Friends and neighbors, 

Farmers serve as good stewards of the environment and play a central role in our community. However, local farmers are being hit hard by the alternating floods and droughts. This session, the Senate Agriculture and Rural Development Finance and Policy Committee, which I serve on as a member, will be considering proposals to help mitigate the damage farmers experienced due to the drought.

Last session, we also passed key legislation, the Omnibus Agriculture Finance bill, which appropriates over $1.4 million per fiscal year for low-interest loans for farmers, rural landowners, and agricultural supply businesses for water quality and conservation projects. The legislature also appropriates funding to the Rural Finance Authority, which opened disaster response loans for addressing drought relief. 

I remain committed to passing policies to help address the droughts affecting our farmers, and I will continue to provide updates on this important topic as the legislative session progresses. 

This week, we heard a bill, SF-2614, I authored this session to support our veterans. For Public Employee’s Retirement Association (PERA) and Minnesota State Retirement System (MSRS) pensions plans, current federal law allows a military service member to enter public service and be able to purchase service credits after leaving again for military service. 

The situation we are trying to address with this bill is where a service member is unable to make use of the federally protected right. This would include missing the deadline for purchasing service credits under the federally protected right. The other situation this bill would cover is where a member begins public employment after the period of military service and wants to purchase service credit, even though service did not occur during the period of public employment.

In 2019, we passed legislation to protect PERA recipients experiencing these two situations. However, this language has not yet been passed for MSRS recipients. Therefore, the bill I put forward would expand this language to cover MSRS recipients, which includes state patrol, correction officers, and general plan members. 

For many years, we have heard from constituents who are facing the situations highlighted above, and it is a privilege to carry this bill this session.

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety also recently announced 32 grant recipients will receive funding for school bus stop arm cameras. The cameras are used to capture video footage of drivers who fail to stop for school buses when the stop arm is extended and thus endangering students. 

In our community, I am pleased to see M & M Bus Service, which serves Maple Lake and Annandale, receive $49,383.31. Hoglund Transportation, which serves Monticello, will also receive $20,384. These initial grants are phase one of a larger project, which Minnesota lawmakers approved funding for this year and 2023. I am proud to have supported this grant program last year.

I want to hear from you, my constituents, on issues that are important to you. Please feel free to reach out to my office with any concerns or ideas you may have. As session moves forward, I will keep your thoughts and concerns in mind as legislation comes before me. You can contact my office at sen.bruce.anderson@senate.mn or 651-296-5981.

Sincerely,

Bruce Anderson