Shaping Minnesota's budget as session closes

We’ve reached the Easter and Passover break in the legislative session, a time for us to collect ourselves before we head back for the final weeks of policy work. My colleagues and I in the Minnesota House are putting the finishing touches on our proposal for the state’s budget, the rest of the session will likely be filled with debating these budget bills in the House, negotiating consensus legislation with our colleagues in the Senate, and sending these bills to Governor Walz for his signature.

Last month, the House DFL released the proposed financial targets that committees would use to start building Minnesota’s budget for the next few years. Our proposed budget makes significant investments in education, health care, and Minnesota’s workers. The House finance committees are creating budget bills made up of multiple pieces of legislation brought forward by numerous members – referred to as omnibus bills.

Though I’ll be working with my colleagues on all portions of the House budget, as a member of the Environment and Jobs finance committees, I was especially involved in their omnibus bills. With both committees having completed their budget work, here are some highlights of those bills:

• The House Environment and Natural Resources budget includes $32.5 million in new funding to protect, restore, and enhance our great outdoors. Protecting Minnesota’s natural resources was a priority for the committee this session. To that end, the bill includes measures to strengthen protections for fish and wildlife and improve public waters, forests, parks, and trails. It also reduces the use of toxic chemicals and other pollutants that contaminate air, water, and soil and cause increased health risks.

• House Jobs and Economic Development has several provisions in its omnibus bill that lift up and strengthen Minnesota’s workers, including three pieces of legislation that the House DFL identified as priority goals for this session.

The Paid Family Leave Act and Earned Sick and Safe Time legislation are both highlights of this bill. Together they ensure that Minnesotans are allowed time off work to care not only for their children and other members of their families, but also themselves.

Another priority bill included in this budget is legislation to establish and enforce wage theft prevention. With 39,000 Minnesotans experiencing wage theft in some form every year, this bill would protect wages and hold accountable employers who take advantage of their workers.

I also fought for a modernization of the workers’ compensation process and the Helmets to Hardhats program, both of which are in this bill.

These are just the bills I’ve worked on in committee. The other omnibus budget bills coming from the Minnesota House also contain policies that will improve our community and state.

Take the House’s Omnibus Tax bill for example, where we’re cutting taxes for senior citizens. Under our DFL proposal, 56 percent of seniors will not pay a cent in taxes on their Social Security benefits. These are the policies we’ll be fighting for in the coming weeks.

As we prepare ourselves for the final stretch of session, feel free to reach out to me with any questions or comments on the legislative process.

I look forward to hearing from you.

You can reach Mike Sundin at [email protected], or at 651-296-4308.