My Dear Community,
 
I’m here to represent your voices and your priorities and it’s important to me to make sure that everything I do is in partnership with our community. I hope you can join me at a town hall with Rep. Hodan Hassan and Sen. Jeff Hayden on Tuesday, February 19 at the Sabathani Community Center. More details below.
 
What: Town Hall with Rep. Hodan Hassan, Rep. Aisha Gomez and Sen. Jeff Hayden
When: Tuesday, Feb 19 from 6 – 8PM
Where: Sabathani Community Center, 310 East 38^th Street, Minneapolis MN
RSVP: Sonia Romero at Sonia.romero@house.mn

Equity 
By a lot of different measures, Minnesota has some of the worst disparities in the country between black and white citizens, and for too long our public officials have turned a blind eye to it. I’m excited to tell you that the first bill this session that passed through a floor vote will move us forward in a more equitable way.

The bill would address some of Minnesota’s racist housing history. If the bill passes, homeowners will be able to formally renounce restrictive home title rules that have been used to prevent minority communities from moving into residential neighborhoods. It is unbelievable that there are thousands of covenants in Minneapolis that say housing can’t be “transferred or leased to a colored person.” Among other things, the bill would prohibit discrimination based on religious faith, creed, national origin, race, or color.

You can read the Star Tribune’s coverage of the bill here.
 
Environmental Justice
Last week, on 100% clean energy day at the Capitol, Jamie Long introduced legislation to move Minnesota to 100 percent carbon-free energy sources by 2050. There are so many reasons why we need to get this done and I am proud to be a co-author on the bill. 

We know that the people most impacted by climate change are the communities that did the least to cause it. Each year, at least 2,000 people from the Twin Cities die early due to pollution. We know that climate change is real, and that it is caused by humans. We know that renewable energy is more affordable - wind is the cheapest form of electricity, and the price of solar energy is cheaper than any new fossil fuel.

This is about environmental justice, creating more equal outcomes for all our communities, and doing the right thing. AND we can create up to 50,000 new clean energy jobs with this bill. I'm proud to support this legislation for clean air, water and land not just for our families and our loved ones now, but for generations to come.

Opioid Crisis 
So many in our community are impacted by the opioid crisis. I am a co-author of a bill making its way through committees -- it just passed the Government Operations Committee today -- that would hold Big Pharma accountable. The bill would create a change in the funding mechanism we use to deal with the opioid crisis and force the opioid companies to pay for the crisis they created. You can read about the progress of and debate on the bill from MinnPost here. 

I hope you’ll continue to write, call and visit. You can reach me any time by email atrep.aisha.gomez@house.mn, phone at 651-296-7152, and follow my new Facebook page here.
 
Sincerely,
Aisha Gomez