Week of March 19th – 23rd
A Weekend of Civic Action: Town Hall Forum & March for our Lives
This Saturday at 9:00am at Minnetonka High School (18301 Hwy 7) in the forum lecture hall, Representative Laurie Pryor and I will be holding a town hall forum. Please come ready with your comments, questions, or concerns!
We are aware that the March For Our Lives is at the same time. We’d love our constituents to be at both, but unfortunately we were unable to reschedule our town hall. Whichever event you decide to go to, I hope you enjoy your weekend exercising your civic duty. There will be another Town Hall on Saturday, May 12, so you will have another chance before session ends.
I recorded my weekly video on this subject, which can be found HERE.
Addressing our state’s top priorities in the supplemental budget
Following the previous week’s State of the State, Governor Mark Dayton has released his supplemental budget request for 2018. One major priority for him, as well as myself, is to reduce our shortage of skilled workers. One way to do this is to provide tax incentives to businesses who pay to send their employees to continue their education. This can involve anything from technical school to master’s degrees. The workforce shortage is one of the most prominent issues that I am hearing about from my constituents, and policies like this will help address it.
Another important provision in the governor’s supplemental budget is to fully fund our state’s Voluntary Preschool Program. When this program was initially created in 2016, school districts all across the state applied for funding. Unfortunately, the lack of available funds meant that many districts could not receive grants. Fully funding Voluntary Pre-K is essential for our state. Every year we learn more and more about the importance of early learning. We need to get this done.
A third piece of this supplemental budget is this year’s bonding bill. In every even-numbered year, our state works to pass a massive public works bill to build and repair our state’s aging infrastructure. There are several projects in Senate District 48 that we look to see funded this year, such as the new Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s facility in Minnetonka and Southwest Transit’s new bus garage in Eden Prairie.
High school students stage sit-in at the Capitol for gun violence prevention
Following last week’s student walkout, high school students staged a sit-in at the Capitol for gun violence prevention.
I am incredibly proud of these young people who are making their voices heard. I applaud them for engaging with elected officials to help us all get something done. We need to listen to what the youth are saying on this, and prevent further gun violence.
A week full of constituent visits
Thursday was Bank Day at the Capitol, and I had a great conversation with three of my constituents about their legislative priorities. They also told me how they looked forward to seeing my newsletter, so I thought I would put them right at the top!
Thursday was also ClearWay Minnesota’s day on the hill, and I had a thorough conversation about how tobacco companies deliberately target our state’s youth.
Tuesday was AFSCME’s day on the hill, and I met with some great constituents here to urge passage of their negotiated state contracts. The bill is up on Monday, and I look forward to voting for it.
I also got a surprise visit on Tuesday from a former student of mine, Laura Helgen. She brought her family along, and we had a great time catching up.
Jana Dengel and Haley Moquist also came by on Tuesday to discuss food security and dietitian legislation.
I also got the chance to meet with my constituent, Victoria Hoffman, who helped inform me about alternative care legislation.
While they weren’t constituents, I was thrilled to meet with students from the House of Representatives’ High School Page Program. I hope these young people never lose their passion for government.