Franson: Many accomplishments found in 2012 session

Talk about it

One year ago, lawmakers were struggling to decide how to overcome a

$5.1 billion budget deficit. Governor Dayton was touting a proposal

that his own Department of Revenue found would raise taxes on the rich,

the poor, and everyone in between.

A few months later, legislative leadership and Governor Dayton agreed

to balance the budget without raising state taxes, cutting $5 billion

from future spending, while also agreeing to a number of reforms that

would improve future budgets by billions of dollars.

What’s changed in the last year?

Minnesota’s private sector job creators finally realized that state

government was not going hammer them with tax increases, and they

responded in kind by putting more people to work.

In one year, Minnesota’s unemployment numbers have dropped

dramatically. Our unemployment rate was 7.5 percent one year ago. It

is now 5.7 percent. In fact, 32,000 Minnesotans have found work in the

last three months alone.

The result is a $6 billion turnaround in Minnesota’s economy, as that

$5.1 billion deficit has become a $1.2 billion surplus.

With this positive news in mind, the Legislature has attempted to build

on this economic success through job creation proposals and continued

government reform.

So what have we accomplished?

On the House side, the highlight was the approval of the Tax Relief and

Job Creation Act. This is a comprehensive proposal containing dozens of

initiatives that are designed to allow our business owners to keep more

of their money and invest it in their product and new employees.

One of those proposals included ending the statewide tax on business

property, which will improve our state’s tax climate in an area where

Minnesota is very uncompetitive.

We also voted to cut more red tape by reducing duplicative government

bureaucracy and provide more certainty in the permit process for job

creators.

We defeated the ObamaCare Health Insurance Exchange and defeated an

effort to unionize 11,000 small business owners who operate day care

facilities.

We supported our veterans by passing a permanent tax credit for

employers who hire veterans who are disabled, unemployed or receive food

stamps; and an expansion of the GI bill.

We voted to pay back our debts. Last session, the Legislature and

Governor agreed to extend the school funding shift in order to help

balance the budget. We’ve already eliminated half of this shift

because state law requires that if we have a surplus, it automatically

is used to pay back our schools. The Legislature than went one step

further, by voting to pay back what remained on this shift extension,

and some of shift enacted by the previous legislative leadership, by

using some of the funds now sitting in our cash flow account.

Speaking of schools, we voted to remove statutory language requiring

school districts to focus solely on employee’s seniority during

layoffs, and elevates teacher performance when a district is forced to

eliminate employees. If layoffs need to occur, teacher effectiveness

should be a part of the decision. In the real world, the last one hired

shouldn’t automatically be the first one fired. Job effectiveness

needs to be the driver of those decisions.

The House also voted to require easy-to-understand budget transparency

by cities in order to education and engage taxpayers in local government

spending decisions.

Finally, in order to enhance and preserve election integrity, we voted

to give you the opportunity to decide this November whether to support a

Constitutional Amendment requiring Minnesotans to show photo

identification prior to voting.

Again, these are not measures that have been introduced and stalled in

committees. All of them, and hundreds more, have been approved by the

full Minnesota House, and in many cases, the Minnesota Senate. Its true

Governor Dayton may not care for some of the legislation, but that’s

not a justifiable reason for saying the Legislature has done nothing

this session, because the facts show otherwise.

In the past year, Minnesota has made tremendous progress. Our economy

has turned around and our reserve funds have been refilled. Projected

state spending has dramatically decreased. More Minnesotans are

working.

We recognized that government doesn't directly create jobs – but can

foster an environment that encourages job creation and job growth by

cutting red tape, and lowering taxes.

This year, the goal of the Legislature was to improve on that success.

We have done our part, by passing bills that will create jobs, reduce

taxes, and make state government more effective and efficient.

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Franson can be reached at 429 State Office Building, 100 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., St. Paul,

MN 55155; phone: (651) 296-3201; e-mail: rep.mary.franson@house.mn

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