|
March 5, 2024
Legislative Update
February Budget Forecast
Last week, we heard a presentation from Minnesota Management and Budget on this year's updated budget forecast. They found that even though the 2024-25 biennium is now projected to end with a surplus of $3.715 billion, and the 2026-27 biennium has a projected surplus of $2.24 billion, the state is still spending $1.5 billion more than it takes in via taxes and other revenue sources. The economists who gave the budget presentation warned numerous times that these numbers only stay positive if there is very little spending this year.
If last session and the last few budget forecasts have taught us anything, it is that Minnesota has a spending problem, not a revenue problem. We need to take a serious look at our budget and cut out wasteful spending and any fraud we can find, and budget responsibly instead of going on another spending spree like Democrats did last year.
|
Burnsville Memorial Service
On Wednesday, I attended the Memorial Service for the Burnsville first responders killed in the line of duty - Officer Paul Elmstrand, Officer Matthew Ruge, and Firefighter Adam Finseth. It was an incredibly powerful service, and I was glad I could be there to pay my respects to these three heroes who gave their lives to protect seven children.
School Resource Officer Fix Passed
The House voted this week to pass a fix for the problematic school resource officer law, 124-8. I was glad to see the major showing of support for our school resource officers across the state. This fix bill is the result of months of negotiations bringing together law enforcement, teachers, legislators from both sides of the aisle, and other stakeholder groups. Our work isn't done until 100% of school resource officers are back in the schools that choose to have them, and I am hopeful this bill will accomplish that.
Higher Education
As you may have heard, the University of Minnesota chose a new President, Rebecca Cunningham, who is an experienced higher education administrator and medical doctor. I believe she will have the skillset needed to move the university in a better direction, and I look forward to seeing how she will accomplish that.
Additionally, last week I talked about the panel I joined on antisemitism at the U of M. If you'd like to read more about that panel here.
Day at the Capitol
Minnesota Resource Recovery Association (“MRRA”) invited me to attend their annual day at the Capitol on Tuesday, February 27th. MRRA presented a comprehensive statewide vision for Resource Recovery, educated members on the importance of maintaining the solid waste management hierarchy, pushed for the allocation of all revenue from the Solid Waste Management Tax to SCORE, and voiced general support for product stewardship programs and environmental justice. I enjoyed hearing about their priorities and look forward to doing good work in committee.
More Energy Mandates
This week in the Climate and Energy Finance and Policy Committee, we heard a bill that would mandate that "owners of more than 500 miles of transmission lines in Minnesota to submit plans to the Public Utilities Commission identifying major points of congestion on their transmission system and analyzing how the deployment of cost-efficient grid enhancing technologies (GETs) can reduce congestion and save ratepayers money."
|
The bill author claims this will reduce costs to ratepayers, but as I said in committee, mandates and doing things quickly without enough vetting only guarantee one thing: higher energy prices.
Constituent Visit
Last week I got to visit with Randy Griffith from Buffalo. He was my daughter's softball coach, and was here advocating for the U of M!
|
|
