Friends and neighbors –
The 2023 legislative session wrapped up on Monday, May 21. With Democrats in complete control of state government, the agenda looked significantly different than it ever has. Almost immediately, they mostly tossed bipartisanship aside and forced through a series of bills that aimed to satisfy their special interests – not bills that Minnesotans were clamoring for.
In the coming months, I’ll cover each of these bills and the new state budget in greater detail. In this column, I want to focus on a few of the good things that resulted from this session.
EMERGENCY NURSING HOME AID
First is nursing homes. Minnesota is in the middle of a full-blown nursing home crisis. About 50 of them have closed over the last few years, and even more are right on the brink of closure. According to Long-Term Care Imperative, a collaboration of aging services providers, 15% of nursing homes statewide have completely exhausted their financial reserves and 10% are considering closing. In Greater Minnesota, 17% have no financial reserve and 12% are considering closures. With about 350 nursing homes in the state, that puts 60 nursing homes without reserves, and 41 considering closure. It is a desperate situation.
Republicans have been advocating for nursing homes for years. Last year, Senate Republicans put more than $1 billion toward nursing homes but we could not get House Democrats or Gov. Walz to agree. This year we tried again, but for most of session Democrats had little interest in supporting nursing homes.
Republicans would not give up, and I am glad we were able to strike a deal to provide an additional $300 million to address Minnesota’s nursing home crisis. It will give them a lifeline that they desperately need. The agreement will include direct grants, facility rate increases, and a workforce incentive fund that adds up to about $1.1 million for every nursing home in the state.
GOOD THINGS AND BAD THINGS IN THE TRANSPORTATION BILL
I have a great working relationship with the Democrat chair of the Transportation Committee, Senator Scott Dibble (DFL-Minneapolis), because we have worked closely on transportation issues for my entire time in the Senate. We agree on little, but we treat each other respectfully and keep our word to each other.
That relationship is what enabled me to secure a number of positive things in this year’s transportation bill, even though the rest of the year was marked by hyper-partisanship in virtually every area.
These are things I have worked on for a number of years, and they will make big difference for communities across this state:
- Dedicated road funding for small cities and townships
- $18 million more for local road improvements program
- $18 million more for local bridges
- $153 million in one-time funding for Corridors of Commerce
- $200 million from Trunk Highway Bonds in one-time funding for state road construction
- Allowing for a portion of driver’s education to be conducted online
- Additional funding for deputy registrars
Make no mistake, the transportation bill also had some bad provisions. And when I say bad, I mean BAD. That is why I ultimately voted against it.
For starters, it raised almost $4 billion in taxes, including a gas tax increase tied to inflation, license tab increases, sales taxes, and a new tax on retail deliveries from places like Amazon. These are regressive tax increases – low-income folks and people who are living paycheck-to-paycheck are going to be hit especially hard.
We have a $19 billion surplus and people are still feeling squeezed by high inflation. There is absolutely no reason to raise taxes, period. We have plenty of money to fix our roads and bridges throughout the state; there is no need to keep coming after Minnesota taxpayers for more, especially since they are already getting hammered by new taxes and fees throughout the Democrats’ budget.
There were some other controversial provisions in the bill as well, including nearly $200 million to build the Northern Lights Express passenger rail between the Twin Cities and Duluth, $50 million for the Blue Line rail to northwest suburbs, a requirement to consider greenhouse gas emissions in transportation projects, which will make it almost impossible for new road projects to be built, ongoing funding for “intercity passenger rail planning and project management”, a working group to consider having traffic signals prioritize light rail and buses, and it deletes the ban on state money going to Southwest Light Rail operations and maintenance.
Contact me:
If you have any questions about any issues we are working on at the legislature, feel free to contact me any time at sen.john.jasinski@senate.mn or 651-296-0284.
And you can always get the latest news from St. Paul on my Facebook page at fb.com/SenatorJohnJasinski.
It is a privilege to serve you!
John