Dear Neighbors,
This has been a difficult two years in the Minnesota Legislature with a 67-67 tie in the House and abbreviated legislative schedules. As a result, it was challenging to address complex issues and little progress was made on affordability for priorities like housing and healthcare. For example, adoption of the recommendations of the Property Insurance task force that I chaired last fall will have to wait until next year.
My biggest disappointment was our failure to enact the comprehensive gun violence prevention legislation that Republicans blocked. This bill will be my top priority when we return in January with a newly elected legislature.
We made no meaningful progress on health care policy reform. I passed one small bill that will require health insurance plans to report data on their denied claims (in addition to the reporting already required on denied prior authorizations).
Fraud Prevention
As a member of the House Committee on Fraud Prevention and Agency Oversight committee I spent much of my time this year working to protect our public programs from fraud, especially on the modernization of ancient and vulnerable computer systems. I am pleased to report that we are funding the modernization of those systems, and I hope to serve on the legislative oversight committee that will supervise these investments.
Me with Chairs Paul Torkelson (R) and Mohamud Noor (DFL) who I worked with on a bipartisan basis to shape and pass the Human Services IT modernization funding bills, just after the House passed the bill unanimously
We also passed bipartisan legislation establishing an Office of the Inspector General as a full-time fraud investigative unit.
Consumer Protection
We also passed important consumer fraud prevention legislation, including bans on the “crypto-currency kiosks” that are hotbeds for scams and the rigged “prediction markets” where insider trading is rampant. Minors will receive important protections against abusive social media practices. For the first time in decades, we passed major reforms of homeowner association business practices.
Taxes
At the end of the session we passed a “tax conformity bill” to better align with last year’s changes to the federal tax structure. We rolled back “tab fees” for a year to give us time to devise a fairer transportation funding approach, especially for electric vehicle owners. I think that I will have a good chance to pass my voluntary mileage-based road user charge approach next year as an alternative to the current punitive EV registration surcharge. Many homeowners will benefit from an expanded homestead property tax credit next year.
Investment in our Community
This year we passed an infrastructure funding bill for $1.2 billion which will fund projects across the state. $400 million was dedicated to water and sewer infrastructure around the state including a $4 million investment in the sanitary sewer infrastructure needed by the City of Bloomington to complete the redevelopment of the Penn-American district. I fought hard for the inclusion of this project – I’ve been working on this redevelopment project since I was a City Council member almost 25 years ago!
HCMC Saved
A critical accomplishment for the year was providing funding to rescue the Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC), which provides a disproportionate share of the care needed by the state’s low income Medicaid and uninsured populations who cannot (and should not) be turned away when they arrive in the emergency department. In the most recent data, HCMC provided one-third of the free “Charity Care” provided by all of the hospitals in the entire state! This is not a burden that should fall only on Hennepin County taxpayers and under this agreement the burden will be shared by the entire state.
HCMC has been buffeted by a “perfect storm” of calamities including the demise of UCare (the state’s largest provider of Medicaid managed care insurance plans); below-cost Medicaid insurance reimbursements; and an increase in the share of uninsured patients at the beginning of the year because of Congress’ elimination of expanded MNSure insurance subsidies to lower-middle class residents.
In addition to being the “safety net” hospital for the entire state, HCMC is the top level one trauma center in the entire state and its residencies train a disproportionate share of the state’s new trauma surgeons. It provides services (such as hyperbaric treatment) that are unique in all of the state.
As a member of the Health and Tax committees, my ideas helped shape the solution to this dilemma. The entire state can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that the safety net of HCMC will remain open for all who rely on it.
Upcoming Town Hall
We’ll have a District 50 town hall next Tuesday, May 26 from 6:00pm - 7:30pm! I look forward to recapping the session with you all and answering any questions you may have. Be sure to register for the location here.
Legislative Survey
I’ll spend the rest of this year working on my bills for next year and I’d like to know where you’d like me to be focusing my attention. If you can take a few minutes to complete this survey I would be most appreciative.
It was great working with my wonderful, and wonderfully effective, Bloomington teammates this year! Senators Wicklund and Mann are retiring this year and they will be dearly missed!
Keep in Touch
Don’t hesitate to reach out if I can provide any assistance. Please follow me on my Facebook page for further updates and invite your friends and family to do so as well.
Thanks for the honor of representing you at the Capitol.
Sincerely,
Steve Elkins
Representative, District 50B
Minnesota House of Representatives
rep.steve.elkins@house.mn.gov