Dear Friends and Neighbors,
It was another busy week at the Capitol! We met our self-imposed deadline of getting all of the omnibus budget bills through the House on May 1st and now conference committees between the House and Senate have started to meet to begin to work out the differences. Minnesota is the only divided Legislature in the country and the DFL-controlled House and the Republican-controlled Senate are very far apart. Reconciling their differences will be a tough job and I wish my colleagues serving on those committees well.
This is what $12 billion in tax increases looks like!
Transportation Omnibus Bill
House Democrats approved their Transportation bill (HF 1555) which increases the gas tax by 20 cents per gallon – a 70% increase – and raises total transportation tax increases of $4 billion.
There is simply no need to raise the gas tax by 20 cents per gallon at a time when the state has a billion dollar surplus. Minnesotans want their government to prioritize road and bridge infrastructure, funding them using existing resources. We already pay 28.5 cents per gallon and this proposal would raise the gas tax to a whopping 48.5 cents per gallon by 2022, which is simply unaffordable for Minnesota families and businesses. Republicans have a plan to fund improvements to roads and bridges without raising taxes on the low and middle-class Minnesotans, which is exactly what the gas tax does.
In addition to the 20-cent-per-gallon increase, which would give Minnesota the fourth highest gas tax in the country, the House Democrat Transportation bill increases taxes by another $2.3 billion by increasing the vehicle registration tax, the metro sales tax, and the new vehicle sales tax.
The bill also raids $417 million from roads and bridges by taking money dedicated from auto parts sales tax funds and giving into the state's general fund, where it can be used for anything. Money that is statutorily dedicated to road and bridges should not be diverted to general spending. This reversed the major investments House & Senate Republicans made during the last biennium to fund road and bridge infrastructure without a gas tax increase.
Below is a quick video of me speaking about how the 20-cent-per-gallon increase will affect our community.
Education Omnibus Bill
I am a strong supporter of education but voted against the Omnibus Education bill because of several policy provisions that I do not think are good for our students, teachers and schools.
- It rolls back the historic reforms to teacher licensure that were put in place just eight months ago and lowers standards for teachers to remain in the classroom.
- It permits teachers who have been convicted of fifth-degree assault, including assault against a child, to remain in the classroom.
- Denies teacher's control of the classroom and disrespects their professional judgment by not allowing teachers to remove a disruptive or violent student, even at risk to him/herself or the disruption of the education of the other students in the classroom.
- Denies local control by mandating a state-wide, K-12 sexual education curriculum, written in consultation with Planned Parenthood and mandating objectionable materials
- Eliminates the Early Learning Scholarship for 4-year olds, removing parents' choice for where their 4 year-olds attend pre-K and only leaving them with the option of school-based pre-K. This unwisely limits parental control on deciding what pre-K setting is best for their children and harms a popular Pre-K program at a time when families are struggling to find pre-K, particularly in greater MN.
Basically, the bill pre-empts local control and contains a number of unfunded mandates. It also prioritizes Minneapolis & St. Paul school districts over suburban and outstate schools. A quick example is right at home in our community. Minneapolis public schools see a larger per-pupil increase than all four school districts in our community: Elk River (23% less), Osseo (10% less), Anoka-Hennepin (19% less), and Buffalo (19% less).
I did support an amendment that stripped out these objectionable policy provisions and just provided $900 million in funding (total funding in the bill) for education. I wish I could have supported final passage, but I am hopeful these issues will be worked out in Conference Committee and I can support the final version of the bill.
Things I Learned
"What I learned this week is not "fun" but still very important to share with you. On May 6th, a Level 3 sex offender will be moving into our community.
I want to share Maple Grove Police Department’s Facebook notification about this. Please take time to read the notice and this embedded fact sheet. There was a public meeting on 4/23. If you could not attend or have questions regarding the notice, please contact Sgt. Trent MacDonald at 763-494-6184.
Other Omnibus Bills
We also passed the Public Safety & Tax Omnibus bills this past week and I will give more information on both next week.
Photos from the Week
Legislators out at the National Day of Prayer
Rep Robbins with 6th Graders from FAIR School Crystal to the House with former Speaker Kurt Zellers
Three Rivers Park District staff brought some animals to the Capitol this week!
Please Contact Me
Many of you have already been in touch to discuss your thoughts on the issues that matter most to you. Thank you for sharing your ideas! Please continue to contact me to discuss any legislation put before the House or any other matters to which I can be of assistance. You can set up a time to visit me at the Capitol by calling me at 651-296-7806 or by email at rep.kristin.robbins@house.mn. My office is located on the second floor of the State Office Building in room 225.
I hope you all have a fun weekend!
Kristin
Like and follow my Facebook Page for updates throughout the week: Facebook.com/RepKristinRobbins