters.
Tax Relief for Families
On Wednesday the House passed our tax bill with bipartisan support. Our tax bill is focused on putting more money back in the pockets of Minnesota families, who I think deserve to see some tax relief with our $1.869 billion budget surplus.
Included in our bill is tax relief for seniors, veterans, farmers, college students, and families. The Senate and the Governor both have proposed significantly less tax relief, and do not include any of our proposals to phase out the social security tax, the veterans retirement pay tax, and many others. I hope we can give as much tax relief to families as possible, and will keep you updated as the House and Senate work out a compromise.
Caring for our Seniors
Our Health and Human Services bill includes more than $138 million in increased funding for our nursing homes, and $90 million for a boost to our home and community-based caregivers who take care of our most vulnerable. By changing the way we reimburse nursing homes, we can help boost funding by up to 30% or more in some cases. Here's how some of the nursing homes in our district would benefit under our bill.
Field Crest Care Center—Hayfield, MN—29.17% increase, $568,846 increase in 2016
Parkview Care Center—Wells, MN—14.55% increase, 317,978 increase in 2016
Good Samaritan Society—Albert Lea, MN—32.77% increase, $1,653,007 increase in 2016
St. John's Lutheran Home—Albert Lea, MN—30.59% increase, $2,356,423 increase in 2016
Thorne Crest Retirement Center—Albert Lea, MN—21.44% increase, $551,049 increase in 2016
Prairie Manor Care Center—Blooming Praire, MN—16.18% increase, 459,452 increase in 2016
You can read more in this Owatonna People's Press article by clicking
here.
Transportation
I'm hopeful that we can come to an agreement this session on a way to invest new money into our roads and bridges. The Senate passed a proposal that raises gas taxes and fees, which I think is the wrong approach with such a large budget surplus. The GOP has put forward a responsible plan that invests $7 billion in new money for roads and bridges without a harmful tax increase on families. It is also the only plan that includes funding for small cities under 5,000 people like Wells and Kiester so they can fix roads in their towns as well.
Peggy Bennett
State Representative, District 27A