welcome to Minnesota legislative report our Region's longest running public affairs program lawmakers from Northeastern Minnesota are joining us today for a recap of the week's activities at the state capitol this is your opportunity to call or email your legislative questions and have them answered live on the air Minnesota legislative report Starts Now [Music] hello and welcome to Minnesota legislative report I'm your host Tony cerdich lawmakers return to the state capitol this week after time off for a holiday break this week many budget bills were heard in committees as they are prepared for votes in the Full House and Senate the end of the legislative session is a little more than a month away today you'll have an opportunity to ask questions to the lawmakers who represent you call the number on your screen with questions or email them to ask at pbsnorth.org we have members of both the house and the Senate joining us this afternoon first Senator Grant Hospital is the first term dfeller from Hermantown representing Senate District 3 welcome Senator host child and representative Spencer iGo is a republican from obana Township representing house district 7A welcome representative iGo great to have you both here thanks for having us absolutely thanks for having us first question to representative iGo you know we talk about majority and minority I'm going to start a little big picture here you remember the minority the Senate and the house are um the majority party are dfellers what's it like to serve in the minority and and I don't mean like feeling thoughts and feelings but like physically and what is your responsibility as a minority member in the legislature yeah so you know um the minority role that the way I kind of look at is our job is kind of vet the bills that are moving forward right really review everything but also at that same time try and find the ways to tweak and make those things better not only with the majority in the Senate the house when you have a the dfl trifecta really things can be moving really quickly and I think we've been talked about a lot in St Paul things are moving very quickly so I take it upon myself along with the rest of minority Cox is that let's take a fine tooth comb let's go through all this stuff and find ways to make these bills better while at the same time building the relationships needed with the other side to get real things done for minnesotans and how successful have you been in interjecting some of your thoughts and ideas thus far into the legislature process you know it's been tough my focus I serve on the energy committee so one of my big bills right away was house file seven the energy bill that moved forward for the clean energy mandate and I was really trying to get some things in there especially for northern Minnesota they didn't make it into this time we're moving towards the Omnibus Bill so I'm trying to get those things in but unfortunately the rate of things and sometimes there is partisanship I won't lie and say there isn't that has kind of kept kept me out in some places great and you've only served in minorities so that's your only lens with which to see this and similar Senator host child this is your first term only been in the majority this is your first time around the Sun in the legislature what is it like to serve in the majority and what do you feel your responsibilities are you've got 100 Balls in the air at one time and you've got to deliver for your region when you're passing things when you're working on bills you know that there's a big chance that they're going to become law and so all the all the bills that I see all the legislation all the Committees that I'm on I'm focused on how will this impact my region and how can we deliver the best results for for us great look forward to hearing from viewers at home with your questions I'm going to start with one we get every week and it's a social security tax and I know both of you are in support of an elimination of the Social Security tax I'm going to take a little different track on it since you're both in agreement here we do know that 50 of minnesotans already do not pay the Social Security tax because they're under the income threshold and half of all savings if you totally eliminated the tax would go to people making over a hundred and forty three thousand dollars now Governor Wallace has put out a proposal to really look at not total elimination but maybe taking care of that next tranche of folks to eliminate the tax what are your thoughts on a more graduated approach to this and not a total elimination Senator host child yeah like you said Tony I'm in favor of the elimination of the tax on social security I'm an author on the bill it's something that I feel really strongly about with that said I know for instance during the free meals debate uh the Republicans were really arguing why are we giving these benefits to the really wealthy and so that really got me thinking well if we're thinking about that for our kids for for meals in our schools perhaps that's something that we need to think about when it comes to other types of proposals and so when we look at this I'm looking at getting the best relief for the most amount of senior seniors possible and I think we're going to see major tax relief I think it's going to impact 80 percent if not more of seniors if we if not the the full elimination so I'm excited to really provide this relief for our seniors who are in deep need of relief a lot of different priorities representative I go education funding nursing home funding and some of these tax relief or tax credit your thoughts on a more graduated approach yeah you know I guess uh I still stand it should be a complete elimination and here's kind of the reason on that we're one of Six States in the nation that actually even taxes to begin with we should be getting conforming with that Minnesota is being known as a state that has high taxes that's not a good thing and we also have to look it from another way the reason you have social security is because you spent your whole life paying into it okay so it's not fair that you know you're retired and drying Social Security that just because you invested wisely or have another pension that you're paying taxes on that I don't think that's good government and we need to do what we can to keep Minnesota attractive or people are just going to keep retiring to Arizona and Florida and we're going to lose our seniors who are you know pillars of our communities yeah I would just add I believe it's 13 states in the nation that don't tax uh Social Security and one of the things that I've been really focused on is including pensions for our police for our firefighters and for our public employees I think that's a really critical piece and when the Republicans have introduced their social security elimination proposals they just stay with the Social Security tax uh some of those public employees some of those police officers don't qualify for Social Security so we need to make sure when we're doing this bill that we're doing it right and if we do uh graduate it or if we do a full elimination let's make sure it's on parity for our pensioners well and I'll just add to that too because the Republicans actually just two two three weeks ago and the Minnesota house moved that bill with the pensions we were trying to amend it onto a bill and all Republicans voted to have pensions included with it as well good great looking forward to include our viewers with any questions moving forward I want to move over now to the capital investment bonding Bill and we'll start with you represent Vigo this has moved fairly fast however it was a bill that was intended to be passed last legislative session and was not done some people have tied these two issues together the Social Security tax elimination and the capital investment Bill and for viewers at home capital investment bill is this borrowing that is done to invest in infrastructure projects all across the state do you see there being a connection between these two bills has been talked about by leadership especially in the Republican party and why connect these two bills in particular so I think the connection exists because of how session ended last year you know when we were talking bonding at the end of last session it was tied to that tax and Social Security so when we came into this new session we were hoping the agreements stay the same and the bonding bill for the most part stayed the same you know Representatives Murphy and Senator Bach really kind of put the bill together that we voted on so if we were going to pick up the whole deal I think that's why we're seeing leadership predominantly in the Senate talking about we need to have those things