Legislative Update- Growing a Healthy Middle Class

Dear Neighbors,

I hope that everyone is weathering the heat and the scattered storms in Minnesota this week. I have been at an Education Commission of the States event this week in D.C. The weather here has ben hot and muggy, but the education and networking experience has been worth it. Senator Kunesh and I joined Education Commissioner Willie Jett, Reagan Greene from the Governor’s office, and others from Minnesota to hear about trends in Education Finance, dealing with absenteeism rates, approaches to teaching English Language Learning, and much more. 

My husband and I had a chance to head out to D.C. a few days earlier to visit the amazing Smithsonian Museums, the inspiring monuments, and to tour the beautiful U.S. Capitol building. Thank you to Charles Huang from Senator Tina Smith’s office for the informative tour! If you have a chance to visit Washington D.C., you can contact any of our Congressional members or US Senators for a Capitol tour.

As I mentioned previously, I’m continuing to provide “deep dive” email updates to summarize our work in various areas of the state budget. This week’s newsletter contains more information about our collective work in Agriculture, Commerce, Transportation, and Environment and Energy. 

Agriculture 

Minnesota's vast farmlands and agricultural production are a cornerstone of the state's economy and a source of pride for our residents. We came away from this legislative session with solutions to address challenges and initiatives aimed at ensuring clean water for future Minnesotans while increasing statewide equity in agriculture. Our investments in Minnesotans who go to bed hungry reflect our commitment that everyone should have access to fresh, nutritious food. 

With much of our landscaping workforce primarily being Spanish-speaking Minnesotans, we helped individuals who have been unable to receive commercial pesticide applicator licenses, not due to a gap in skills, but strictly due to the unavailability of a Spanish version of the exam. This year, we made a change that removes a major barrier that artificially prevents Spanish speakers from higher wages in their current jobs and from obtaining the qualifications needed to start businesses of their own.

We also expanded eligibility for the popular Farm to School program, which currently provides a guaranteed produce buyer for farmers while ensuring our children are provided with healthy school meals, to childcare centers and home-based childcare providers.

Transportation

The 2023 transportation budget package was transformative with the DFL delivering desperately needed sustainable revenue for our underfunded multimodal transportation system and enacting important safety and equity measures that had been previously blocked under GOP Senate control under a divided legislature.

We helped usher the incoming federal funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) that passed with broad bipartisan congressional support in 2021. Along with matching funds for federal grants which will allow us to continue building out a strong infrastructure system, we took important steps forward to advance climate mitigation measures not only to protect our air quality and our environment, but to also provide consumers with more electrification choices.  

As a result of our work in 2023, we are addressing growing safety concerns on the Metro Transit system by providing more eyes and ears on the trains to conduct fare enforcement (while bringing violations into line with parking tickets), and working with social services providers to connect riders with the housing/addiction/mental health services they need.

We also finally restored the right for all Minnesotans, regardless of immigration status to obtain a state driver’s license or ID. Despite the negative rhetoric around federal immigration policy, this state law will help ensure safe roads, family stability, and greater economic opportunity by requiring all applicants to learn and know the rules of the road. In fact, recent data has shown a large number of Minnesotans are taking the test.

Environment, Climate, and Energy  

We are also focused on protecting and preserving our environment so our kids and grandkids can enjoy the same beautiful Minnesota landscape we do. Notably, we invested $79.64 million of revenue from the Minnesota Lottery in more than 100 projects as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources to protect, conserve, preserve, and enhance Minnesota's air, water, land, fish, wildlife, and other natural resources. Other new laws protecting our climate and environment include: 

• $20.3 million for land acquisition and recreation projects, including more than $5 million to develop state trails and $4.7 million for local parks, trails and natural areas 
• $11.3 million for 22 environmental education projects such as $410,000 to support a naturalist and intern at a nature center in Austin and $459,000 to create a mobile earth science education lab in northwest Minnesota 
• $6.9 million directed toward water resources research projects such as state flood and drought modeling and nutrient recovery from wastewater treatment plants research 
• $4.83 million for five projects addressing air quality, climate change and renewable energy, such as one to develop and test low-cost biofilters 

Minnesota continues to be one of the fastest-warming states in the country and is already experiencing climate change impacts. Federal and state lawmakers are taking bold and transformative action to address the climate crisis making the 2023 legislative session the most impactful year for climate and energy policy in state history. Over the biennium, DFLers enacted 100% Carbon-Free Electricity standards by 2040, created a State Competitiveness Fund to put Minnesota in the best position for federal energy grants, and provided local matching funds for the IIJA or IRA for energy projects, and provided technical assistance for smaller entities (cities, electric co-ops, tribes, others) so to apply for grant programs and take advantage of these federal dollars. 

This year, we passed a permitting reform package that will speed up our clean energy transition that had the support of environmental organizations and labor unions. Minnesota is leading the clean energy transformation to create jobs, strengthen our economy and community, and protect and preserve our environment.

Commerce

We made strong consumer protections that will last generations. To protect the pocketbooks of Minnesotans, DFLers are capping fees on payday lenders and creating an official advocate for students taking out student loans. We are also taking on the high costs of prescription drugs by creating a drug price affordability board, prohibiting generic drug price gouging, and capping co-pays on drugs and supplies for chronic disease such as asthma, diabetes, and epi-pens. 

Share your Input on Prescription Drug Pricing 

DFLers are interested in hearing from Minnesotans about how prescription drug prices impact their health care, what affordability concerns exist, and which drugs might benefit from pricing transparency. If you are interested in providing your insights, you can complete the Public Input on Prescription Drug Price Transparency in Minnesota form to share your experiences and help guide the Minnesota Department of Health’s ongoing drug price transparency work.

Keep in Touch

Please continue to reach out anytime at rep.cheryl.youakim@house.mn.gov or 651-296-9889 with input or questions. I appreciate hearing from you! Thank you for the honor of representing our Hopkins, St. Louis Park, and Edina neighbors at the Capitol.

Have a great weekend and stay cool!

Cheryl Youakim
State Representative