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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Peggy Bennett (R)

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News from Rep. Peggy Bennett 3-31-2017

Friday, March 31, 2017

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Dear Neighbors,

As we progress through the legislative session, it’s encouraging to meet certain milestones. We’re starting to see our smaller ideas come together to create a budget that will include things like tax relief, education funding, and measures to help farmers. The first of these larger bills were debated this week, as well as some smaller bills, and I wanted to make sure you’re up to date on what we’re discussing.

Tax Relief

After the most recent budget forecast, we knew Minnesota had a growing budget surplus. From my perspective, and from the perspective of most of the people I hear from, that means we’re overtaxing Minnesotans.

Family budgets are being pinched from every side, and it's time to let people keep more of their hard-earned money to bring some relief to those budgets. Just yesterday, we passed a bill, with bipartisan support, to provide $1.3 billion in tax relief for Minnesotans. I am very happy to have helped pass this proposal that would bring tax relief for seniors on Social Security, farmers who struggle with overwhelming property taxes, families paying for childcare, college students with hefty loans, and more.

Pro-Farming Bill

Also this week, we passed a bill to help area farmers. The legislation would prevent state agencies from implementing permitting standards for ditch-mowing by putting a hold on the entire process so that we can work further with the different groups involved to come up with a plan that can work for everyone. I have been working on this issue with farmers and other stakeholders for some time and was honored to vote for this bill on behalf of all the farmers in our area and state.

Farmers have been mowing road ditches for years and doing a great job with very few problems. The decision by the Minnesota Department of Transportation to require farmers to take out permits to mow the ditches they have always been mowing came as a real surprise. This is a huge issue for farmers, who feel the ditch-mowing regulations were an overreach by the state and create unnecessary burdens. We need to take time and examine this process to ensure it’s right for Minnesotans or look for another solution.

Please note that, with all of these bills, this is a beginning step in the legislative process. Once we pass these bills in the House, we will be working with the Senate and the Governor to bring all the legislation from the three bodies together into what will be our final bills.

Please Contact Me

As always, if you have any questions or concerns about an issue, please contact my office at 651-296-8216, or by email at Rep.Peggy.Bennett@house.mn; I would love to hear from you!

Sincerely,

Peggy