April 9, 2013 From the office of

Senator John Pederson

Senate District 14 Serving Benton, Sherburne & Stearns Counties Office: 27 State Office Building, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55155

WEEK IN REVIEW
BUDGET The Senate Majority Leaders will begin rolling out more specific tax proposals this week, filling in the details of their anticipated $2 billion tax increase budget. We expect their proposal to include a combination of income, business, cigarette, and sales tax increases. Before we ask for another cent from hardworking taxpayers, we need to go line-by-line through Minnesotas budget to ensure that our current spending is as efficient and effective as possible. We cant afford for government to waste money. Minnesotans deserve better. STADIUM NEWS Concerns continue at the Capitol over the growing gap between initial and updated projections concerning electronic pull tab revenue being counted on as a key funding source for the new Vikings stadium. During the inaugural hearing this week of the Legislative Commission on Minnesota Sports Facilities, members of both parties called for an expedited hearing on why Governor Daytons administration revenue projections have so far been significantly off the mark. As widely reported, initial pull tab revenue for FY 2013 was projected to be $35 million, while updated projections have been scaled back to $1.8 million, a 95 percent reduction. Officials from the Minnesota Sports Facility Authority note initial stadium costs have been covered by a $50 million upfront contribution from the Vikings, though a number of legislators believe a review of the Department of Revenue's projections is a high priority in advance of the stadium ground-breaking expected later this year. TRANSPORTATION This week the Transportation Committee will be assembling its Omnibus Transportation Finance Bill. SF 891, a transportation tax bill, will be part of this discussion. This bill proposes to increase the gas tax by 9.5 cents per-gallon, increase license tab fees by $90 million per year, and allow each county to assess a per-vehicle fee of any amount. These taxes would be in addition to the 3/4 percent general sales tax increase for transit proposed in SF 927. PHOTO: Senator Pederson meets with members of the Central MN Builders Association. HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES Last week the Health and Human Services Finance Division began its work on putting the budget together. The Division began hearing bills for possible inclusion in the Omnibus bill, as well as parts of the Governor's HHS budget, which is SF 1034.

JUDICIARY Last Thursday, the Judiciary Budget Division heard SF 235, which mostly contains pieces of gun crime enforcement legislation that have fiscal costs. The provisions are mainly those from either Sen. Ortman or the Hennepin County Attorney's office, and the majority of the provisions seek to enforce current law, including requiring prompt reporting of data in an electronic format to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) that is already required under current Minnesota and federal law so that law enforcement can trust that the current background check system properly contains accurate data about dangerous felons and people with mental illness. The bill also includes provisions related to keeping guns out of the hands of repeat, violent crime offenders. The bill passed the committee, and now heads to the full Finance Committee for a vote on the policy, while it is expected that the fiscal cost will be tracked in the Senate's Omnibus Judiciary Budget bill. ENVIRONMENT, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND AGRICULTURE The Environment Budget Division met last Wednesday and Thursday to hear more than $300 million in bonding requests including a number of regional civic centers as well as trail projects across the state. Included in the regional civic center proposals was one of the bills I authored on behalf of St. Cloud SF 80, the St. Cloud Civic Center expansion grant bond issue and appropriation. I am hopeful this will be the year that the St. Cloud Civic Center will be included in the final bonding bill. All proposals were held over for possible recommendation to the Capitol Investment Committee. The full Senate took action on two energy bills last week. The Senate passed SF521 (44-17 vote) to rewrite terms of a power purchase agreement between Xcel Energy and the Laurentian Energy Authority in Hibbing and Virginia. SF521 will slightly increase payments from Xcel to Laurentian for mandated biomass powered renewable energy and these costs will be passed on to Xcel ratepayers. I-94 UPDATE The I-94 resurfacing project began on April 1 with 24/7 single lane traffic. Click here for more detailed information on the project. MY BILLS For more information on all the bills our office is working on in the Senate, click here: my bills. KEEP IN TOUCH During this legislative session we will work to keep you informed. Please feel free to pass this newsletter on to your friends and neighbors, encouraging them to subscribe by going to my Senate page and typing in their email into the subscribe bar. The same process can be used to unsubscribe from this mailing list. Follow this link to subscribe. You can also e-mail my legislative assistant at emily.pugh@senate.mn to sign up. We will always welcome your ideas, questions, and comments. You can also find me on Twitter (@Senjohnpederson) and Facebook. Please call or write any time. Thank you for the opportunity to serve our District in St. Paul! Sincerely, Senator John Pederson 27 State Office Building 100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. St. Paul, MN 55155 sen.john.pederson@senate.mn 651.296.6455

John Pederson