tied together I think it'd be a good Act of Faith too I mean think about I mean most Republicans and Democrats across the state state campaigned on eliminating Social Security and getting a bonding Bill done so I think it's only right that we put that Faith back and the constituents that elect us and do both at the same time so I do support that they're kind of tied together really and it wouldn't be the first time that you have a tax provision go at the bonding Bill and all you have to do is talk to people that are on the legislature for a long time and I couldn't disagree more I mean you know this wouldn't be the first time either that all this falls apart if we try to tie these types of things together our communities need this bonding the House GOP voted for a straight up and down bonding Bill and unfortunately the Senate Republicans are trying to tie it up in these other bills my fear is if we continue to try to hold hostage our bonding bill for other commitments that all of it could fall apart at the end so let's get the bonding Bill done let's get this relief let's get infrastructure to our communities when I was a city councilor in Hermantown we were relying on that funding and it fell apart so I want to make sure we get this bonding bill and we get a really strong tax bill that provides the most historic tax relief we've ever had in this state we'll get get both done but let's bolt on them alone well and I'll just couple that I mean I did vote for the bonding bill because I did move forward because I believe exactly what you said we need to invest in our communities now could there have been a different way to do it I think we could have probably done that bonding bill cash I would think you'd probably agree with that too that would have been a great way to actually get the money to the communities faster use the Surplus to help our communities um and you're right we need to move it forward I agree with that but at the same time we also need to deliver what a lot of minnesotans are asking for inflation's through the roof you know costs are up and if that's one quick way we can get money back to the people Indian Wells we should be doing that we should have led with that and for the viewers back home a capital investment Bill if you borrow you need a super majority of votes and that's what we're talking about here is it would definitely take Democrats and Republicans working together whereas if you just use the Surplus the one-time money Surplus not the ongoing Surplus it would only take a majority vote uh and I know that then there's been talk about uh well then do you put in projects of only people who vote for the bill or not thoughts on that Senator haaschild absolutely I mean we should be if you're going to vote for the bonding bill then you should have projects but if you're going to try to stall it or not get the bill across the Finish Line then why should we be putting in projects in those districts I mean this this should be a no-brainer every legislator should vote for this bill it had a bunch of money for Greater Minnesota it had a bunch of money for the Iron Range honestly probably more more than our fair share as usual uh which is critical um and so it's my opinion that everybody has a right to vote for it but if you're going to try to block it then we're going to do a cash Bill we have plenty of of surplus to do that and we're going to give it to the to the legislators that are serious about this issue and are trying to to get the infrastructure projects in in their communities your thoughts on making it contingent to vote for the bill to get your projects in the bill it's a very dangerous path to go down especially when you have government control by one party if you start cutting up the state that we're just going to ram things because keep in mind that's the first time that majority parties had almost 20 billion dollars to play with going into a budget year and to start throwing precedent in the past out of the window and just you know all right if you're not gonna if no Republicans are going to support this we're going to cut all your projects out and take care of our districts you are in turn not taking care of half of Minnesota and again that's a very dangerous statement to be making so I would be totally opposed to that I mean bonding bills are supposed to be bipartisan working together finding ways to get Greater Minnesota Metro Minnesota to come together it's a constitutional duty to take care of State infrastructure it's one of the key roles of government key tenants of government and that's why I think it still needs to be a bipartisan Bill a couple of keep lines so first and foremost the bonding bill has broad programs that provide infrastructure dollars sewer water you know those types of things to the entire state so that's a really key piece the second thing is I I didn't say that it would be partisan I said that if if a legislator votes for it then we should be including those projects I think that would encourage legislators to get this bill across the Finish Line it's been almost four years since we've had a bonding Bill we need some sort of pressure on our legislators to pass these bills for our local communities so for all of those Republicans in the house that voted for this bill or if there are Senate Republicans that want to vote for this bill then let's let's get those projects included but we know for a fact that there are a lot of DNR projects there are a lot of state agency projects that impact districts all across our state that aren't part of these legislative directed Appropriations from the bonding bill so we're going to make sure that the whole state gets some critical infrastructure funding they need and when we talk precedent I I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't mention that back when Governor repurpitched her only Iron Range governor was governor he did actually set this up where you had to vote for the bill in order to put your projects in the bill but that was a long time ago but there is some precedent out there for that from an Iron Range Governor we have to get it done we have to get it done we got to get it done but like I said in this time where and I think you heard it on the campaign Trail just like I did people want bipartisanship and if we see you know block roadblocks are coming up like that that's not what minnesotans want we have to find ways to work together and it's not like there's a big ask here in Social Security again there's still Republicans voting for it because they see what you and I see together but it's it's all about working together and I think if we start putting these walls up it's just going to make that Metro uh versus Greater Minnesota divide even bigger and that's hurting the state yeah no no walls are being put up we presented the bill from that Tom Bach and Mary Murphy worked on I had many many equal Republican projects as Democratic projects and they voted it down so we're presenting the opportunity it's just a matter of whether they want to vote for it okay and and just for point of reference uh the Republicans voted it down in the Senate many Republicans voted for it in the house uh great uh get those calls and emails into us if you have thoughts and feelings uh Senator haaschild we're going to start with you here you know we've talked about the Social Security tax there's the child care tax credit we've talked about potential historic investments in education funding in nursing homes and we're talking about a huge Surplus but that Surplus gets shrunk very rapidly if you do a bunch of these uh big historic efforts how do you think about prioritizing when you can probably pick only one or two of these or some sort of graduated way of funding these priorities what are your thoughts and what is a higher priority than others as you think about the budget yeah that's kind of the ultimate question and I think it really comes down to what do our communities need to thrive you know going around the Northland going around the arrowhead it was housing it was child care it was trying to recruit employers to our region it was relief in taxes and Social Security and rebates and property tax evaluations skyrocketing so when I think about my priorities I'm thinking about how do we make the Investments we need to grow and provide the relief that we need so that our families can Thrive that's kind of what I'm doing so one of the bills that I'm sponsoring and authoring is the child care tax credit um this is something that I face myself with young children I know families all across our region do and when employers want to to maybe move their business here they need to know there's housing and that there's child care for their employees some of these