Column: Shannon Savick, Capitol Comments

In the House of Representatives, we know that we need to do more to help Minnesota businesses create jobs.

This week, we did.

On Monday night we passed the jobs and economic development omnibus bill that will provide an additional $46 million in jobs funding over last year’s budget. After serving on the jobs committee, I’m proud to see such a good bill get passed. I’ve talked about these projects before so I won’t go into detail about every part of the bill. But I’m particularly proud of the $20 million we are investing in the Minnesota Investment Fund. This is my bill from one of the first days of the session back in January. The funds will go to help businesses by offering grants and loans as an incentive to create jobs in local communities. It’s a proven jobs creator, and it’s going to be a big program for our state. I think it will create many living wage jobs in our area.

We also fought hard this week to get an even greater increase for local government aid, otherwise called LGA. Earlier this session it was announced that the House would be increasing LGA by $60 million. But I pushed to get more because I know how valuable LGA can be for our communities.

More aid can mean lower property taxes and a group of rural legislators, including myself, fought to get the LGA increase raised to $80 million. That means our local budgets will have even more support from the state and should be able to keep property taxes low and provide relief for residents in our area. I couldn’t be prouder to support this bill. It will have a big impact on our district.

Speaking of our district, I had the great opportunity to speak at the fire hall in Wells on Tuesday. The meeting for firefighters in the south central region was taking place, and they asked me to come talk about a few bills I have been supporting in the House.

Two bills are authored by me and another is one I’m fully supporting. It was a great chance to meet a few firefighters from different communities, and I was so proud of our local volunteers.

The Wells Fire Department put on an outstanding event and there were more than 150 firefighters there from across the region. I was proud to be able to speak and represent Wells at such a successful event. I want to thank the Wells Fire Department for giving me the chance to attend and participate in its event.

I do briefly want to remind you that Gov. Mark Dayton will be in Albert Lea at 6 p.m. Monday in the auditorium at Albert Lea High School. It’s not very often that we have the governor visiting our area so I encourage you to go see him and provide input.

 

Shannon Savick, DFL-Wells, is the state representative for House District 27A.