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Legislative News and Views - Rep. John Persell (DFL)

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Legislative Update - May 5, 2015

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Dear Neighbors,

Many hours on the House floor were spent passing omnibus bills and individual bills last week. These omnibus bills now head to conference committees where their differences with the Senate will be reconciled. Below is a brief summary of some of the omnibus bills that took the most time to debate last week.

Higher Education Omnibus (SF 5/HF 845)

The House Higher Ed. Omnibus bill fails to address escalating tuition and student debt burdens. While the bill provides some investment in our public colleges and universities, it also lays new burdens on community colleges, and doesn’t provide enough to allow both the U of M and MnSCU to continue their freeze on tuition. Not only will the 67,000 students at the University of Minnesota see a tuition hike, but money is taken from the State Grant program for low-income students to make a short-term tuition freeze at MnSCU schools possible. This bill also lacks the administrative oversight provisions that were put in place last year.

Health& Human Services (SF 1458/HF 1638)

The most disappointing bill that has been put forward by the House majority this session was the HHS omnibus bill. The bill eliminates the health care coverage of approximately 100,000 working low-income Minnesotans by doing away with the MinnesotaCare program. MinnesotaCare has been a lifeline for thousands of working families who make too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to be able to afford health insurance premiums found on the exchange. The bill also continues the disappointing tradition of budgeting using shifts and gimmicks. MPR fact-checkers confirmed suspicions on Friday that the majority used $300 million in fake money as part of their HHS budget target. This money doesn’t exist, and likely wouldn’t appear with the auditing that they propose. I opposed the bill because of the harm it would inflict on workers and families in our communities.

Taxes (HF 848/SF 826)

As I updated you last week, many of the structural problems in several of these omnibus finance bills come from the majority’s desire to prioritize billions in permanent tax cuts for businesses, over the needs of Minnesota communities and regular Minnesota families. You can read my comments about the bill from last week’s update on the tax bill here. The House passed the Omnibus Tax bill last Wednesday after several hours of debate. I opposed the bill.

Legacy (HF 303/SF 202)

The Omnibus Legacy bill passed the House last Friday, a $540 million bill that appropriates sales tax revenue from the Legacy Amendment passed in 2008 to projects around the state that improve Minnesota’s environment, water, and cultural heritage. One important project to our region included in the bill was the restoration and enhancement of the Lake Bemidji South Shore. You can read more about the Legacy bill here.

The Public Safety Omnibus bill (HF 849/ SF 878) and the Liquor Omnibus bill (HF1090/ SF1238) also passed last week, and were mostly non-controversial. This coming week we will have individual bills on the House floor as we wait for the conference committees to complete their work.

Avian Flu Crisis (HF 2225)

Last week the House passed the conference committee report to provide $900,000 in emergency funding to the Department of Agriculture as they continue to confront the statewide avian influenza outbreak. The bill was then sent to the Governor to sign. There are additional aid provisions in the Omnibus Agriculture Finance bill passed Monday, May 4th. I voted for the emergency funding.

As the session comes to a close, please continue to contact me for more information on any of these bills or other legislative topics.

 

Sincerely,

John Persell

State Representative