bigger chunks what are your top priorities as you're looking at the overall budget so when I look at the budget and we look at the Surplus I want to find the way we can have and create the most generational impacts um you know because the last thing we want to see is we we put this budget into effect in two years from now we have a bunch of different communities groups holding the empty bag we don't have money to give anymore because there's a very good chance I mean the state could be looking at a deficit in two years depending on how things kind of flush out over the next two years so you know I'll use the education bill as an example right now there's going to be the bill is written that there's going to be historic funding put into education which I think is great right funding the Next Generation minnesotans however I've been spending time this last month talking to our superintendents our school board members our teachers by the time they're done implementing all the mandates that are in the house bill school districts are going to see a deficit in this year's education bill those are huge concerns I have so the way that I would see using the Surplus is finding ways to create tax breaks for the future put more money in people's pockets and find way to streamline education is a great example because if we could find ways to actually return that local control the reminder that we have independent school districts back to them they would have the money they need to program for what they need to do so they can provide that education meanwhile the state can allow people to thrive with less taxes and less burdensome regulations but if we put more of that responsibility back on local school districts doesn't that then go to property taxes and we have more property poor communities in northeastern Minnesota so are you talking about something else I was not talking about taking away funding I was talking about the unfunded mandates that are attached to the education bill so okay here's your you know new funding that's really great and it's it's a historic amount but oh by the way you have to find a way to pay for this this and this again you know the Department of Education is good in its own ways but we have independent school districts we have school boards we have superintendents we have communities let them figure out how to do that stuff and get the mandates out of there I thought we learned all about all this in covid for example what is one of the mandates that is frustrating you um you know one of the biggest mandates that I hear from the school districts actually isn't even attached to the education it's the you know Paid Family Leave you know they're looking at oh my gosh if we have to start supplying this to all of our teachers or taking away uh their ability to negotiate I mean these school districts especially our greater Minnesota ones would just be crippling and we you know you mentioned the uh the free lunches for all again you're not going to find a single Minnesotan that says that we should make sure every kid gets a meal every day but I know that once this two-year freeze is done some of the school districts on the Range could be losing anywhere anywhere from a million to two million dollars a year in funding because of the way the bill is written like these are things we have to address and get fixed or we're going to have a systemic problem in the future and that's why this budget year is so important as Senator hostile you're on the education policy committee not finance committee are you seeing some of these uh mandates being an issue as well or not that yeah that it's a very good question and one of the things that I have said is no two mandates from the Republicans and no to mandates from the Democrats uh we had a proposal from the Republicans for um some some personal finance classes that would be mandated on our classrooms and we had a democratic proposal for uh some environmental classes to be taught so I just kind of said no we shouldn't be mandating what our local school districts do what we should be doing is providing them goals providing them incentives to do really high quality teaching in our schools and provide them the resources that they need to do it um you know I I'll say it's interesting what representative eigel is bringing up in terms of providing them historic funding and these mandates in the senate for the Republicans education Bill last session they provided 30 million dollars that was their entire education package with the Surplus that we had this year the dfl is providing over 2 billion billion dollars in education funding so I just want to want to showcase sort of the stark contrast in the prioritization of Education between the two two parties anything else to say on this topic I mean again I've been hearing and I challenge you if you haven't already talked to the school of this districts in your District all of them are finding out that if they Implement everything that's in these dfl bills that you're so proud of they'll be in a deficit and that I have a problem with because that's not funding education that's making education harder that and that's going to hurt all of our greater Minnesota communities not to mention what it's going to do to Metro communities and every superintendent I've talked to in my district has deep concerns on these bills yeah and I would just say that if you talk to the teachers if you talk to the parents if you talk to the bus drivers if you talk to the folks on the ground that are providing this high quality education to our students a lot of these quote-unquote mandates are benefits for those employees in order to do the best job that they can do so I really think we need to think about who we're talking to superintendents critical school board members critical but teachers and the folks on the ground in the classroom with our students those are just as important and that's what I'm doing and that's what the dfl is doing well I'll just add the one thing I've been hearing from our teachers is wondering where their pension relief is which isn't included in any dfl bills nor the Senate Bill last section right but there wasn't the money there the concern to talk about it's been totally brushed under the rug so if we're going to play that game I'll mention the other side of the ticket too I I yeah it's a good point pensions are really really critical and we're going to provide some relief to that pension we're not going to get all the way there we're not going to get them their dream wish list when it comes to pensions and that's unfortunate but we are going to get there and we're going to provide some critical funding and I think think it's going to go a long way great a question in here now on property taxes for seniors this is a viewer who's really feeling the crunch of being a retiree and seeing an increase in property taxes now property taxes are generally levied by cities and counties and school districts though there is a role that the state plays especially with local government Aid either for counties or cities and this education funding that you've all been talking about recently is there anything being proposed right now to look at property tax relief and or freezing property taxes from the state level representative we'll start with you yeah so this is something I started working on actually in last session trying to get the ball moving you know historically property tax stuff at the state level isn't usually touched because of what you just said it's usually handled local level counties cities but we're trying to find a way is how can the state be involved to help people and something I looked at you know we talked about the property valuation increases that's really what people are so upset about up here I mean I think between Itasca St Louis County Aitkin County Crow Wing County we saw the top four highest increase cases the average in Itasca County is 29 percent and that's directly going down to property taxes so one of the things that we've been talking about is the homestead tax exclusion which was initially set in 2009 so you know we've got 14 years of inflation and property values increasing where that dollar amount has been moved there's a little head butting around it because people look at and say oh well if that valuation increases it's just the wealthier people are you know not paying their fair share and well it's not really the case because we just have from this viewer right here that says you know they're retired they've probably been on that home a very long time why is it fair to them to have to keep paying more and more taxes so I think homestead tax exclusion as well as looking into the homestead tax refunds that the state does getting some more funding