Dear Neighbors,
With only 11 days left in session, we are working hard to negotiate and pass our remaining budgets. This has been an eventful session, full of ups and downs and plenty of surprises. I’m committed to continuing to advocate for our community in these final days to guarantee that you and your family are invested in.
To all the mothers out there, Happy Mother’s Day! It looks like we’ll have some beautiful (and hot) weather ahead of us this weekend. I hope you get to enjoy it with friends and family!
House Budget Bills
We are nearing the final steps of passing a state budget as we continue to pass our House budget bills due to the current reality of a 67-67 tied House, many of these bills include provisions I support and provisions I don’t agree with. However, we must compromise to pass a state budget. While I hope the budgets can improve in our negotiations with the Senate, I’m proud of the work my DFL colleagues and I have done to get these bills into good shape.
Here’s a quick recap of some of the bills we have voted on so far:
- An Agriculture budget that invests in Farm to School Programs, worker protections for bird flu, and supports new farmers with down payment assistance.
- A Higher Education budget that makes it easier for Minnesotans to pursue higher education and protects the North Star Promise program.
- A Transportation budget that builds reliable roads and sturdy bridges, invests in aviation infrastructure, and more.
- A Veterans budget that invests in those who served our country, especially focusing on reducing veterans' depression and suicides.
- A Public Safety & Judiciary budget that improves and supports victim services, police training, and privacy protections for judges.
- A Legacy bill that uses our lottery proceeds wisely to enhance our environment, protect our clean water, expand parks and trails, and celebrate arts, culture, and history.
- A Housing budget that takes steps to address Minnesota’s housing shortage crisis.
- An Environment and Natural Resources budget that maintains our groundbreaking protection of Minnesotans’ land, water, and air from threats like PFAS, nitrates, and aquatic invasive species.
Standing With Labor
Today we passed our Workforce and Labor budget bill. While it's overall OK, it fails to meet the need of the moment, particularly when it comes to support for striking workers. In a time when mega corporations hold all the cards, it's critical that we stand by unions. I spoke on this deficiency of the bill here.
I was proud to stand with my Union President Sara Nelson, the most prolific labor leader of our time, and Delta flight attendants who are organizing at the MIRAC rally for workers at the State Capitol!!! Workers are the backbone of this state and our country and I will never stop fighting for the rights of all workers!!
It’s always an honor to stand with workers! Our workers expect us to pass a bonding bill so they can get to work maintaining and improving our infrastructure across Minnesota. Let’s listen to them and get to work so they can too.
Graduation Rates Reach All-Time High
Graduation rates have reached a historic high! When we invest in our kids we see results. Minnesota still has a long way to go to return to our nation-leading education outcomes, but this is an encouraging start. I'll continue to invest in our youth and public education, let's keep up this good progress!
Impacts of Federal Cuts on Medicaid in Minnesota
As the federal government discusses potentially massive cuts to Medicaid it’s important to look at how this would impact Minnesota and who it would primarily impact. As a legislature we would be forced to make really difficult budget decisions around what to cut and how to raise revenue to continue to meet the most pressing needs. These cuts would result in harmful loss of coverage for kids, people with disabilities, and our seniors. This means nursing homes going understaffed and undersupplied, kids not getting the care and medication they need, folks with disabilities without the support they need to live full lives. This would not be an efficient government, nor would it mean we are saving you money as a taxpayer. It would mean the government can’t afford to do its job or take care of its constituents, it would mean the costs of the negative outcomes of not giving people care would be felt elsewhere. That doesn’t sound like good governance to me; I’ll do all I can at the House to protect these crucial services.
Stay in Touch
If you have questions, ideas, or feedback that you’d like to share, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Email me at rep.kaela.berg@house.mn.gov or call (651) 296-5387. For more regular updates, you can subscribe to these regular legislative updates if you haven’t already, here, and you can also “like” and follow my official State Representative Facebook page.
Sincerely,
Kaela Berg
State Representative