Dear Neighbor,
The House majority has been bringing its omnibus bills to the floor for preliminary approval this week. House Republicans have offered worthy amendments to make improvements to each package, but House Democrats continue to block them. For example:
House Republicans this week offered an amendment requiring voter ID. House Democrats opposed it despite voter ID being required for their party’s upcoming state convention.
Another House Republican amendment related to transportation would have diverted funding in the bill away from further expanding commuter rail and toward law enforcement. In the end, House Democrats chose to provide more money for increasingly obsolete passenger trains instead of supporting law enforcement.
Today, House Republicans may offer an amendment to a public safety package to help mitigate the growing fentanyl crisis in our state and I urge House Democrats accept it.
The initial round of omnibus bills likely will wrap up the middle of next week, with packages related to taxes, health and human services and energy among those yet to come through the floor. Once the majority provides initial approval on those, negotiations will begin in earnest to resolve differences between what the House and Senate propose.
As noted in my last email, there are significant gaps to close between now and May 23, when the Legislature is scheduled to adjourn. The Senate passed the largest tax cut in state history – at more than $8 billion – representing nearly the entire budget surplus. Meanwhile, House Democrats propose $21 in new government spending for every $1 in tax cuts.
If it needs to be said out loud, I am strongly in the camp that says our state’s $10 billion surplus needs to be turned into long-term and ongoing tax relief instead of being used to grow our government even larger.
There also is a package of drought relief for farmers to resolve yet this session. That bill has been stuck in a conference committee for weeks because House Democrats added $13 million in DNR tree funding to the package. Whether taxpayers should pay $13 million for DNR trees is a different discussion for a different bill and it should not be causing delays on drought relief.
On a similar note, the House is expected to take up for a vote today a package with funding to resolve an unemployment insurance tax increase. The Senate approved a clean version of this bill months ago and the House could have put this issue to bed in short order by approving that legislation. Instead, the House majority complicated matters by piling additional spending for separate issues onto the bill. We may see how today goes and I might have more to say about this issue in another email after the details are sorted out.
Until next time, have a good weekend and please stay in touch.
-Shane