there you know the tax bill last year that was one of the biggest problems I had with it there were 76 million dollars in there to help with the homestead tax rebates but it was 1.2 billion dollars for renter tax credits so I think we need to flip-flop those things and find ways to do that you also mentioned a freeze you know believe it or not I can't believe I'm saying this the state of California does something like that where if you have like a value evaluation increase of over 40 percent you can only see your property value increase by chunks each year so your taxes don't jump you know a thousand dollars fifteen hundred dollars in a year span I think those are all things we should be looking at um in conversations I've been having for well over a year now already right center house job yeah you know this this is really an important piece one of the things that I'm authoring is the local government Aid and County program Aid bill this session and the tax bill this would provide somewhere around 100 million dollars for each of those programs to our local governments and this would help them reduce their property tax burden for instance in Hermantown I know that we're looking at hiring two new police officers and professionalizing our fire department with that local government Aid doing the calculation that appropriation would help them cover those costs rather than increasing their property tax levy so that's an example of how do we provide core services to our communities but also give them the state resources they need to do the good work I'll also add that on the public safety front we're looking at a bill that would be somewhere between 300 and 500 million in direct Appropriations to our public Public Safety departments and that would in addition sort of reduce that burden on a local property tax owner lastly I'll just add sort of a nuanced issue for our region which is payment in lieu of taxes on public lands we know that the Northland has a lot of public lands and a lot of Lakeland and Forest land this bill would provide an increase in the formula to pay our counties in northern Minnesota more money for those public lands and managing those lands this would be a huge Boon for the Iron Range and for the Northland and I'm the author on that bill as well I think we'll get it done great thank you I'll just add you know the pill thing that was great to mention because the whole range delegation is on that United lead together it'd be about a dollar increase on all the lands which just for those listening at home I mean it's crazy we get like two dollars an acre up here in St Louis County but if you are in Hennepin County you're getting like 90 an acre I mean the disparity is just incredible I think the other thing to mention too is that you know if we find these ways to really kind of put more money back in people's pocket again at the end of the day and we can reduce these taxes it's going to expand growth and one of the biggest problems we have in Greater Minnesota is not being able to have other things to pick up the tax base it's like communities where I'm from you know where you have mines and Mills and power plants when we lose those things that's how counties programming and can lower taxes but when we have a place like Boswell energy that's on the schedule to be shut down and we can't get a cube or wood bill in because of state regulations and permitting and tax climate these are how we can lower taxes for everybody so I think you know the tax conversation also is right there in line with permitting and regulation reform so we can make Minnesota an attractive state to do business because I'm telling you where it's going on right now and it's to the Southeast coast all you have to do is drive down the interstate there and you'll see a new manufacturing plant or Mill that's bringing taxes down in those communities and returning prosperity to the people that live there uh Senator Rothschild you spoke a bit about public safety and we actually have a viewer from Hermantown who is talking about a bill that was passed in the Senate your Public Safety budget bill was passed early in the morning Saturday morning you guys are pulling all-nighters already like you're back in college but um this viewer says it seems like a lot of criminals would be eligible for early release which to this viewer seems like a bad idea why was this part of the bill well so a couple of things I actually voted for a couple of amendments alongside Republican colleagues uh to not uh reduce mandatory minimums especially for gun crimes so that was something that I was really proud of I also sided with the Republicans on not allowing um uh sex offenders to live within a certain area of of schools of daycares of those types of things upon release I think those are sort of Common Sense uh things that we can do in that public safety bill when it comes to the issue that this reader is is messaging us about there are programs in that bill to sort of reduce recidivism to go through counseling to go through sort of ways that we can get them better ingrained in to our communities we already do some of that but this program is bolstering that to make sure that we're trying to reduce crime and I think that's really the purpose great thoughts on Public Safety budget and some yeah ideas about Criminal Justice Reform yeah I mean it'll just to what that viewer is saying you know talking about reducing those minimums I mean I think the biggest problem we're having in Public Safety in the state of Minnesota ability problem right I mean we have people that you know are again we've talked about four four years ago is that I can't believe that we're making you know supporting law enforcement is a political issue all of a sudden and it is that's unfortunately the world we're in we need to fix that but at the same time we're having communities where there's no accountability of Law and we're seeing that especially in our metropolitan areas so I think at a time you know what that viewer is saying reducing those minimums is a really bad idea because people need to know that if you commit a crime you're going to do the time and when it comes to Public Safety we need to be taking more of a bigger pronged approach and look at it's really easy to talk about Solutions with funding and all this but let's really dive into the issues I'm carrying a few bills I think that I want to I want to help with that one of them is mental health and I think that's saying on both sides of the aisle we're working on you know behavioral mental health crisis facilities across Greater Minnesota and Metro Minnesota would be critically important to helping at this I've been on ride-alongs up here in northern Minnesota where someone's having a mental health crisis I was a part of that situation where do we take them the local ER for a 72-hour hold and when we walked in they knew her name because she's in and out of there every two weeks we have to do something to fix that it's also making sure our County attorneys have the money available to hire the staff and get the backlog done our County attorneys are really struggling to keep up with the caseloads so I think you kind of couple all these things together as well as giving Mental Health Grants for a local law enforcement departments so not only those officers who are experiencing traumatic events can get help but so they can get more training so they can be better Advocates when they arrive at those situations and you combine all that together and create more accountability in our Public Safety you're going to take care of our communities and it all goes back to one of the key tenets of Public Safety which is community policing yeah I and I think this public safety Bill makes a lot of historic investments in a lot of the things that representative Vigo is talking about that backlog supporting our courts making sure that our police have what they need the resources that they need the equipment that they need all of that is really really critical I had a bill in the legislator this year a Pathways to policing which would help with Recruitment and Retention of police we know that that is a big concern nowadays and so that actually not my bill specifically but another Pathways bill from a Republican senator dimmer was included in in the public safety bill which I was really proud to support as well great but again I'll just say too it's statutory minimums we shouldn't be lowering those and they did pass out of the Senate bill it sounds like on Friday night the mandatory minimums I voted with Republicans so it got included in the bill okay so we still got to make sure that stuff doesn't move forward um I think on the other part of Public Safety too it's we need to support the actual