Senate Report by Dan Sparks

Gov. Mark Dayton addressed the Legislature and the state this week in his State of the State speech. This year’s State of the State had a simple message: We are seeing a better Minnesota, but we need to continue our work to keep the momentum moving in the right direction.

The governor highlighted the fact that our past investments have had a positive impact by stating that there are more than 2.8 million jobs in Minnesota today. More jobs than ever before in our state’s history. This is a great sign and we need to continue to put more Minnesotans back to work.  One way to accomplish to those ends is in the Senate’s capital investment bill.

The governor also discussed Minnesota’s bright future — our children. He highlighted our recent investments in education that will help ensure economic opportunities for all. These investments included all-day kindergarten, early education funding, higher education funding and paying back every dollar borrowed from our schools.

Gov. Dayton shared good news about our health care system. He highlighted a recent announcement from the Commonwealth Fund that ranks Minnesota as the best state in the country for health system performance, which includes health care access, quality, costs and outcomes.

Minnesota has been a top state in health care for several years and we hope to continue that trend. This session we invested in our in-home care workers that have not received a raise in many years. This investment will impact many families throughout the state as managers’ work to retain quality employees for these needed services.

I would like to echo the governor’s theme. Minnesota has come a long way since the nation faced the recession. People are going back to work, the housing market is improving and the economic outlook is bright. We should not forget the lessons we learned from the recession. Our agenda needs to maintain a balanced budget and focus on policies that strengthen our future.

Beyond the news of the State of the State, the Senate passed a number of bills on the Senate floor over the past two weeks, including the omnibus energy bill, Women’s Economic Security Act, omnibus education policy bill and outdoor heritage bill.

I was honored to be named to the outdoor heritage bill conference committee and will soon be working with House and my fellow Senate members to iron out differences between the Senate and House bills. This package contains projects to protect wildlife habitats and our natural resources.

It also includes funding for the Albert Lea Lake Management and Invasive Species Control Structure. As a member of the conference committee, I will be able to ensure its inclusion in the final bill.

I also recently worked to pass the agriculture policy bill, which the House approved. One provision of that legislation that will have a positive impact on rural Minnesota is the updates to our biodiesel statutes. There was a lot of interest in our biodiesel statutes this session as our minimum content requirements are set to increase this summer.

A number of proposals were brought forward, some of which would have had crippling effects on biodiesel production and use.  I worked with the stakeholders to stop these harmful provisions.

Instead, I passed compromise language that will strengthen Minnesota’s support of biodiesel. It is an environmentally friendly fuel alternative that has had a significant impact on Minnesota’s rural economy.

We see the fruits of this development right here in Albert Lea with the significant investment and expansion at the REG biodiesel plant.

 

Dan Sparks, DFL-Austin, is the state senator for District 27.