The 2023 Legislative Session Concludes

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May 24, 2023

Executive Summary

• Nursing Home Funding

• HHS Bills

• Bonding

• Adult-Use Cannabis Bill Passes

• Tax Bill

• Nurse and Patient Safety Act

Nursing Home Funding

I am very proud that Republicans were successful in our session-long fight to provide significant funding to stabilize nursing homes in our state. After months of negotiations, we were able to secure a $300 million relief package for nursing homes on the last night.

Despite a 40% increase in the state budget to $72 billion, the DFL-trifecta only wanted to spend $4 million on nursing homes, which are in a crisis around the state. Since 2021, 15 nursing homes have closed in our state and two more are on the verge of closing. In addition, due to staffing challenges, hundreds of beds in existing nursing homes can’t be open. Thousands of seniors are waiting to get into skilled nursing facilities and some hospitals are not able to take new patients because they have nowhere to discharge seniors who need care, but no longer require hospitalization. 

The number of nursing facilities that have exhausted their reserves has increased by 10% in the past six months, and another 40% are burning through them now. The long-term care industry in Minnesota currently has a worker shortage. Almost 25% of nursing home caregiver jobs are vacant. This $300 million will be split evenly across the next two biennia ($150 million in 2024/25 and $150 million in 2026/27) to help nursing homes keep their doors open and keep seniors in their communities. 

Republicans fought all session long for seniors to secure this funding and I am thrilled we were able to pass this package with strong bipartisan support in the end.

HHS Bills

Over the weekend, the House passed two Health and Human Services bills. Unfortunately, despite some good provisions, these bills will drive up the cost of health care in Minnesota. 

Some of the good provisions included are:

• PCA funding. Personal care assistance (PCA) is a health care program that provides services to seniors and people with disabilities to help them remain independent in the community. This funding also goes towards paying the PCA workers a higher wage so they can continue to provide great care for seniors and people with disabilities. This was one of the largest investments in the Human Services omnibus. $341.60 million FY24-25 and $547.89 million in FY26-27 (889.49 million over 4 years).
• Disability services.The Human Services bill invested in a variety of areas that will help Minnesotans with disabilities live in their communities. $316.69 million will go towards investments for intermediate care facilities, home and community-cased services, homemaker services for home and community-based services, and brain injury and community access for disability inclusion waiver recipients. 
• Mental health. The Health Omnibus carried a 3% rate increase for mental health services. We know mental health is an important issue and it is good to see more resources directed towards getting people the help they need. $17.59 million FY24-25 and $48.55 million FY26-27 ($66.14 million). 
• School-linked mental health services. These school-linked services have had bipartisan support during the history of the program. This initiative connects or co-locates effective behavioral health services with schools and students in Maple Grove elementary schools. This project has proven particularly effective in reaching children who have never accessed mental health services. $14.08 million FY24-25 and $9 million FY26-27 ($23.08 million)

One of the big success stories in the country after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, was a Minnesota-led proposal to stabilize the individual market for health insurance through a program known as “reinsurance.” After the passage of Obamacare, premiums in the individual market rose 20-30%, forcing many families to drop coverage and ballooning the ranks of the uninsured.

Republicans fought tirelessly to create a reinsurance fund that stabilized rates, enabled families to stay in the individual market and significantly reduced premiums.  This program was eventually replicated in about 15 other states.

Unfortunately, the Omnibus Health bill that passed Monday night will fund a study for a public option, which will take more people out of the private market and into the public program called MinnesotaCare. Once the study is complete, it directs the legislature to begin implementation. New admin and IT spending in the bill will cost taxpayers at least $300 million. 

Adding more people to the state-run program will drive up costs in the private market (which subsidizes the public option) and limit choices for those left in the private market.

This and other mandates in the bill will increase healthcare costs for Minnesotans. According to aggregated estimates from health plans, the health insurance mandates included in the bill could add $20-$27 per member per month to insurance premiums, resulting in an annual increase of $900 - $1,296 for a family of four.

Minnesotans want healthcare that gives patients choice, flexibility, and affordable options. I am disappointed that this bill gets in the way of those priorities.