departments and the people themselves and not get lost in all of maybe the other things that are shiny uh and unfortunately because also I believe in that bill um the the anti-gun legislation didn't pass but the funding is included in the Senate Bill correct and I think that's really concerning as we move forward because I know a lot of viewers back home were very pro-second Amendment people and we need to make sure that that funding just goes back to the general fund it doesn't actually fund these red flag laws that people are very concerned about we're going to jump back to taxes again because a viewer was following our conversation around property taxes and said I thought there was a law that property taxes could only go up by a limited amount a year and that their property taxes went up beyond what he feels they should have so they acknowledge that it's a local decision but the state does the state have some sort of law in the books right now that limits uh local communities ability to increase Levy I am not aware of one okay I so the way it and I the way I understand it yes there's a limit to how much they can increase it but a County's got a tax at 95 to 100 percent of what their all their land value is appraised at so once everything's appraised and in they can't lower past that statutory minimum that's the problem so that's kind of the situation which is really unique because again Itasca County had that 29 increase so when Itasca County came together and got all their stuff and got their valuations they had to be within 95 to 100 and that law was done a long time ago because there was too many people that knew their County auditor who would go on there and say and all of a sudden they're valued at twenty thousand dollars when they got a 200 000 house so that's kind of why that legislation came about that's kind of the problem is that our counties and local governments don't have that ability to kind of tax under that 95 percent so there's not a cap on increasing it they just have to be within those guidelines as it was explained to me great thank you and thanks to the viewers for keeping those questions coming in here's another one on education uh the viewer says new teacher licenses have so many stipulations why doesn't the public know about these and this color thinks rules are detrimental and these stipulations for having quality Educators we're going to start with uh representative iGo on this one thoughts on licensures for teachers um it's definitely a problem I've been hearing about now I don't serve on any education committee I'm trying to do the best I can to learn from the people around me I got a actually got a little brother who's a junior on his way to become a social studies teacher so I'm kind of learning through him because he's getting ready for all the licensure stuff but there is a lot of Hoops to jump through you know and that's why I think one of the issues we're having is people go to school here in the state of Minnesota become teachers and then we'll jump ship and go to a state like North Dakota or Wisconsin because it's a lot easier to get licensed and actually get in a classroom and I don't know the nitty-gritty I guess you could say on what we need to do to fix that but I agree we need to find a way to make sure we can attract and retain teachers here and get them into our schools yeah it's a balancing act right I mean we want to make sure that our Educators in the classroom are the best educated the best uh you know qualified and best prepared to teach our students but we also don't want to put up extra barriers that are going to stop folks from going into the teacher profession Minnesota is a state that's known for Education we have some of the highest if not the highest ACT scores of all the states that record those types of things so we're doing a great job on education but that said we can always do better so I'm serving on the education policy committee I'm happy to continue those conversations around how we make sure we have the right method for getting folks in the classroom great we're going to change gears here another issue that came up this week was the prescription drug affordability board and Senator Rothschild you've been targeted by some groups on your support for that board and and you've had some thoughts in it and I'm sure representative you may know about this board as well and um represent or Senator house child sorry for that why do you support the prescription drug affordability board well if there's is one thing that seniors and folks that are trying to afford their prescription drugs know it's that it's out of control and so what this board would do is have a trigger so that if a drug is skyrocketing in price for instance insulin we've seen that in the recent past this would trigger this board to get involved and evaluate what it is that's causing that increase and look at ways that we can reduce those drug prices so it's just a check just like the puc and the utility sphere to make sure that we're not finding people price gouging on drug prices you're right I've been targeted on this there's a billboard in the Twin Cities targeting me on this issue and they're saying that I'm standing with the big Pharma groups when in fact it's big Pharma that is using these targeted ads against me so I'm proud to stand against this you know in my day job I raise money for patients and families that can't afford the care or prescription drugs they need and we've got to find ways so that folks don't have to rely on GoFundMe pages to afford their prescription drugs and I don't know if this proposal has made it to the house floor yet or not so I don't know if you've got thoughts or feelings on yeah yeah I'll be honest we haven't there's been very minimal conversation in the house it's not scheduled or anything so I'm not completely up to speed on it but after this I will be looking into it good great another viewer has a question why are they spending money on a real world road line from Duluth to the Twin Cities and so we'll start with representative iGo this is the Northern Lights Expressway which would be a train from Duluth to the Twin Cities with stops along the way thoughts on that yeah um I I I'm very surprised too I don't know why we're talking about it we don't have a good history here in Minnesota of Light Rail projects obviously we have the Southwest Light Rail and you know the Twin Cities that is what now almost two billion dollars over budget and still not completed again we should be prioritizing if we're going to do transportation funding let's focus on roads and bridges which we have plenty of in the state that need to get caught up on and talk to anyone you can hear that so I don't know why this is happening you know we have a great Interstate that runs from Duluth to the Twin Cities already there's shuttles there's Greyhounds there's I mean everything under the sun I don't support building a railroad that way right now when there's plenty of other issues to address thoughts on this project yeah I mean I I think this is a great project first and foremost it gets Federal infrastructure dollars four to one to the state of Minnesota to construct and provide for this uh service we also know that there are veterans and those with disabilities that have medical care needs in the Twin Cities that this would provide a great service for them and then lastly providing connections between the Twin Cities and the Northland is critical for our tourism economy for those that are trying to grow businesses in our region we know that folks from the Twin Cities may be more apt to take a train right up to the Duluth region for a vacation or come up to the Northland and The Boundary Waters and then we know vice versa that there are a lot of folks up here that may want to take a trip down to the Twin Cities don't have to drive don't have to deal with the traffic in the in the Inner City metro but go to a Vikings game or go to a Twins game and then shoot back home so it's a really convenient way to bring kids down and enjoy the different parts of our state and I think it'll just create better connections and more economic growth anything else on this no I think I kind of said it again there's plenty of other issues right now then to build a train to Duluth to you know the Twin Cities right another caller wants to know your opinions if you're in favor of banning future game farms to eliminate chronic wasting disease in our deer very important issue in northeastern Minnesota let's start with Senator host child on this yeah this is something that's been you know in the news a lot lately and and we've seen other states dealing with this issue much more than Minnesota so we're sort of on this precipice where this could