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Capital Watch - 6/19/07
EDUCATION: E-12 education and higher education took up many hours of committee hearings and floor debate. The senate brought forth good
legislation that would have held tuition in check, provided funding for early education, including all day kindergarten, libraries
and more...as well as adding rigor and advanced classes at the high school level. The senate also sent to the governor a plan
to pay our special education bills that would have not only done the right thing, but would have freed up hundreds of thousands of
dollars in general education money for school districts around the district and around the state. The governor vetoed this
legislation and left us with with very little of what we had hoped for. In the end we partially paid our special ed bills,
partially funded all day kindergarten and did nothing to help push down local property taxes with levy buy downs. We could
have and should have done more for education. We were able to pass in the senate and the house a school pool insurance plan
that was then vetoed by the governor.
Our future is in our children, and an educated populist drives economic development...we must find the backbone to do the right
things for our schools.
HEALTH CARE: Very little was done to hold down health care costs. We were able to find a way to include over 50,000 more people in
Minnesota care, and get some relief for first responders, and others. Our plan to rebase long term care facilities and
offer significant COLA's was vetoed by the Governor. Health care and it's costs will continue to be a huge economic and
health impact for this state as we move forward. A special health care committee is meeting during the interim to try and
come up with some solutions, not only for our 7% of uninsured...but for the 93% who are finding it increasingly difficult to afford
insurance.
TRANSPORTATION: The legislature understood the need for a comprehensive transportation plan. Something we have not had since 1988. We offered a plan that would have accessed federal transportation dollars, and gone a long way toward repairing the roads and bridges
across the state. Because the governor vetoed the proposal we are falling farther behind, leading to more unsafe roads and
bridges, while costs continue to go upward. We did pass a lights on transportation bill to keep the department operating at
this time although no significant projects will be released, causing our roads to get worse, and the loss of thousands of highway
construction jobs.
ENVIRONMENT: Many good pieces of legislation passed from the environment and natural resources committee. We passed an alternative energy
standard that is the strongest in the United States, we passed a CO2 mitigation act, we passed many pieces of invasive species
legislation and moved forward on dedicated funding for clean water, forests, and the environment.
HIGHLIGHTS: This past session we also saw many pieces of legislation that will help our veterans and their families at home,
in conflict and when they return home. We offered good plans on property tax reform, township, county and city local
government aid, which the governor vetoed. Taxes and local aid must be a priority for us in the next session.
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Paid for by the Dan Skogen for State Senate Committee
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