Friends and Neighbors,
As you may have seen in the media, it has been a busy couple of weeks in St. Paul. All major budget bills passed the House and Senate in the last week of session. A 3-day special session was necessary for this to happen, however.
Governor Dayton has signed all the budget bills into law. In some last-minute scuffling, he line-item vetoed all funding for the Legislature. He was angry that Republicans placed an unseen provision in the State Government bill which forced him to sign the Tax bill. A link to the Governor’s letter explaining his line item veto is here. I am hopeful this will all be settled in the next few weeks. Although, there may be another short special session to get everything resolved.
The 2 year $46 billion budget goes into effect on July 1, and I do have some concerns. The enormous Tax bill is projected to drive our state into a deficit in a few years. It will also be very difficult to fulfill our promises to the elderly, sick and disabled when we are cutting the Health and Human Services budget. There are, however, plenty of bipartisan and encouraging things that came out of this session.
Highlights
Transportation
$747 million of new revenue for Minnesota’s transportation system was passed this session. Transportation funding has been neglected for far too long, and this new money is a good start. $1.3 billion in jobs will be created from these investments in transportation over the next 2 years. Some of the road construction projects that will be funded in our area include:
- $3,246,000 for 105th Avenue reconstruction near the National Sports Center.
- $9,000,000 to realign and make associated improvements to County State-Aid Highway 23 (Lake Drive), County State-Aid Highway 54 (West Freeway Drive), and to Hornsby Street in Anoka County.
- $14,100,000 for construction of a rail grade crossing separation at Anoka County State-Aid Highway 78, known as Hanson Boulevard, in Coon Rapids.
Education (HF2)
The special session Education bill provides an additional $483 million in new funding for Minnesota school districts for the next two years. The bill provides a 2% increase each year in the basic funding formula. There is also $50 million in one-time funds for a new pilot early education program.
Sunday Sales (HF30)
The Governor signed a bill into law to allow liquor stores to be open on Sundays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The new law will go into effect this summer on July 1. I heard from around 1,000 constituents that were passionately in favor of Sunday sales, and I voted for the bill. Legislators have attempted to remove the ban on Sunday liquor sales over the course of the last several sessions. This year is the first year that the Legislature heard the issue as a stand-alone bill rather than as an amendment on the Senate floor.
REAL ID (HF3)
The Legislature passed a REAL ID bill that will allow Minnesotans to board domestic flights without needing additional documents like a passport. Minnesotans were coming down to crunch time as the next compliance deadline was January 2018. There is no unnecessary immigration policy included in the bill. The department will have to begin issuing REAL IDs by October 2018.
I will continue to fight for a better Minnesota with my legislative colleagues in the coming sessions. I’m encouraged that Democrats and Republicans worked together to complete the basic work of governing.
I want to thank everyone for sending me back to the Capitol this last year. It has been my pleasure to serve the people of Senate District 37. I’ll be working hard in the coming years to stay in touch and represent your views with integrity.
If you have any questions or wish to unsubscribe from this Newsletter please feel free to contact my office at 651-296-2556 or by email at sen.jerry.newton@senate.mn.
Thank you,
Jerry Newton
State Senator
District 37
