Dear Friends,
It’s March, and we have seen a lot of success for our local high school activities! Congratulations to both the South Girls Alpine Ski team and the North Girls Gymnastics for winning State! Also, how amazing was that hockey game last week? Despite the triple-overtime loss, the Lakeville South Boys nevertheless displayed amazing grit and determination that we can all be motivated by! My apologies for missing any other big accomplishments that may have transpired over the last month. We are very proud of our students!
Hitting the Breaks on Wasteful Spending
On Tuesday night, the House Transportation Finance and Policy Committee held a field hearing at the Savage City Hall. During the meeting, the committee heard legislation that would authorize counties and regional railroad authorities to conduct a feasibility study for a rail transitway from St. Louis Park to Savage.
A 2002 law prohibits planning, project development, and construction of a “Dan Patch” commuter rail line between Minneapolis and Northfield. This prohibition was put in place to stop government spending on ideas that are not feasible or economically viable. This bill is a first step in getting around that prohibition and expanding light rail.
Dozens of concerned citizens testified against the bill, encouraging lawmakers to focus time and resources on improving roads and bridges in the south metro.
As for myself, I will continue to advocate against expanding light rail, especially on rail lines that pass through the heart of Lakeville. Light rail transit has proved to be a boondoggle that costs taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. Testifiers at the hearing are right, let’s work on improving our roads and bridges before dumping millions of dollars into another light rail system.
During the hearing, my colleagues and I offered a handful of amendments to study ways to relieve congestion and improve river crossings for people, cars and buses. Unfortunately, Democrats only wanted trains. This type of spending is why they need to raise transportation taxes to pay for all the new shiny objects.
The local press covered the hearing and you can read their articles here and here.
MNLARS Funding Bill Signed by Governor
On Monday, the House re-approved legislation that provides additional funds to repair the troubled MNLARS system.
When the bill was initially passed by the House last week, I worked with the DFL author to successfully add an amendment that placed spending limitations on lawsuits related to the $10 million in deputy registrar aid that was successfully added to the house bill.
This registrars reimbursement funding was not in the Senate bill and was not included in the final version of the bill that was re-approved on Monday.
Ultimately, I did not support the legislation as it did not have any concrete proposals to improve the MNLARS system. In fact, the bill had $100,000 for a new blue-ribbon committee to monitor the effectiveness of MNLARS! This is something the Department of Vehicle Services should have been doing for the last 10 years. If we are serious about fixing MNLARS, we need to make sure that we have controls in place to make sure this problem is solved, and stop throwing more good money after already wasted money.
Visit to Lake Marion Elementary
I visited Lake Marion Elementary in Lakeville last week to meet with students in their English Language Learners program. These are young students that may not speak English as their first language but are working hard to become fluent. As these youngsters become more comfortable with English, it will help improve their educational experience in the classroom. Way to go and keep up the good work!
Building the American Dream
A number of local home builders and realtors visited my office this week as part of Housing Day MN at the capitol. These real estate professionals are part of the Housing First MN alliance and work to help the housing industry build and remodel safe, durable homes at prices families can afford.
Compeer Coming Soon!
Finally, I was pleased to meet with the good folks with Compeer Financial, who are planning to open their new building off I35 and County Road 70, in Lakeville this spring. Compeer will be an outstanding addition to our community, with about 150 jobs in the farm services industry.
This week we will dig in more deeply to the Governors tax and spending proposals, as bills race to meet hearing deadlines. On Wednesday we are also awaiting the legislative auditor's important report on the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) which is widely reported to need reform and fraught with fraud. I have co-authored a few bills and support bills to fight fraud and ensure the intended funds go to help those children and families whom the needed program was intended to serve.
It will be among the busiest weeks of session.
In the meantime, have a wonderful week!
Jon Koznick
Assistant Minority Leader
State Representative, Lakeville, 58A