By Susan Closmore, Director of Public Affairs, House Republican Caucus

Last Thursday evening, January 26, the Minnesota House overwhelmingly approved the conference committee report for Health Care Emergency Aid and Access Plan. on a vote of 108-19.  You may CLICK HERE to see the full text of the bill, Senate File 1.

 The bill provides a 25% premium reduction to Minnesotans who do not qualify for MNsure tax credits on the individual market. 

The Plan also includes key Republican-led reforms to

• preserve care for those receiving life-saving treatments and

• increase competition

• increase consumer choice moving forward.

The bill passed the Senate earlier Thursday afternoon with bipartisan support.

This is a first step in a session-long effort to address the problems created by Obamacare and MNsure.

As the first month of session comes to a close, Republican majorities have shown an ability to get things done for Minnesotans and to work productively with the governor.

We had a busy convention season in 2016.  We conducted or attended conventions at the senate district level, the congressional district level, and the state level.  These conventions in the even-numbered years are held for the purpose of endorsing Republican candidates running within the House and Senate Districts, for the US Congress, and for Minnesota state offices, and for organizing ourselves to try to get them elected.

Why are We Holding a Convention in February 2017?

In the odd-numbered years, we hold conventions at the senate district-level and congressional district-level to elect executive officers that serve at those levels. 

At our February 18, 2017 Senate District 49 convention, we will seek to elect 15 executive officers, as well as our representatives to the MN GOP State Central Meetings.  These are described more below.

If you believe in what we’re doing in the Senate District and are willing to take a leadership role in achieving our goals, and want to be a candidate for any of these roles, please forward your name and contact information to Barb Sutter ([email protected], 952-835-8917).

We have created an Officer Nominating Committee to screen candidates that would like to run for any of the positions.  The screening process is intended to review the qualifications, interest, and time commitments of candidates for our Senate District executive offices.  The Officer Nominating Committee will make recommendations to the convention as to the delegates and alternates for State Central, before the voting occurs.

The Senate District 49 Executive Officers  are:

•           Two (2) Co-Chairs

•           Five (5) Vice Chairs from House District 49A

•           Five (5) Vice Chairs from House District 49B

•           Treasurer (can come from either House District)

•           Secretary (can come from either House District)

•           Communications Chair (can come from either House District)

Kicking Off the Senate District 49 Republicans Newsletter in 2017

We worked hard on the newsletter in 2016.  We pushed to publish an email newsletter every week, with articles about current state and local issues.  These were issues that should be understood and dealt with by our local representatives.  Many of these representatives were running for election, so we asked them their positions on the issues. 

It is our opinion that the major metropolitan newspapers do not investigate local issues or challenge local government representatives on the reasoning behind the decisions that they have made.   Local community papers, stretching to cover all news, have limited resources for exploring issues in-depth.  We believe it is important that we bring these issues to your attention in a fair and reasonable manner, with relevant information that you otherwise would not be seeing. 

We also consider it important to identify and track the priority State legislative actions that our House and Senate should be addressing this session.  As a state, we are facing significant problems. We’ll focus on how legislative actions they support are (or are not) effective in addressing those problems. Four areas we plan to highlight in 2017: 1) MNSure individual marketplace plans & costs; 2) Underperforming education / school outcomes; 3) Returning excessive taxes (surplus) to taxpayers; 4) Transportation spending and infrastructure improvements.

And finally, we work to connect you with other Republicans in our communities by notifying you of dinner meetings, events, conventions, caucuses and SD49 GOP organization volunteer opportunities, as well as opportunities to support GOP-endorsed candidates.

We would appreciate your feedback on the job we’re doing. 

Here’s another opportunity for voters to get involved.  A series of meetings/workshops to engage in planning for “community climate resilience” will be held January 24, January 31 and February 8 in Eden Prairie. 

Sponsored by 4 agencies, 7 cities, a nonprofit and an engineering consulting firm, the results from the meetings will likely be included in each SD49 city’s plans for 2040, mandated by the Met Council.

To participate in these free workshops, you need to register (a registration link is below).

For each of the non-city sponsors, we’ve included a brief background statement and their website links at the end of this article.

Zavier Bicott, SD50 Republican Co-Chair and volunteer Bloomington Human Rights Commissioner, is one of 14 people on the Forward 2040 Advisory Committee and provided us this first-hand glimpse of their early work.

Our first meeting was back on Wednesday November 2, 2016.  The appointment process includes 14 people appointed by the Bloomington City Council to serve 12-14 months.  7 came from city commissions and 7 others are Bloomington Residents that applied and were accepted.  I myself was approved to serve from my fellow human rights commissioners with our Human Rights Commission Chairman serving as my alternate if I am unable to attend a meeting.