really grow in Minnesota we know that St Louis County has already banned these types of farms and so I think we've taken an important step to look at making sure we're regulating this correctly so that our Farms don't exacerbate this issue we're not outlawing them we're not Banning them but we are looking at ways that we can work with the DNR and Animal Control to to Really limit the the expansion of CWD right yeah yeah I think I'll lead right off that between the board of animal health and the DNR we need to find out and get the science on this because we're really just trying to understand what it really is here in Minnesota right the community of Grand Rapids had a CWD positive deer here last year um they did two deer killings in the city limits because usually that means that there's going to be more infected deer they've killed over 100 deer now and not found another positive deer so that's going to raise a question to okay what really is the the science and the health behind all this and that's what the DNR and board of animal health are working on doing when it comes to the government stepping in to ban deer farms I'm going to have an issue with that right away because I don't think that's government's job if they are going to do something like that there better be a buyout in there to take care of all those different families I believe there's over a hundred different deer farms in the state not to mention that it's more than just venison they provide it's all the different things for our deer hunters across the Midwest so there's a lot more at stake here but we definitely need to understand the problem and take care of it because it is a huge part of Minnesota's culture I just believe we got to think twice and act Once on This yeah and just to be clear we're not Banning them we're just looking at ways to reduce the the expansion of CWD so I think it's an appropriate response I think the DNR and Animal Control are involved and will hopefully restrict this from happening in the future great uh next caller wants to know about uh State funding for nursing homes on the Iron Range both of you represent all our parts of of the Iron Range as you see the budget bills come through uh representative iGo do you feel confident in the spending levels for nursing homes that are being discussed right now nursing home was almost completely forgotten in the house bills very little funding in fact most of the nursing home administrators in my district have called me wondering were we not heard over the last two years what the issues we're having um you know there's there's nursing homes in my district that are at 60 70 capacity not because there's not the need they can't get the staff and they can barely pay the staff they have and they're having to send people out onto the street or back to families because they have nowhere to go this is a colossal issue we're having and what's eventually going to happen if we don't fix it right now and this is what I'm hearing from those administrators is these people are going to end up in hospital beds hospital beds that we need open for people that actually are having medical emergencies and this issue could Compound on itself and turn really bad so we need to come together Republicans and Democrats and write a bill that funds our nursing homes and gets the support in there that they need whether that be helping the higher Staff Workforce Development it's a plethora of issues but it needs more and it needs more now yeah the Senate bill has funding in there for critical access nursing homes and I'm really excited about that funding a lot of the nursing homes that would qualify would be in our region because of their rural nature and critical access nature I also know in Ely The Boundary Waters Care Center is facing financial hardship and they're actually doing private fundraising in the community to try to keep that facility alive that's why in The Human Services bill in the Senate I have a direct Appropriations to help save that facility in addition to that I'm working on some tax bill funding that could go directly to that nursing home as well I've talked to the director there several times I've also connected him with the Department of Health to make sure that he has the resources he needs on his reimbursements so I think we're going to make sure that that Center is is cared for and we're going to get that critical access funding for our nursing homes so it's sounding like you know even though Democrats are in chargeable Governor house and Senator there are some differences among some of these issues within the budget bills how do you foresee these uh these issues with folks on the same team in charge finding compromise amongst themselves when it's not not necessarily a partisan disagreement but a disagreement within majority party it's interest out how do you think that that's going to get reconciled yeah I I think it's an interesting question you know budgeting is all about priorities it's all about coming together and sort of compromising um and I think this is what's really critical I do think it's really important that we have representative list legard and myself uh in the majority right now because as these bills are coming together we can find ways to appropriate those dollars to a facility like The Boundary Waters Care Center if our region were all in the minority we would be facing a really really difficult circumstance where we may not be able to get the funding that we need for some of these places and so I'm proud that we're fighting for for the care centers that need it in our region and I think we'll see that come together once we go through the conference committees how's it looking from your Vantage Point so um you know and we're seeing in all the different committees there's just different appeals and some of that is you know Senate we have Senators who've been around a long time we have newer house chairs there's just a little bit of clash there we're for sure going to conference committee and a lot of these bills right um and those that get put on that conference committee I think are going to be very helpful but I think those on the outside too could be offering ideas to kind of get away in there and again you know you mentioned I think I think the range delegation has a very important role here to play especially with you being seat 34 right I mean I'm hoping on some of these bills like the environment Bill I know you and I share some deep concerns about that you know hopefully that's a bill where you can put the laundry list into the chair and say doesn't pass without these and those are things that we can do to try and mediate these bills and that's the point of conference really so I think there's some good opportunities to be had in the month ahead great uh speaking of one of those other issues uh and this it comes from a caller here Governor Walsh has proposed some stimulus checks one time rebate checks that really hasn't received much traction from either the house or the Senate uh here what is the likelihood of of that proposal being included in some sort of end deal here so stimulus checks are one-time spending uh or checks back to taxpayers representative we'll start with you I don't even know if there's a bill introduced do you know I mean that's what it's all going to come down to I mean obviously things can happen without that the appetite in the Minnesota house has been next to none for something like that in a bipartisan way yeah in a bite from what I'm understanding yeah I've the Democrats I talked to Republicans I talked to I have not heard the support for that um and where's your opposition then to using particularly the one-time Surplus so not the ongoing Surplus for this one-time stimulus well and again if we were going to do a one-time stimulus it should I think the proposal is being talked about is just so minimal you know it's going to be taxed again anyway from what the governor's office was saying we need to find ways to create generational impacts again we could lower taxes bring those those brackets down that's putting more money in people's pocket quicker than it is going to be to a 600 check that you're going to be taxed 21 on right I mean the last time we did anything like this would have been the Jesse checks um and what did they end up being after taxes a little over 300 I mean that's not actually giving money back to anybody that's not a good proposal on doing it I think that's why you see Republicans and Democrats kind of standoffish on it and again I'll just remember the governor is in a different branch of government so he's in the executive branch he can talk about whatever he wants but he cannot write a bill and introduce it he needs someone from either party to