Minnesota's 3rd Congressional District DFL

Maureen Hackett has served the public throughout her career, as an officer in the Air Force, as a physician in Psychiatry treating patients at Hennepin County Medical Center and Minnesota's state hospitals and as a teacher of Psychiatry at MN Security Hospital, HCMC, University of Minnesota, William Mitchell College of Law and Mayo Clinic.  Dr. Hackett is a member of the Nine Mile Creek Watershed District Citizen's Advisory Committee and the League of Women Voters, and serves as Chair of the MN Psychiatric Society Ethics Committee.  In 2006 she was honored with the Distinguished Fellow award by the American Psychiatric Association.

Her campaign website can be found at  www.hackettforcongress.org

You can help choose a new direction for Minnesota.  Get to know the excellent DFL Candidates for Governor over the next few months.  Then attend your Caucus in February and your Senate District Convention in March so you can participate in the process of endorsing the 2010 DFL Candidate for Governor.

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The Minnesota Senate made job creation its first order of business, opening the first day of the 2010 Legislative Session by unveiling a $999 million capital investment package.  Members of the Senate Capital Investment Committee traveled thousands of miles throughout Minnesota this past summer and fall, visiting 64 of the state’s 87 counties and holding more than 150 meetings to get firsthand views of projects for which funding was being sought. More than $3 billion in capital investment requests were made.  This bill is able to fund less than one-third of the requests made by state agencies and local units of government.  In many of the meetings, it was stressed that with the economy in recession, this is an excellent time for new construction at significant savings to taxpayers, as the cost of building materials and labor has dropped considerably.

Government Unit Cooperation to Reduce Costs

A Shared Facilities Grant Program that Senator Terri Bonoff had proposed was included in the Capital Investment bill. This program will allow three or more cities, counties, or school districts to apply for bonding dollars from the state for construction or renovation of a shared facility that can demonstrate cost savings for the participating municipalities.  Senator Bonoff believes that our state must innovate and move toward greater cooperation between units of government to reduce costs; this program is a step in the right direction.

School Aid Payments Withheld

The Minnesota Department of Education recently notified school district officials across the state that school aid payments would be delayed this spring to buffer the state’s cash flow problem. Minnesota Management and Budget Commissioner Tom Hanson warned earlier in January that the state would invoke a never-before-used Minnesota law, passed in 1986, to cover Minnesota’s negative cash balance. The aid withholdings were calculated on a formula based on districts’ fund balances or reserves. Total aid to be withheld in March and April is $423 million.  This action affects 231 of 337 Minnesota districts. The average holdback is $689 per student.

This is the second time in less than 12 months that school funding has been used to buffer state financial problems. Last July, the Governor deferred $1.7 billion of committed payments to schools, an action that forced about a third of Minnesota’s school districts to borrow to pay educational expenses.  Borrowing from school district reserves penalizes districts for sound fiscal management and sends the wrong message to fiscally responsible school districts.  Fund balances are often derived from local taxes paid by homeowners and businesses.  Senator Bonoff joined with Representative Mindy Greiling in introducing legislation to repeal this law and protect Minnesota’s school funding in the future.