I am looking forward to our third meeting January 18th.  It will be more of a discussion with a facilitator.  All meetings are public so I encourage you to attend or keep reading my reviews in the SD49 newsletter.

Basic Background

Forward 2040 is the City of Bloomington's latest process for updating its comprehensive plan. A comprehensive plan sets the 20-year vision through a set of goals and policies that guide future land uses and investments in City services such as parks, community facilities, transportation and sewer and water systems. 

The Metropolitan Council sets the basic requirements for what must be included in comprehensive plans.  As in previous years, Bloomington’s comprehensive plan update must address seven Plan Elements: land use, transportation water resources, parks, housing, and implementation.  For this round of updates the Metropolitan Council is recommending, but not requiring, cities to also address economic competiveness and resiliency and sustainability.

Gov. Dayton and the MN House and Senate leadership have been negotiating the terms and conditions for a special legislative session this month.  They appear to be close, but they did not meet their goal of reaching full agreement by December 7. 

Bipartisan agreement exists to complete the work that the regular session did not accomplish:

• Legislative Action on Infrastructure Funding

• Tax Cut Package vetoed by Dayton

• Temporary relief for Minnesotans facing rising premiums in Minnesota’s individual health insurance marketplace

There were signs of a breakthrough following a meeting on December 2.  Gov Dayton suggested that December 7 was the deadline for ironing out the critical details.  “We know where we stand, we know what we agree on, we know what we still don’t agree on,” Dayton said at the time. 

However, on December 7, he backtracked, saying, “I never saw today as a definite deadline.”

2016 was an amazing year for Senate District 49.  Looking back, it is clear that we come to the end of the year having achieved much.  Dario Anselmo, our endorsed candidate for the MN House in District 49A, defeated the DFL incumbent and will be part of a significant new Republican house majority in St Paul.   As an organization, we continue to be one of the most active Senate Districts in Minnesota.  Yet there were goals we set for ourselves in 2016 that we did not reach.  We still have work to do to build a stronger organization for the future.

Perhaps our first accomplishment this year was the strong organizational work done by Jerry Witowski and his team in preparing for the March caucuses.  Confirming that no good deed goes unpunished, the State Party invited several national and state news organizations to witness our Edina caucuses.  The record-breaking number of Republicans that turned out for the Presidential poll this year proved a challenge by itself, but the spotlight of major media attention made the whole event an unreal experience.  The successful conduct of the caucuses demonstrated the experience and strength of our leaders and volunteers.

Photo:  Randy Sutter and a young volunteer led the National Anthem at April 9 Convention.

As reported by Julia Erynn, alphanews, September 28, 2016

A report released on September 27 by 24/7 Wall St names Minneapolis as one of the Top 25 most dangerous cities in the United States.

Applications are due December 28 for those willing to serve as a volunteer on one of 3 Bloomington Commissions. 

The City of Bloomington is now accepting applications for vacancies on their Human Rights Commission, Parks, Arts, & Recreations Commission, and their new Sustainability Commission. All interested applicants must fill out their official Advisory Board & Commissions Application.  Click Here to download an application from the foot of the Boards and Commissions page on the city website.  

The deadline for applications is December 28th, 2016. The city will be conducting its final selection process prior to the City Council’s January 9th, 2017 meeting when the City Council will be conducting a short interview with each of the finalists. To find out more about each of the commissions, please CLICK HERE to see the Boards and Commissions page at the city website. For further information about the application process please call the City Manager’s Office at: 952-563-8780.  

 We urge you to research the commissions and to apply to serve on one that particularly interests you.  Bring your common-sense conservative values to the running of the city of Bloomington.  Then, let us know how things go.  We would welcome short articles about your experience.  Help encourage more Republicans to join with you!

The two-year terms of our current Executive Committee members and State Central Delegates and Alternates come to a close in February 2017.   At our SD 49 Convention on February 18, elections will be held to fill these positions for the next two years.  If you were elected a delegate or an alternate at your precinct caucus in March 2015 and you continue to reside in the same SD49 precinct, your delegate/alternate status carries forward to this convention.

The Executive Committee consists of 15 voting members:  two Co-Chairs (one from District 49A and one from District 49B), ten Vice-Chairs (five from District 49A and five from District 49B), a Secretary, a Treasurer, and a Communications Chair.  These individuals provide the dynamic leadership within the Senate District.  They direct, inspire, and support the precinct leaders in the effective functioning of our party operation.  As it is critical that we have active and enthusiastic precinct leaders, it is equally important that we elected strong, out-going Executive Committee members.

A call will go out in January for all individuals interested in running for Executive Office in Senate District 49.  You are urged to consider your willingness to provide the leadership that is needed within the senate district and to put your name into nomination as a Senate District officer.  An Officer Nominating Committee will interview all candidates for Senate District officer prior to the February convention.