introduce that in the house to the Senate but we need a signature to pass a bill and he's obviously very influential uh and so you know I'm in favor of these rebates I think regardless of whether or not they're ultimately in the final bill we're going to have the most historic tax relief we've ever seen in the state of Minnesota so whether it includes rebates or not we're going to get folks the relief they need but I am supportive of these rebates it's funny we're kind of in a counter situation here where the Democrats saying we need more tax relief and the Republicans saying maybe not in this particular case but um I think we'll I think we'll find some really good relief in this bill well I wasn't saying no to tax relief and I'm not saying no to returning money but giving someone a 400 check that's taxed at 21 is not relief and it's their money to begin with so I think we you know be careful when we're making that distinction if we're going to give the whole 20 billion Surplus back that's one thing but that is not the proposal at hand and that is not what's being talked about by the governor so we have to remember that when we're moving forwards having these discussions and you know in the same tax relief you're talking about we're also talking about adding a new tier to the tax and increasing tiers it's not tax relief that's increasing taxes those are Revenue raisers to help take care of increased spending this is a larger conversation we need to make sure that we're not you know mixing these two things we're talking about this subject anything else on this well I think I think again you're going to see historic tax relief in this bill um and it's going to go to the people that need it most through that child care tax relief through the possibly rebate checks through Social Security tax relief um we're going to Target it in a way that gets to the people that really need it and that's maybe the difference we're going to take a caller question right now on a different topic do you support Narcan in our public schools and I believe Narcan is the relief or the antidote to some fentanyl overdoses that different folks can have here so Center house child do you support narcans being available in our Public Schools um yeah and I you know I sadly had a cousin who passed away from a fentanyl overdose I unequivocally support having Narcan available in our schools um sadly this is the State of Affairs that we're in our young people are addicted to these drugs at the highest levels that we've seen in decades and we need to have immediate ways to to address this issue if it comes about now we also need to find ways to reduce the use in the first place and have the resources we need for our young people but absolutely if it saves a life then that's more than worth it and I've read where there are proposals to expand the people who have access to Narcan before I think it was just some emergency folks and maybe police but there are proposal out there to expand it to other entities yeah I'll just add it I think that's the importance of having school resource officers too you know not only does that teach that community policing that you know our police force is there to work with our community make it safer but then they're going to be able to have the Narcan on them in case that situation happens I think you also need to tie the whole fentanyl crisis to again we need to make sure we're Prosecuting criminals you know someone that's going to be trafficking Fentanyl and we've had plenty of busts up here in northern Minnesota over the last year those people need to be have the whole book thrown at them because they're killing minnesotans they're killing children there's there's no lighter way to put it so it's a joint operation but yeah in the meantime let's support those school resource officers that can carry that Narcan and save a life if they have to and in the public safety that we just passed on the senate floor on Friday or Saturday morning we did increase the penalties for fentanyl drug distribution so we are addressing it from that side of things as well this is this is an important issue we have to figure it out great another caller we're going to talk about Transportation which we haven't touched on uh yet here they have a very specific question that I'll ask but then more broadly do you know uh when they are going to fix Highway 73 and Highway 169 in Virginia and North of Chisholm so that's a specific question and I know there are formulas and priority lists but let's just talk more broadly about transportation funding uh what are what are your thoughts on what's going to happen there I will start with represent Vigo yeah you know roads and bridges that's where the dollars need to go not only funding for long-term projects those State highways and such but also make sure we have the programming dollars to go back to our counties for those smaller projects that were kind of talked about by that that caller I also think it's important too there's a lot of stuff in transportation that I've learned a lot over the last couple years for instance like the Wetland mitigation fund which is huge when we're talking about Greater Minnesota roads and bridges because if we have to expand and move into Wetlands a little bit we need to actually by law make sure and mediate that in another place in the state so having funds there available doesn't make these projects cost prohibitive so those are a lot of good ways also important to mention transportation that we need to get the dollars to our townships too they actually take care of the most roads in the state of Minnesota as all of our townships and usually our townships are operating on hairline budgets so getting money and operating dollars to those Township so they can you know get more gravel down and have plows running so that we can have access there is vitally important any funding for our roads and bridges is beneficial to our region um you know my District's the size of Massachusetts yours is probably the size of Vermont um you know this this is a lot of roads and so any funding we can get is really critical um another example of a road project that's really important is Highway 61 up the North Shore really a central artery to to all of those tourism opportunities from from all across our state and all across our country and there's a construction project there that's uh short on budget and so I'm looking for ways how do we include in the transportation Bill funding for Highway 61 so that it's only one summer impacting those businesses and that thoroughfare up the up the North Shore but we need to make sure all of our transportation projects are funded up in the Northland and for transportation projects uh correct me if I'm wrong but normally isn't there's a priority list that is made by each Department of Transportation sub-center Regional Center and very rarely do you guys identify or the legislature identify specific projects but really rely on those priority lists that are put together by the engineers from the different regions is that still how it works I've been gone for a while yeah um kind of yeah obviously we all have great relationships with the people that oversee the districts sometimes we have some conversations about some bigger projects you know I'll mention the 169 from you know pengilly to taconite still not done yet it's still not done we got nine miles left um but that's a huge project that you know we're talking about this is a time again we have a surplus here's a way for us to make a one-time investment that'll have generational impacts you know to help that thoroughfarin I've been working with communities from Cohasset to Hibbing about who want to come together and get that thing done because it's going to mean you know quarters of Commerce for all of them and all the small communities in between are going to prosper so we're having those conversations in the house definitely with the chair of Transportation about understanding it's not only a safety concern but it's it's all about driving our economy with these kind of projects so conversations are still happening around that great I want to talk about Workforce uh challenges right now we're hearing from large employers and small employers we talked about it on the nursing home front it just seems to be a challenge we're seeing the baby boom generate Nation retired not as many people coming up sometimes there's a skills mismatch between jobs that are available and the skills that people have and it seems like we need everybody to be participating in our economy to make it successful with the low unemployment rate that's not the issue either so what can be done and what are the steps that are being done across the entire state budget to really