Friends,
Extreme cold two weeks ago, a foot of snow last week – the joys of a Minnesota winter! Welcome to Minnesota for anyone new here! Stay warm, stay safe on the roads, and have a great weekend!
MNLARS Funding Request & Audit
Last week, Governor Walz requested $15.7 million to help to clean up the MNLARS mess that has made it such a headache for Minnesotans looking for DMV services. However, this request for almost $16 million comes without any plan to fix the MNLARS or details in how the appropriation would be used.
Minnesotans deserve a licensing system that works, but Minnesotans deserve to see a detailed plan on what improvements we can expect before we put one more penny into MNLARS.
On Thursday, the Legislative Audit Commission met to review a long-awaited Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) report titled Factors That Contributed to MNLARS Problems. Studying and learning from this report should help us to make sure we avoid preventable IT mistakes like MNLARS in the future.
Rep. Neu in committee this session
Line 3 Back in Court
Gov. Tim Walz announced this week that he is proceeding with efforts to challenge the Enbridge Line 3 replacement pipeline. His petition for reconsideration is aimed at the unanimous decision by the Public Utilities Commission to grant the certificate of need for the pipeline. I am disappointed in this decision to further delay this project and have signed a letter along with 76 of my House and Senate colleagues to Governor Walz encouraging him to not further delay this project.
Line 3 is 60 years old and deteriorating and needs to be replaced. After exhaustive studies and reviews, the experts at the PUC gave their approval for the project to proceed and their decision should be honored. The project is both economically and environmentally necessary for our state. The governor's action is disappointing.
Please Contact Me
As the session continues, please feel free to contact me with any questions or thoughts that you have on any matter of state government. Your input helps me to best represent our community, and I appreciate you taking the time to reach out. You can reach me by phone at 651-296-5377 or by email at rep.anne.neu@house.mn. My office is located on the second floor of the State Office Building in room 261.
Sincerely,
Anne