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Regent Selection:

On Tuesday evening, the Senate and House Higher Education Committees got together to review and send forward

a slate of candidates to be the next Regents for the University of Minnesota. The candidates that came before this

Joint Committee had previously been vetted by the Regent Candidate Advisory Council, which is responsible for

recruitment and first round interviews of all hopeful candidates. The Joint Committee is tasked with recommending

a slate of candidates for the open Congressional Districts slots. This year, the Board has openings in the 1st, 3rd, 4th,

6th and 7th Congressional Districts.

It is customary to send forward just one candidate for each opening. However, this year the Joint Committee voted

to send two recommended candidates for the 1st and the 3rd districts. The reason for this was an impasse during

voting. Typically, one would assume that it is members of opposite parties who cannot agree. On Tuesday, this was

not the case. Rather, it was the Senate and House that were in disagreement. We ultimately decided that it was in

the best interest of the Committee and the process to send forward two names in both the first and third districts.

The next step in the process is for the House and Senate to get together in a Joint Convention and vote for the final

Regents. The date for this event has not yet been set as it needs to be agreed upon by the leaders of both houses. I

have been on the record stating that I do not believe it is in the best interest of the Legislature, the University or

the State to hold this Joint Convention until the Legislative Auditor’s report on the alleged misconduct with the

University’s psychiatric department is released. 

The candidates who were recommended last night are the following:

Congressional District 1 – Randy Simonson and Patti Simmons (current Regent)

Congressional District 3 – Paula Prahl and Michael Belzer

Congressional District 4 – Richard Beeson (current Chair of the Board of Regents)

Congressional District 6 – Michael Hsu

Congressional District 7 – Tom Anderson

Deficiency Bill:

On Thursday, the Senate met to hear the “Deficiency Bill”. This legislation is a clean-up bill that addresses shortfalls

in Agency funding that was not projected in the previous Legislative Session. It is usually a non-controversial but

critical bill that passes with little debate. However, as some of you may have heard, the Governor recently gave

raises to several Agency Commissioners. This was looked at as being relatively controversial and while the specific

raises were not part of this bill, the Agency budgets were up for discussion. It is important to remember that this

bill is critical to the well-being of the State. For instance, there was funding in the bill to take care of the Security

Hospital in St. Peter’s that holds over 300 dangerous and mentally ill patients, as well as to make sure that all of the

hospitals that acted quickly and responsibly to the Ebola threat were funded appropriately. Therefore it was

imperative that the Legislature pass this bill with little delay.

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Transit Survey Results:

Transportation Survey Results:

Given the controversy surrounding the pay raises, our Majority Leader, Tom Bakk, addressed the issue head on. He

proposed an amendment to the bill that froze the Commissioners’ pay increase until July and promised that the

Senate would hold informational hearings on the matter. When this amendment passed with overwhelming

support, there was a huge sigh of relief in the Chamber as it gave comfort to those who had been troubled by the

matter.

This measure does not take away the Constitutional authority of the Governor but does allow for the important

needs to be addressed.

Topic Rewind: Transportation Survey 

As you can see from the results below, the majority of respondents were supportive of the transportation

proposals. I expected to see support for the gas tax increase, as that was the general feedback I received at the

Town Halls. However, the fact that over 50% favored a ½ cent sales tax for transit was a surprise. I should mention

that I received several e-mails to clarify that this issue is not a simple “yes or no” and some wanted to explain in

more detail their thoughts. The reason that I chose to format the survey in this way is that I wanted to give you a

taste of what it is often like here at the Legislature. There are many issues in which I have to decide to vote green

or to vote red. As you can tell from this small Transportation survey, this is not always an easy task.

I do want to highlight how close the results were. I attribute this to the wide variety of mindsets and opinions in

Senate District 44. I am so proud to represent a district that is comprised of strong minded, independent thinking

citizens. I stand with you.