Dear Neighbor,
Greetings from the Minnesota House, where we are reaching the end of another week in the 2024 session and soon will be entering the final month before adjournment.
Here is a look at some of my latest notes from St. Paul:
Unclaimed money
Unclaimed money is a real thing, and it happens more than you may think. (That’s maybe because if people knew about it, it wouldn’t go unclaimed!) Here’s the good news: The Minnesota Unclaimed Property department has a website that makes it easy to do a quick check to see if there is anything in your name. 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).
Public safety
Maybe the best news from the House this week is we approved an omnibus public safety policy bill with overwhelming support on a 130-0 vote. This goes to show what good can happen when bipartisanship is part of the bill-making process.
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.
In contrast to other bills the Public Safety Committee has assembled in recent years, this one is rather clean. It has no controversial gun bills or unnecessary spending, for example. The bill also features a handful of provisions authored by Republicans, helping it to earn the broad, bipartisan support it received while passing.
Local visitors
Great having Tony Bakhtiari and Alan Overland from Windermere Township stop by to say hello and share some of the successes as well as challenges they face as a township.
Awesome to have such amazing representation from the city of Cloquet down at the Capitol.
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.
Elections bill
As refreshing as the bipartisan public safety bill is, an omnibus elections bill the House majority passed this week is highly concerning in its lack of bipartisanship and a number of controversial provisions.
Key changes in the bill include allowing a simple description of residence when an address is not available. The bill also infringes on local governments with additional unfunded mandates on local elections.
Elections policy bills have a longstanding tradition of being bipartisan so that neither side can write laws to give itself an unfair advantage. In fact, governors in the past have demanded that elections bills be bipartisan. Enacting partisan elections policy with virtually zero support from the other side is undemocratic and irresponsible. It is too bad that's what happened this week.
It is crucial for Minnesota to have an elections system that makes it easy to vote, but we also need to make sure security measures are in place to ensure integrity in our elections. It is unfortunate this bill fails to address the integrity part and just focuses on the ease of voting. This could be especially problematic since Minnesota has same-day voter registration but remains one of the few states to not conduct provisional balloting as a way to trust but verify the record without compromising access.
Medicine disposal
Unsure of where to dispose of your unwanted medicine? A website provides safe disposal locations across Minnesota with a convenient locator tool that makes it easy to find an option near you. Visit MyOldMeds.com/Minnesota and enter your ZIP code to get started.
Have a good weekend, please stay in touch … and don’t forget to check and see if you have any unclaimed money. This could be your lucky day!
Sincerely,
Jeff