Bonding

The House also approved two omnibus bonding bills on the last day. I voted for the “General Obligation” bonding bill, but against the cash bill, as it had been loaded up with pet projects that are not tied to the core state responsibility of meeting state or regional water and infrastructure needs. 

I am thankful I was able to get funding for several important projects for District 37A, including:

• $450,000 for a railroad crossing on the border of Medina, Loretto, and Independence
• $3 million for Greenfield Road Improvement
• $6 million for the Maple Grove Community Center
• $10 million for the Water Treatment Facility in Corcoran

These projects have been top priorities for our cities, and I am pleased to be able to deliver this critical funding for our district.

I also fought this session to provide ongoing funding for the Small Cities Aid program, which had previously only received one-time funding. The new Small Cities Aid will provide dedicated infrastructure funding for cities with populations of less than 5,000 people. Currently, these cities do not qualify for any of the other programs that provide dedicated funding for infrastructure through counties or townships. Small Cities in District 37A which will receive funding under this program, based on population and geographic size, include:

• $91,185 for Greenfield
• $99,409 for Independence
• $20,363 for Loretto
• $40,756 for Maple Plain

For too long, small cities across Minnesota have been overlooked. Providing ongoing funding for this program was a top priority for several Mayors in our district, who have no other source of revenue to fund local road projects. This program will provide a measure of stability and on-going funding they can use to plan for long-term, larger projects.

Adult-Use Cannabis Bill Passes

The Adult-Use Cannabis bill passed the House and Senate and is currently awaiting the Governor's signature. I voted against this bill because it won't stop the black market and it will create a host of new public safety and addiction issues, when we are already dealing with crises in mental health and substance use disorder.

While supporters claim the goal of legalization is to eliminate the black market, the policy design choices they put in the bill guarantee that will not be the outcome. Specifically, marijuana will be legal in Minnesota on August 1^st, even though the regulated market, where growers and businesses are licensed and products are subject to testing, package and labeling regulations, will not be ready for at least 18-24 months. 

Because Minnesotans will be allowed to legally grow marijuana in their homes and store up to 2 pounds, this will allow the unregulated market to flourish before the regulated market is even up and running. Not all states that have a regulated, legal market allow people to grow it at home.

If the goal was truly to eliminate the black market, they either would have not allowed people to grow it at home or they would have not legalized it until the regulated market with retail shops and tested products was ready to open.

Other states that have legalized recreational marijuana, like California and New York, continue to have issues with the black market. Recent articles from the Los Angeles Times and the Denver Post highlight some of the problems.

I am also deeply concerned about the public safety impact of this bill. Another policy choice made by supporters was to not set a level for impairment. Other states have used 5 nanograms of THC/ML in a blood test, so there is some legal standard for enforcement.

Since there is no standard and there are currently no available roadside tests, the fiscal analysis of the bill expects we will have increased auto accidents. In states that have legalized recreational marijuana, the rate of fatal car crashes rose by 4% and injury-accidents increased 6% according to a 2022 Insurance Institute for Highway Safety study. In a recent Canadian study, fatalities increased by 15%.

It is expected that this will drive up costs for local and state law enforcement, as well as increase auto insurance rates for all Minnesotans.

A good change to the bill in the final negotiations is that it allows greater local control. Cities still cannot outright prohibit cannabis businesses, but they can limit them to one per 12,500 people in their jurisdictions. In addition, they can now also regulate the “time, place and manner” of the retail businesses, which cannot be closer than 1000 feet to a school.

Unfortunately, cannabis businesses can be very close to a park, as long as they are not within 500 feet of a children’s “attraction,” such as a playground. If a playground is in the middle of a park, the business could still be set up right on the edge of the park.

This bill will take effect August 1. I know many Minnesotans are thrilled that this passed, but I have serious concerns about the impact on public safety, young people and substance use disorder.

Tax Bill

Despite the state’s largest surplus of $17.5 billion, the DFL Trifecta (control of the House, Senate and Governor’s office) had an insatiable appetite for spending.

