Dear Neighbor,
Thanks to the constituents from the Red Oaks neighborhood who met with me last Friday. Among other things, we discussed legislation I’ve authored allowing the city of Andover to design and construct new municipal water mains in Red Oaks, where the cancer-causing chemical dioxane was detected in private drinking water wells. I appreciate the input and will keep working to fix this problem.
Also, it was great to see the Ramsey City Council this week voted to approve an exciting proposed privately funded sports dome. I look forward to seeing this new local attraction take shape.
In addition, it was a pleasure participating in the MetroNorth Chamber of Commerce’s recent annual panel event. Part of the discussion centered on the House majority’s reckless pace in approving controversial bills this session. I recently shared some statistics and anecdotes regarding this issue on the House floor and you can click here for the brief clip.
As for this week’s notes from the House:
Gun-control bills
I have received a high volume of emails – especially from Second Amendment supporters – regarding gun-control bills House Democrats are moving through the process. These bills could come to the House floor soon for votes on final approval and my general impression is they would do more to set traps for law-abiding gun owners instead of preventing bad actors from committing violent crimes. I voted against these bills when they were presented to a committee I serve. Here's a link to an email I recently sent with more details.
Sick time
The House majority last night approved a bill (HF 19) with sweeping changes to Minnesota’s existing laws regarding employee leave.
Notably, this bill does not include most of the employer protections under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, such as employers with less than 50 employees being exempt. This language applies to all Minnesota employers who employ one or more persons.
Under this bill, employees can stack paid and unpaid leave. In the worst-case scenario for an employer, an employee who has saved 80 hours of accrued but unused time and earns 48 more hours would have 128 hours (16 days) of paid leave to use in addition to 12 weeks of unpaid FMLA leave.
This is a one-size-fits-all approach that benefits attorneys more than workers, providing a lever for plaintiff lawyers to seek settlements from job providers over technicalities. It’s another bill full of traps. I’ve encountered these kinds of stick-‘em-up lawsuits in my day job and, aside from the problems they can cause for well-meaning job providers, it’s hard for the courts to deal with non-meritorious lawsuits in what’s already a clogged system.
The Twin Cities, Duluth and Bloomington have implemented sick-time policies such as this. It’s hurting them, so it’s understandable why they’d want to expand this statewide and put the rest of us on equally shaky ground. For the rest of the state, though, I fear this is an unwise policy that will put small businesses out of business, kill jobs, and increase prices, at exactly the wrong time.
Have a good weekend and please stay in touch.
Sincerely,
