Working for you!

1. Focus on our Communities

I worked on a number of bills in 2016 to improve our communities, including:

  • Protecting Our Aging Adults
  • Funding for critical access hospitals
  • Historic broadband internet expansion funding for Greater MN
  • Legislation to establish a stretch of Highway 28 from Beardsley to Graceville as the “Staff Sergeant Kevin Witte Memorial Highway”
  • bill that increases reimbursement rates for rural ambulance services
  • Funding for water treatment plant upgrades in Breckenridge and Morris
  • Flood mitigation projects in Ortonville, Herman and Browns Valley
  • Legislation that would streamline the ditch repair process while making it more cost effective

2. Supporting Veterans

Benefits earned by retired veterans are now tax free in Minnesota. This tax cut will have a significant impact on the 18,000 military retirees that currently live in Minnesota.

3. Standing up for our Taxpayers

I voted for a bill that would bring nearly $1 billion in tax relief over the next three years and $500 million in permanent, ongoing, tax cuts. Some on the tax relief from that bill included:

  • Expanding the childcare tax credit for families
  • Property tax relief for small business
  • Relief for college graduates
  • Tax relief for working families
  • Tax relief for farmers
  • Increases in Local Government Aid (LGA)

4. Representing Rural Priorities

I have worked hard the since 2015 to restore balance in St. Paul so the interests of Greater Minnesota were heard.

  • Enabled school districts in Greater Minnesota to improve school buildings with additional facilities maintenance funding
  • Delivered resources to fight avian flu and help prevent other emerging livestock diseases
  • Blocked gun owner registration efforts
  • Strengthened 2nd Amendment rights including legalizing firearm suppressors to help protect the hearing of hunters.
  • Allowing reciprocity for carry permits.
  • Weakened Governor Dayton’s one-size-fits-all ag buffer zone regulations
  • Prioritized agricultural education in local colleges to prepare the next generation of farmers
  • Invested in safer rail grade crossings, small cities road maintenance and transit for Greater Minnesota
  • Reformed teacher licensure to address teacher shortages in rural parts of the state
  • Improved patient care in rural hospitals through access to telemedicine technology
  • Increased protections for children, new mothers, and unborn babies including the Born Alive
  • Infant Act to ensure human rights and medical care for infants who survive an abortion procedure and are born.

5. Protecting Our Seniors

In 2015, the legislature passed reforms and made needed increases in nursing home funding. Here’s how the bill increases nursing care center funding in our district.

  • Evansville Care Center, Evansville: 13.92% increase
  • Barrett Care Center Inc., Barrett: 13.74% increase
  • Minnewaska Community Health Services, Starbuck: 16.50% increase
  • Essentia Health Grace Home, Graceville: 31.52% increase
  • Browns Valley Health Center, Browns Valley: 11.53% increase
  • Traverse Care Center, Wheaton: 9.31% increase
  • St. Francis Home, Breckenridge: 28.31% increase
  • Northridge Residence, Ortonville: 32.27% increase
  • West Wind Village, Morris: 23.36% increase