Dear Friends and Neighbors,
Here is an update with the latest news from St. Paul.
Omnibus Bills
This week, we began hearing omnibus bills on the House floor. So far, we’ve heard the bills on K-12 Education, Jobs and Energy, Health and Human Services, and Agriculture. We are currently debating the Transportation bill, and next week we will vote on Higher Education, Public Safety, Environment, and State Government.
Health and Human Services
The Health and Human Services bill passed along party lines yesterday. It contains a lot of very harmful policy, including bringing back the tax on doctor visits, medical procedures, and more. I’ve heard from several healthcare providers in our area asking me to oppose this tax increase because it makes healthcare more expensive and makes it harder to be a healthcare provider in Greater Minnesota. We shouldn’t be taxing people for taking care of their health.
The HHS bill also includes a $68 million cut to Minnesota’s nursing homes. I spoke against this harmful cut on the House floor during an amendment to remove the cut from the bill. The amendment was unfortunately voted down.
Education
The Education bill includes a rollback of bipartisan teacher licensure reforms, which will lower standards for teachers and reward poor performance. It also increases the Metro’s unfair funding advantage over Greater Minnesota schools, and allows those convicted of domestic assault to get a teacher’s license. It also includes a sex ed mandate that would allow Planned Parenthood to write sex ed curriculum and allow it to be presented to children by unlicensed activists instead of teachers. There were multiple amendments to remove this section of the bill or to allow schools to opt out of the mandate, but House Democrats blocked both amendments.
Taxes
The tax bill contains a total of $4 billion in tax increases, on top of the $8 billion spread out over the rest of the Democrat omnibus bills. A study by the Department of Revenue on the Governor’s tax plan, which is very similar to that of the House Democrats, found that it will raise taxes across all income levels, with higher percentage increases on low- and middle-income Minnesotans. I do appreciate that Democrats included conformity with Chapter 179, which will help small business owners, but there is no reason to increase taxes by billions of dollars when we already have a billion dollar surplus as a state.
Agriculture and Housing
The agriculture and housing bill passed with bipartisan support this morning. I look forward to voting in support of agriculture when this bill comes back from conference committee.
Sincerely,
Deb