Friends and neighbors,
The Legislature will take a brief break from April 15 through April 22 to observe the Easter and Passover holidays. When we reconvene, the sprint to the legislative May 20th deadline will really begin. The first few months of session have been laying the foundation for how session will be wrapped up. We have certainly accomplished some important things, but the budget discussion looms large.
The Senate has already been actively working on budget bills for every major issue area, such as K-12 education, transportation, health and human services, and veterans. Those bills have cleared the committee process and will likely have prompt floor votes after Easter break. I will be sure to keep you updated on what is in those bills as they come to the floor.
In the meantime, here is a brief recap of the events of this week:
- The Senate passed the hands-free driving requirement and sent it to Gov. Walz for his signature. The bill, which will take effect in August, requires that drivers only use cell-phones in hands-free mode or one-touch operations. GPS navigation, podcasts, and music are all still legal as long as the user is not typing or scrolling. The law does not apply to vehicles legally parked on the side of the road, or for emergency calls.
- We learned of yet another major data breach at the Department of Human Services, the third in less than a year. The breach is the latest entry in a long pattern of costly mistakes and privacy failures. As a reminder, DHS is also the agency at the center of our ongoing child care assistance fraud scandal. Something smells rotten in the department – they have had scandal after scandal but no accountability.
- The House released the details of their tax bill, which raises about $1.3 billion in taxes. Remember that number is only part of the story, though – between paid family leave, gas taxes, tab fees and sales taxes, the sick tax, and income and business taxes, their proposals add up to an astounding $12 billion over the next four years! This level of taxation and spending is simply unsustainable. I have heard over and over and over again that families in my district can’t afford it, and I will fight to make sure their tax increases do not become law.
- We unveiled the details of our Human Services Reform budget this week. The most notable item is a complete freeze of Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program that has been under fire for the last year for being overrun with fraud. The freeze takes effect in 2020. We want to make sure the families who need help can get it, but we also have to get the attention of the Department of Human Services so they know this is a serious problem that Minnesotans are worried about. They will now have plenty of time to restructure and figure out their mistakes, in order to get the program turned around before funding blinks off. We have to make sure the support goes to the families who truly need it, not to people who want to rip us off.
Finally, a prominent Minnesota think tank recently released an important article about jobs created by clean energy. The article, which you can read here, notes that many of these jobs are only temporary. In fact, the same think tank released a much more in-depth study that found a 50% renewable energy mandate could kill 21,000 jobs! We want to be good stewards of the environment, but we also have a responsibility to steer the economy in the right direction so that Minnesota continues to flourish. I would encourage you to read the entire article here:https://www.americanexperiment.org/2019/04/dirty-little-secret-behind-clean-energy-jobs/
As always, if you have any questions, concerns, or comments, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. My phone number is 651-296-5981 or sen.bruce.anderson@senate.mn. It is an honor serving as your state senator.
Keep in Touch
Senator Bruce Anderson
3209 Minnesota Senate Building
95 University Avenue West
St. Paul, MN 55155
651.296.5981
sen.bruce.anderson@senate.mn