Dear Neighbor,
Greetings from the House, where this week it was great to see a refreshing example of how we can pass good, bipartisan bills when we put doing the best for Minnesotans ahead of politics.
This was the case with an omnibus public safety policy bill which received overwhelming support in the House on a 130-0 vote Monday. The package includes changes related to crime victims and their rights, making criminal justice reforms, modifying predatory offender restrictions, and modifying some duties of the Department of Corrections.
Unlike most omnibus bills that have come out of the Public Safety Committee in recent years, this policy omnibus is relatively clean. For example, there are no gun control measures or other controversial bills in this package – and it even includes handful of Republican-authored measures.
This is the way that we should be legislating. I also was pleased to see that there wasn’t any additional spending in this bill, that it was truly policy that we could get behind and support.
Elections bill
If the public safety bill served as a shining example of bipartisan work, an omnibus elections bill approved by the majority this week was quite the opposite.
Elections policy has a longstanding tradition of being bipartisan so that neither side can legislate itself an unfair advantage over the other. It’s also the right thing to do and, in fact, governors in the past have demanded that elections bills be bipartisan. To the contrary, this bill had virtually zero bipartisan collaboration.
Instead of taking a more balanced and reasonable approach, the majority ignored good ideas presented by the minority and loaded up this bill with partisan elections policy. This includes allowing a mere description of residence when an address is not available. The bill also infringes on local governments with additional unfunded mandates on local elections.
EVW robotics
It was good to see the Eden Valley-Watkins Mystery Machine, recipients of a We Work For Health STEM grant, compete at the FIRST Robotics Competition of Minnesota High School robotics teams in St. Cloud last weekend. You exemplify what it means to dream big and work hard. Keep pushing the boundaries!
Anna Marie’s Alliance
Thank you to the group from Anna Marie’s Alliance for the recent visit. This St. Cloud organization provides safety, shelter, support, and referral services to survivors of domestic violence and their children.
Law enforcement training
I enjoyed recently visiting the North Metro Regional Public Safety Training Facility in Maple Grove. This is a state-of-the-art resource for local, county, state and federal law enforcement agencies – along with postsecondary law enforcement institutions – to conduct training.
Unclaimed money
On a final note, I encourage you to check the Minnesota Unclaimed Property department website to see if there is any money with your name on it. This happens more than you’d think so it’s worth a shot. Click here for a link to step-by-step guide on how to claim your unclaimed property online. If you need to contact the Unclaimed Property staff with any questions, please email unclaimed.property@state.mn.us or call 651-539-1545 (Select option 1).
Good luck – it’s worth a look!
Sincerely,
Lisa