To provide some context, the current two-year budget increased by 11% over the previous biennium and we still collected enough taxes to create a $17.5 billion surplus. We thought the last budget increase of 11% was enormous – the budget before that had been a 7% increase.

This year, with full control of state government, the DFL proposed an incredible 40% increase in the state budget! To fund this, they used up most of the $17.5 billion surplus and also raised taxes on Minnesotans by another $9.5 billion.

This is completely unsustainable. Minnesotans cannot afford to support a government that grows 40% over two years. Minnesotans’ own income and family budgets are not increasing at that rate – if at all, given inflation. The DFL has put us on a path to fiscal deficits that will require big budget cuts and broken promises in the future.

The tax bill contained $2.2 billion of the $9.5 billion in tax increases. Many of the tax increases will hit job creators, making Minnesota's tax system less competitive and hurting our state’s economic growth.

Although I was pleased that some seniors will no longer have to pay the Social Security tax, I am disappointed that we were not able to fully eliminate it for everyone, which was a bipartisan campaign promise last year. Seniors are taxed on their social security income starting at just $25,000 of their federal combined income. A full repeal would have given nearly half a million seniors in Minnesota an average of $1,276 in relief.

I was also pleased to see that some of the surplus will be given back to some Minnesotans, but many Minnesotans who paid taxes that created the surplus will not get any of their money back. The rebate checks are also much smaller than Governor Walz had promised ($2000) or the DFL leadership had promised ($1000). Instead, individuals making less than $75,000 will get $260 and couples making less than $150,000 will get $520. If you make under those amounts and have children, you are eligible for an additional $260/child for up to 3 children.

One of my biggest frustrations with the tax bill is that it will devastate charitable gambling in our state. In the final hours of session, Democrats slipped in a new provision that will amend the definition of electronic pull-tab games, a change that will totally alter these games and hurt local charities as well as the bars and restaurants they partner with. This provision was never heard in either the House or Senate and is much more restrictive than the language in the House that would have eliminated “open-all” e-pull tabs. 

The majority of Minnesotans supported maintaining e-pull tabs as they are. Charitable gambling supports Veterans groups, youth sports, and other local charities like the Lions, Jaycees, Fire Fighter and Police Associations and other groups that do so much good. The loss of this revenue will greatly impact their ability to provide much needed equipment, scholarships, and funding for Cross Services and other charitable partners to meet real needs in our communities.

I am very disappointed that this provision was included in the final Tax bill and will continue to work to restore e-pull tabs for charities next session.

Nurse and Patient Safety Act

The final bill of the 2023 legislative session was the Nurse and Patient Safety Act. This was originally the controversial "Nurses at the Bedside Act" which would have mandated nurse staffing ratios. After Mayo received an exemption, however, because according to Speaker Hortman they serve "kings and princes," the bill fell apart. 

The final Nurse and Patient Safety Act was actually a good compromise bill. It will save hospitals money when they are struggling financially, while also supporting nurses with violence prevention efforts, loan forgiveness, childcare assistance, and a study on why nurses are leaving the profession. This bill is a big win for smaller hospitals, including those that serve our district, as they would have been significantly hurt by the original mandates. I supported this bill, which passed with strong bipartisan support. 

Photos

So thankful to be back in my district at the I-94 West Chamber of Commerce First Responders Lunch! The event honors local fire & police heroes from the past year & raises money for the Minnesota Law Enforcement Memorial Association (LEMA) & Minnesota Fallen Firefighter Memorial. Always amazing stories of heroism by humble people who serve our communities every day! So inspiring! THANK YOU for all you all do!

Please Contact Me

I hope you all have a wonderful summer and I hope to see you out and about in our communities. If you made it to the end, I am so grateful you took the time to read all of these lengthy newsletters each week! 😊

The best way to reach me while we are out of session is by email: rep.kristin.robbins@house.mn.gov. For occasional updates, you can follow my Facebook Page at @RepKristinRobbins. You can also leave a voicemail on my office number, 651-296-7806, which is checked multiple times/week.

Have a wonderful summer!

Kristin

239 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Saint Paul, MN 55155
ph: 651.296.7806