The Minnesota House of Representatives majority leader said on Wednesday that a number of bills that have passed through the House this year are beneficial to the Albert Lea area.

District 34A Rep. Joyce Peppin, R-Rogers, discussed health care relief measures and transportation, tax and education bills during a visit to the Tribune.

The Legislature passed a bill in January that provides a 25 percent premium reduction for people who are facing substantial health care premium increases. She said the bill creates a state-based reinsurance pool. The measures will help as the Legislature tries to decipher the future of the Affordable Care Act after an attempt to replace the bill failed last month, Peppin said.

“We need to figure out what is happening with the federal government,” Peppin said.

The House passed a bill last month to spend $384 million that Republican leaders said would help stabilize the state’s individual health insurance market by subsidizing insurance companies and reducing their risk from high-cost patients.

The bill’s “reinsurance” plan would funnel money from state health care funds to insurance companies to help keep costs down. GOP lawmakers stated more insurance providers would want to offer plans in Minnesota, and the competition would help lower premiums. DFLers said it would drain needed funds from the state’s low-income health program, reward insurance companies and provide no guarantee of savings for many individual insurance buyers.

A repeal of the state’s MNsure program is included in the House’s Health and Human Services omnibus budget.

District 27A Rep. Peggy Bennett, R-Albert Lea, said people will not lose their insurance if the program is repealed and repealing the program will increase access for health care consumers.

Transportation, tax bill

A nearly $2.2 billion transportation bill has passed the House that includes $450 million in additional funding.

Bennett said transportation funding would directly fund bridges in cities with under 5,000 people, helping local communities.

“It’s a great idea that will help our area a lot,” she said.

Bennett recalled a 2016 meeting with Freeborn County Highway Engineer Sue Miller, who said there were shovel-ready bridge county projects.

“This should help,” Bennett said.

Peppin and Bennett said they were pleased the bill does not raise the gas tax so local businesses can be competitive with Iowa.

“I like the way we’ve done this, because we are reprioritizing some of our current taxes that are on automobile-related items,” Bennett said.

House DFL Minority Leader Melissa Hortman, DFL-Coon Rapids/Brooklyn Park, said a long-term transportation funding package is needed. She said short-term plans complicate county and city engineer plans for long-term projects.

“It’s just not sustainable into the future,” she said.

Peppin and Bennett said there is tax relief for farmers, small businesses and seniors in the House tax bill

“We think that the money going back into the pockets of hardworking Minnesotans are starting to stimulate the economy, keep businesses around,” Peppin said. “We just have to be fiscal stewards of taxpayer dollars and make sure that we are funding what we need to, but also that we are not collecting taxes that we don’t necessarily need.”

The House GOP bill exempts the first $200,000 from the business property tax. The bill eliminates automatic increases in the tax.

Bennett said Randy Kehr, Albert Lea-Freeborn County Chamber of Commerce executive director, supports the proposal.

“That’s been a real burden on our businesses and kind of a drain on our economy here, when we are close to the border, especially,” she said.

“It’s going to help our businesses a lot,” Peppin said.

Hortman took issue with Republicans placing 80 percent of the state surplus in the tax bill.

Education

According to Hortman, a House GOP plan to spend more than $270 million in K-12 education over the next two years is not beneficial for Minnesota.

Hortman suggested the state freeze college tuition, increase student grants and address mounting student debt.

She supports a House DFL plan that includes a more than $800 million increase in K-12 spending. Gov. Mark Dayton’s plan includes a more than $700 million increase. Republicans are more concerned about the wealthy receiving tax cuts than helping students and teachers, Hortman said. She said though the GOP includes a 1.25 percent yearly funding increase, that amount does not keep up with the cost of inflation and is partially offset with cuts in other areas. She expressed concern that the GOP proposal would result in teacher layoffs.

Bennett said she supports the education bill, but would like to see the funding formula increased to about 2 percent. She noted the Legislature and Dayton will add input on the bill before it is passed.

Bennett said the education bill includes needed reforms to teacher licensing. The early childhood component of the bill still funds voluntary pre-K programs for schools that offered the program before, such as the Albert Lea school district, but provides funding to the districts in the form of school readiness dollars. The bill would provide targeted scholarships for children as young as 3 years old.

Bennett said Dayton’s initiation of the pre-K program has negatively affected local private early education schools such as United Preschool.

Other topics

Omnibus budget, tax, transportation and bonding bills are planned to be discussed in conference committee after Easter break.

Peppin said she is optimistic the Legislature will end this year’s session on time.

The Republican lawmakers said they planned to address a bonding bill after a budget bill is passed. Bennett said she wants to see local projects such as Riverland Community College renovations and Stables area work be included in the bonding bill.