Dear Neighbor,
The House majority has started bringing its omnibus finance bills to the House floor, with around a dozen of these packages funding various parts of our state budget for the next two-year cycle.
While there is much I disagree with on these budget bills, there is a bright spot to report: It appears this year’s veterans/military affairs omnibus bill will come to the floor as a stand-alone proposal after all, instead of being lumped into legislation with unrelated subject matter as the House majority recently indicated it would.
Our veterans deserve to have their bill stand on its own for an up or down vote instead of being the subject of political gamesmanship. As the ranking minority member on the House committee related to veterans, I have been working hard with the committee’s DFL chair to ensure this bill would receive a vote on its own merits and not be held as a political pawn.
I would expect the veterans bill that’s been prepared to pass the House with strong, bipartisan support and it’s good it looks like it will have that chance. Watch for more as this develops.
In other news, omnibus bills to fund higher education and appropriate Legacy Amendment funding received approval in the House this week. Here is a look at those subjects and more:
Legacy Amendment
This bill that was approved totals $821 million, appropriating revenue raised by a three-eighths of one percent additional sales tax that was passed by Minnesota voters in the 2008 Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment to the Minnesota Constitution “Legacy Amendment.” Tax revenue is distributed into four funds as follows: 33 percent to the Clean Water Fund; 33 percent to the Outdoor Heritage Fund; 19.75 percent to the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund; and 14.25 percent to the Parks and Trails Fund.
In my opinion, appropriations related to the Legacy Amendment have strayed far from the initial intent and spirit of this program that was pitched to voters when it passed back in 2008. Instead of focusing on clean water and other important environmental issues, it’s evolved into a government slush fund.
Higher education
The House also approved an omnibus higher education bill. This is an area of the budget we want to adequately support, but we need to ensure we’re making the right investments in the right places. This bill does more to fund administration than not students. For example, the bill provides a $650 million (18.5%) increase in the next biennium as universities across the state are experiencing an average 6-7% drop in enrollment. This can only mean that we are funding systems (administrative bloat), not students. We need to prioritize funding students’ education and keeping them safe, not paying executives.
Elections
Minnesota has a long history of bipartisan support for elections bills that come out of this legislature and become law. This bipartisan support goes back decades through governors from three different parties that demanded that election bills that make it to their desk have bipartisan support. Our current governor also has said he expects election bills to be bipartisan.
That is not the case with H.F. 3, a bill related to elections, which the House majority approved this week on a partisan vote. This bill is quite controversial because it regulates campaign speech, limits engagement in the political process, and threatens election integrity with automatic voter registration when you sign up for a driver’s license … just after the majority changed state law to allow driver’s licenses for all.
Good town hall meetings
Thank you to everyone who turned out to make recent town hall meetings in Bagley and Blackduck successful. It has been nice to see such strong turnout for these events. Citizens are engaged and continue providing us with helpful input.
Have a good weekend and watch for more news on budget bills soon. As always, your input is welcome.
Sincerely,
Matt