Legislative Update – April 11, 2025Dear Neighbors, It’s been a busy couple of weeks here at the Minnesota Capitol, but it’s also been full of constituent and advocate meetings, as well as partnerships with our local leaders who are bringing the voices of our district to the State Capitol. I was glad to be joined by Mayor Steffenson to testify on my Tax Increment Finance (TIF) tax bill for Maple Grove, and to run into Osseo School Board director Kelsey Dawson at one of our Education Finance Committee meetings.  I was also proud to attend the HandsOff! Rally this weekend at the Capitol grounds. It was inspiring to see so many folks from all across our state gather to support our schools, our elders, those with disabilities, and our veterans! For more on my visits both in our community and at the Capitol, please visit my Official State Representative Facebook page here. Legislative Updates and DeadlinesThis week marked the end of our “committee deadlines,” meaning the deadline by which most major budget bills must be passed out of their committees to advance to votes on the House Floor. This means it’s crunch time for legislators, as we work as hard as possible to advocate for our proposals to be included in the budget negotiations going forward. Top concerns have been education, the environment, food insecurity, disability, and Medicaid supports for our seniors and veterans. I appreciate all of the letters from constituents for non-public pupil aid as we find a balance to support all of our students, teacher pensions, education budgets, and so much more! I appreciate hearing from you. Fun fact, this session your legislator is currently in the top 10 percent of representatives in responses to my constituents and our neighbors.  Next week, House offices will be closed to the public for our Passover/Easter recess. Once legislators return from break, we will begin hearing budget bills on the House Floor for full votes, and then we will enter negotiations with the Senate and the Governor on our final budget bills. I’m spending my time focused on legislation I know can reach the broad, bipartisan support needed to become law in this divided legislature, and I’m proud to report that we’re making progress on a number of my bills, including: As we move into the next phase of the legislative session, negotiating with the Senate and the Governor, I'll continue to update you on the progress of legislation I’ve authored. Update on HOA LegislationAs many of you already know, I was proud to serve as chair of the legislative work group on Homeowners Associations and Common-Interest-Community reform during the last legislative interim. We met 14 times, took 30 to 40 hours of testimony, and held multiple public listening sessions in every corner of the metro to hear directly from you! Through that process, we were able to come up with a list of recommendations that formed the basis of several bills here at the Capitol around HOA reform. Those bills have been working their way through the Senate and the House with bipartisan authors in the House and the Senate presenting the bills together.  I’ve been proud to work side by side with my co-author in the House, Representative Shane Mekeland (GOP), and Senate authors Eric Lucero (GOP) and Susan Pha (DFL). While we all come from different parties and backgrounds, we’ve all heard from our constituents that this is an issue that is long overdue for reform and where our laws have not kept pace! Last week, I spoke with the Star Tribune about the status of our bill and how we are thoughtfully addressing concerns raised throughout this session, which you can read here. This Sunday at 10:30 AM, I will be appearing on Esme Murphy’s show on WCCO / CBS Minnesota to discuss the current status of the bill and why we’re confident it will pass this session. I hope you can tune in and watch! |