MARSHALL — It was good to see the Minnesota legislative session end on time and with a balanced budget, local state legislators said Friday, but we shouldn’t celebrate too much — there’s still plenty of work ahead.
Rep. Marty Seifert, R-Marshall, and Sen. Dennis Frederickson, R-New Ulm, were at a Marshall Chamber of Commerce luncheon to give a wrap-up of the session and take questions from the public.
There were plenty of positive results to come out of this year’s session, Seifert said, including one-time funds allocated to Minnesota nursing homes and K-12 education. However, he said he was concerned that state reserves were depleted too much to make a balanced budget.
“The budget reserve was at about $600 million, and it was drained by about half a billion dollars,” Seifert said. “I’m very fearful the reserves were drained far too much.”
“Unless the economy really starts picking up,” he said, it could have negative results.
Although the budget will be balanced through next July, Seifert pointed out there will be a deficit in the next biennium.
“We made some very significant reductions to the budget,” in addition to the use of reserves, Frederickson said. “It didn’t mean there weren’t spending increases.” Some of those increases included the funding for education and nursing home staff, he said.
Frederickson also explained some of the new health care reforms put in place, including measures that allow health care providers to offer “baskets of care,” single-price packages for chronic diseases, and “health care homes” to coordinate patient care. The idea is to make health care more cost-efficient while providing community incentives to cut down on obesity and other major health risks, he said.
Audience questions ranged from education to road and bridge funding, and the future of the JOBZ program, which was retained in the new tax laws.
Both Seifert and Frederickson said they felt JOBZ was important for the region, but stressed that people should make sure their lawmakers know that.
“With this area, job growth is a big deal,” Seifert said. However, the program met with DFL opposition this year.
“As long as (Gov.) Tim Pawlenty is around, JOBZ will be around,” Seifert said. The program extends for another five years, but whether it will be renewed is not yet certain.
“Some have argued that there shouldn’t be special tax breaks for everyone,” Frederickson said of JOBZ - an argument that does make economic sense. However, he said, “This is the real world,” where communities in greater Minnesota need to compete with those in South Dakota for jobs and businesses.
“I don’t expect (JOBZ) will be eliminated,” Frederickson said. “My hope is that we can extend it.”
With session negotiations over, Seifert shared some of the events behind a regional amateur sports facility in Marshall not being included in a $105 million state bonding bill. Several amateur sports projects from around the state, including Marshall’s, were originally included in the bill. Gov. Pawlenty removed all of them with a line-item veto, Seifert said.
The bonding bill was cut down to allow for projects like Central Corridor light rail, construction at the Minneapolis Veterans Home and the creation of Lake Vermilion State Park, Seifert said. Seifert said it would have been possible for him as House Minority Leader to try and get the Marshall sports project back in the bill. But because other similar projects had been vetoed, he was “not comfortable” with the inconsistency that would create.