incentivize making sure we're taking down barriers to make sure that businesses have the workers they need for today and tomorrow Senator host child we'll start with you no thank you there's a entrepreneur Fund in the jobs bill that I think could go a long way in helping grow small businesses and some of that Recruitment and Retention of employees but I think you know back to what I said at the beginning housing and child care is really really the critical piece to Workforce especially for my generation when people are thinking about employing or moving up here into the Northland they got to know that there's housing and they got to know that that folks who have kids have a place for their for their child to go to daycare so looking at the child care tax credit bill that I'm carrying the billion dollars that we're looking looking to invest in housing in the in the Senate I think that will go a long way in making historical investments in those areas to help grow our Workforce tackling our Workforce challenge huge question obviously um I think there's a couple things you mentioned two of them I'll talk about I think it also starts in our high schools in partnering with our you know Tech schools and our community colleges you know a little story I've been telling is if you went to a classroom full of 18 year olds who are getting ready to graduate high school and you said I could give you a job that's 65 000 a year you get every holiday off and I'll give you 20 days off a year and all you need is a CDL and then you tell them that it's a garbage man every single hand will go down and they wouldn't want that job we need to talk about ways to tell people that no matter what job you have in this in this world you're important and you matter to keep our society rolling and moving and functioning so you know whether you go off to Yale and you have a you know eight year program you become a doctor or you go to you know having North College and you become a welder and you help keep our minds going our meals going everyone's here for a purpose and it's diversifying that portfolio and realizing that there's good paying jobs everywhere I think that's the other huge part of this we need to talk about and that's sometimes not just money that's actually having conversations about how can we tie people together how can we create Partnerships and the will follow one of the things I had in the education sphere was a CTE funding expansion really doubling the funding for CTE in our local schools can you explain what CTE yes Career and Technical education much of what representative eigel was just referring to and I think that's really critical we have schools that do it really really well uh Rock Ridge and Proctor for example have really good programs but I want to make sure that all of our schools have that funding opportunity to provide those programs because I think you're absolutely right that if we get those kids exposed to those opportunities they're that much more likely to go into those careers I also think there's an opportunity to to partner with the trades and labor we have a rich history of that in the Northland and doing that could go a long way and getting folks into those careers great absolutely and that could even solve um you know our home crisis right we need more homes we have you know students that partnered with the trades and start building the homes not only in our Northland but across our state right it's a win-win situation well we're going to keep it hyper local both of you serve on the Advisory Board of the I triple RB representative you're chairing that now what do we see and this probably goes beyond the legislative session as some of the priorities for the irrb as uh in in the year ahead I'm going to start with uh chair I go um you know I'm really excited to work with commissioner rukhavina and kind of talk about you know the agency's done a lot of great things in the past but I think also there's an opportunity to kind of delve into new things and she's kind of shared some of those ideas with me and I think it's all about partnering again with our communities you know the last the couple projects we did when we met a few weeks ago every single project was a partnership between a local bank a local community and a local business we need to keep building on that because that's how we create more jobs and more viability in our communities whether it be child care whether it be working in housing initiatives whether it be working on bringing more businesses to our range there's fantastic opportunities ahead and I'm really excited to work on them with not only the commissioner but all the board members yeah I couldn't agree more housing child care that that's what we really need to be investing in and education you know we've seen the irrb starting to get involved in some of our um schools our K-12 schools and and potentially even higher ed I think those are good Investments they go a long way in in growing our communities the other thing I would say is we've had a history with the I rrb of looking at the Big Shiny object and that's really important to find those big industries that could come to our region and provide hundreds of jobs I also think we need to find Opportunities to invest in our entrepreneurs and our local young people to start jobs and Start employee employers here in our region so let's look small middle and big on on our investments another viewer question here uh in representative I go you may know about this one what is the status of funding for the Canisteo pit dewatering project um so we're the Castillo Bill lies right now it is in the bonding bill that is in the Senate we got it in there the full funding I believe the environment Bill we're working on some OEM but it is in there ready to go right now I've been trying to move it as a quicker project if you all stand-alone bill so we can get the money there obviously anyone that lives in the itas county community knows how important that project is and getting done in fact we probably didn't get the pumping done this year with partnership with the i r this spring could have been really bad for the community's attackingite bovee Colerain Arbor Township and this is a former Mine Pit that is potentially could flood could flood over um yes so but right now the funding is there in the bonding Bill I'm watching it very closely as we approach the end of session that it stays there and gets done let's get the yes votes in the Senate provide these critical needs in our communities great I think we only have about a minute left and so I want to just briefly uh we've talked about what is going to happen but historically there's been a lot of bills that have already passed and I'm not talking good bad or indifferent but if each of you could just quickly talk about what you feel that has already passed is going to have the most substantial impact on Minnesota's lives that's already passed into law thus far and we've got about a minute so take 30 seconds a piece Senator host job yeah well I I have to say the the second bill that we passed this session was the unemployment extension for North Shore minors the North Shore mine and Babbitt and the processing plant in Silver Bay were shut down for almost a year and those workers were without unemployment so we got that done we had bipartisan support and that went a long way to ensuring that those workers stayed in their communities didn't leave for New Opportunities and now the mine is opening back up so this is really great news and I was really proud to get that done as quickly as humanly possible legislations that's passed it's going to have a substantial impact on Minnesota's lives so representative our Center House show made a great uh that was a great build we got done early but house file seven I think is the biggest one that was the 2040 renewable energy mandate we're going to see that affecting us for the next you know almost 20 years here as we see how our power companies are going to be able to adapt to that I have a lot of concerns I think it's going to lead to higher prices and electricity that's going to directly go back to minnesotans so we're going to be working on that for years to come I know I will be to try and mediate that and use all the toolboxes because right now it's a solar and wind bill doesn't include nuclear biomass so that's probably the one one bill I see great well I appreciate it and we are out of time and I'd like to thank Senator Grant haaschild and representative Spencer iGo for being with us today join us again next week on Minnesota legislative report when we will welcome even more legislators from northern Minnesota on the program for the team at PBS North I'm Tony sirdich have a great evening thank you [Music]