Representative David Dill
For a minute Representative David Dill (DFL) had to stop talking while a plane took off from his Northwestern Ontario fly-in fishing business dock. When the roar of the engine faded, he resumed his conversation about the legislative sessions that wrapped up June 20.
Although bruising at times, Dill said the special session had something for everyone and left all parties feeling like they didn’t get exactly what they wanted. “Which is the way it should be. It’s a time to compromise, and that’s what happened.”
A special session had to be called when Governor Mark Dayton refused to sign the bills passed by both the House and Senate, said Dill.
Maybe the most important piece of legislation was the passage of the two-year budget bill that goes into effect July 1. It includes about $42 billion that will go to the general fund to keep the government running through 2017, while Dill said about $2.5 billion remains in the state’s surplus funds. Some of that surplus might go to tax cuts next year, Dill said.
“But just who gets those tax cuts will be an issue. Will it be the poor? Or will it be the wealthy and the corporations who pay most of those taxes?”
Legislative battle over schools
The big fight, said Dill, was over the governor’s half-day preschool plan for 4-year-olds. In the end the governor abandoned his plan but got the legislature to agree to fund schools ata2percentincreasein the per-pupil formula for the next two years. That amounts to about an additional $125 million to the original $400 million allocated for public schools.
There was also a substantial increase in scholarships for disadvantaged preschool children, more money to fund school readiness programs and a plan to help shrink the waiting list for Head Start programs, said Dill.
Regarding early education, Dill said, “I understand both sides of the issue, but what I would really like to see is that one wage earner in a family makes enough to pay the bills and that would allow mom or dad to stay home and take care of the children. Right now we have two parents each working full-time jobs, sometimes working more than fulltime jobs, with the neighbors or grandma or grandpa watching the kids. We need to fix that so one person can provide for their family. If we can do that then we wouldn’t need to look at passing bills to get preschool kids into school,” said Dill.
Chik-Wauk Museum & Nature Center gets funding
The governor did sign a $540 million Omnibus Legacy bill that is used for environment, parks, trails and the arts. Tucked in that massive bill was money for Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center, Dill happily announced.
The Gunflint Trail Historical Society will receive $250,000 in fiscal year 2016 to complete phase two of the historical and nature center.
County to see some healthcare help
Cook County’s care center as well as other rural nursing homes will see additional dollars under a bill that will allocate $138 million in funding along with a new formula that will tell each facility how much more money it will receive.
On that note, Dill said the Iron Range Resources Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB) met in St. Paul on May 19 and made the decision to grant the North Shore Hospital and Care Center an additional $250,000 to go along with the $100,000 they agreed to give about two months ago.
“It isn’t much when you consider the project is around $25 million,” said Dill, “but it should help with some infrastructure needs.”
Dill said he also sent a letter of support to AgStar on behalf of the hospital/ care center’s building project. AgStar is helping fund the building project through a loan to the hospital/care center.
MNsure, the state’s health care exchange, also survived the session, but will be looked at carefully next year to see how it can be improved.
Broadband funding not enough
“I was extremely disappointed that we only got $10 million for broadband Internet development in rural Minnesota,” said Dill, adding, “The governor wanted $100 million for broadband infrastructure. Broadband will help rural Minnesotans compete with people in cities who already have these types of services. The people who fought it said that we are sending money into the abyss by supporting this initiative, but I disagree.”
The bill, said Dill, also contained some money for unemployment benefits for steelworkers who have been laid off and for poultry workers who have been affected by the avian bird flu that has been decimating Minnesota’s poultry industry.
Township historical societies benefit from new legislation
A bill that almost didn’t pass was one that now gives townships the authority to donate money to historical societies that are recognized by the Minnesota Historical Society, said Dill.
“A lawyer had looked at the money Schroeder Township was giving to its historical society and found the practice wanting, but Senator [Tom] Bakk and I proposed language that would give all of the townships in the state authority to give historical societies money for projects. We had to make sure it was only for historical societies because it could have turned into a lot of groups asking for money.”
DFL split on environment
Dill said the DFL was split along geographical lines when it came to the Omnibus Environment, Natural Resources and Agricultural bill signed into law by the governor in the special session.
Urban Democrats said a change in the environmental bill would hurt the environment while DFLers from the Iron Range to the North Dakota border (except those in Duluth) all voted for the bill, said Dill.
“With the exception of one thing, we didn’t ask for any changes. The one change we asked for was to relax the standard for sulfate levels in water that are now in place—10 milligrams per liter—until all of the science is complete.
“That standard came from a study done in the 1970s and new studies are calling for a new standard that is supported by the governor, the MPCA, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and many scientists. We didn’t just ride off into the sunset like Roy Rogers and ask for this change in the standards to be made. Once the new rules are in place, the MPCA will reopen water permits and enforce the new standard.
“The legislators in the Cites were very opposed to this change, but in the end we passed it in the agricultural bill,” said Dill.
Dill also said the MPCA Citizens Board created in 1967 was disbanded.
Odds and ends in session
Neither Democrats nor Republicans could agree on a solution to fixing the state’s aging bridges and roads, but Dill said that will be of primary concern next session, and some of the state’s surplus will surely be appropriated there.
Two changes were made in the state’s “blue laws,” which dictate how alcohol is sold on Sundays. One change will now allow sales of 64-ounce craft beer growlers and bars will now be able to serve liquor before 10 a.m. on Sundays.
The governor got a win when the legislature passed a $20 million bill that calls for farmers to create 50-foot buffers along public waterways as a way to help keep the water clean, said Dill.
“It was a long year, a very long year. We certainly didn’t get everything we hoped for but that’s what happens when you have a split government.
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