Dear Neighbors
I took some time over our short Easter/Passover break to reflect upon my legislative experience this year and would like to share my thoughts in advance of our online Legislative Town Hall Thursday evening, which I’m hoping you will be able to attend. (The details are at the bottom of this note.)
COVID-19 Overview
The arrival of the COVID-19 virus in Minnesota in early March completely disrupted the legislative process, and we’re only now getting back to some semblance of normalcy with about a month left in a session that will end, as required by the state constitution, on May 18th. The last time that we were all on the floor of the House together as a body was Monday, March 16. Since then, much of our time has been spent fielding constituent questions and requests for assistance in navigating the various state government sources of information and resources related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Expressions of support for various forms of legislative assistance to help workers, businesses and local governments, and expressions of concern over the impact that social distancing mandates are having on the economy are also streaming in.
The flood of information has been sobering. Yes, we are acutely aware of the impact that this is having on businesses of all kinds and, like all of you, we want things to return to normal as quickly as possible – but not at the expense of large losses in human life. Minnesota is doing much better than other states at limiting the human death toll – we have roughly half as many confirmed cases and deaths as neighboring Wisconsin, for example. To get back to work, we need a greatly increased supply of testing kits, including the swabs and reactive chemical kits needed to process the tests, so that we can pursue the more typical epidemiological case tracking approach being used in places like South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore. These governments have an adequate supply of test kits, to control the spread of the disease without widespread business shutdowns. The one thing that personally angers me the most is how slowly the federal government has been to scale up the production of tests and test supplies needed to enable us to pursue disease tracking and control in our usual manner.
The pandemic is not just affecting businesses, it is taking a huge toll on local governments, including our local school districts. The City of Bloomington is looking at a $10 million reduction in anticipated hospitality taxes for this year, alone (out of an $80 million budget). All cities are facing large reductions in permitting and sporting facility fee revenues. Hennepin County (which has announced that it is waiving late fees on property tax payments due on May 15th) is facing tens of millions of dollars per week in increased costs and reduced revenues at Hennepin County Medical Center and millions of dollars in increased costs to house the homeless in underutilized hotels. School districts are laying off Community Education staff because there is no incoming class participation fee revenue. Many Minnesotans are hoping for tax cuts as part of the next relief package; however, unlike the federal government, our state and local governments cannot run deficits, and the demand for government services invariably increases rather than decreases during economic downturns.
At the State Capitol, there is no more talk of a projected $1.5 billion state budget surplus – the next budget projection will almost certainly show a deficit for the next 15 months, instead. Both the state and its local governments will be dipping into their reserves to balance their budgets this year and hiring freezes are already going into effect in most jurisdictions. Both state and local governments will receive federal financial assistance to help them get through this crisis; though it’s unlikely to be nearly enough to get them through this. Legislators are being told to temper expectations from local governments and other deserving stakeholder groups about the prospects for further state financial assistance.
Restoring the legislative process
The legislature held its last, full in-person floor session on March 16 and suspended all committee meetings for the balance of the month. Later that week, I participated in a remote video meeting of the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Council on Information Technology Reform, using the Microsoft Teams video meeting platform, and realized that there was no technological reason why the legislature could not also use remote meeting technology to restore some semblance of “regular order” to the legislative process, as well.
I threw myself into researching the State’s Open Meeting Laws as they pertain to both the Legislature and other state and local government bodies in Minnesota. Working with officials from the Minnesota Council on Government Information, the watchdog organization for the State’s Open Meeting Laws and Data Practices Act, and the League of Minnesota Cities, we determined that Minnesota state law already permits both the legislature and other state and local government units to conduct open meetings using teleconferencing technologies during pandemics and other state emergencies. Upon learning this, I lobbied our legislative leadership to settle upon a videoconferencing technology platform and restart holding regular committee meetings, remotely.
Last Tuesday, I was once again able to participate in committee meetings for the Transportation committee (via conference call) and the Government Operations committee (via Zoom). Both meetings went smoothly, and we were able to take public testimony from interested stakeholders on the bills that were before us. This Tuesday, the House held its second telephonic “floor session” to pass additional Covid 19-related legislation, as well as the long-overdue Alec Smith emergency insulin bill. While not ideal, this is likely to be our new normal through the end of the session.
While we are now in a position to restart the legislative process, we’ve lost a full month of our legislative calendar and all of the committee deadlines that were set at the beginning of the session have passed, which means that all of our pre-pandemic bills are on the back burner. As a practical matter, we will focus exclusively on urgent Covid 19-related bills and other important bills which have broad bipartisan support and are showing movement in both the House and the Senate. Since nothing is moving in the Senate (they’re not yet holding committee meetings), that bar is almost impossible to surmount for any of the other legislation that I’ve taken the lead on for this session. This includes bills related to housing affordability, data privacy and healthcare price transparency, as well as legislation that I’ve authored on your behalf. While I’m continuing to work with stakeholders to refine these bills, I’m resigned to the fact that I’ll continue working on these important issues next session.
Join Me for Virtual Town Hall
As part of our efforts to restore the operations of our democracy to normal I think it is important that we have the chance to connect and talk about the work my colleagues and I are doing to help Minnesota get through this pandemic. That’s why I will be co-hosting a virtual town hall with Senator Franzen and Representative Edelson this evening, Thursday, April 16th at 7:00 PM.
We will be live-streaming the meeting from each of our Facebook pages, you can find mine here. If you have any questions you would like to ask us, please e-mail them to me before the meeting, at rep.steve.elkins@house.mn.
Keep in Touch
Now more than ever please contact me anytime with questions, input, or ideas. Don’t hesitate to reach out if I can provide any assistance. This situation is evolving constantly and I will be sure to update you with any changes. Please follow me on my Facebook page for further updates and invite your friends and family to do so as well. Now that we have video meeting technology in place, I’m also in a position to schedule “face-to-face” meetings with constituents and other stakeholders, remotely.
Thanks for the honor of representing you at the Capitol.
Sincerely,
Steve Elkins
Representative, District 49B
Minnesota House of Representatives
515 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St. Paul, MN 55155
(651) 296-7803