Apple Valley, Rosemount legislators discuss upcoming session -MN
By Erica Christoffer Sun Newspapers (Created 12/30/2004 3:48:11 PM)
A projected $700 million deficit, K-12 funding, a bonding bill and transportation are only a few of the issues the legislators from Apple Valley and Rosemount will address during the upcoming 2005 state legislative session.
The representation has changed slightly, however, since last year. Sen. Chris Gerlach, R, will begin his first session in the Senate representing District 37, which serves Apple Valley and Burnsville. Gerlach won a special election this past summer to fill the remaining two years of the term vacated by Dave Knutson.
Rep. Lloyd Cybart, R, now represents House District 37A, defeating Shelly Madore, DFL, to win his first term in office. The seat formerly belonged to Gerlach.
And long-time legislator Rep. Dennis Ozment, R, will begin his 11th term representing residents in Rosemount and Apple Valley House District 37B.
As the session gets underway Jan. 4, local legislators are also expected to discuss a statewide smoking ban, health care and environmental issues.
Sen. Chris Gerlach
Passing the Cedar Avenue Bus Rapid Transit is Gerlach’s top priority for his district. Last year, $10 million was dedicated for the project in the bonding bill that passed in the House but failed in the Senate.
“We’re getting short changed from MnDOT and the Met Council in the Dakota County area,” Gerlach said. “We’re only getting 34 cents on the dollar from our gas tax contributions as well.”
As far as light rail, Gerlach said it is too expensive and requires too many subsidies.
“It seems to be more about local economic development than it does moving people from point A to point B,” Gerlach said. “Bus lines seem to be about a fourth of the cost and they’re flexible in that you can change routes and you can change them to meet changing demographic patterns.”
Gerlach opposes a gas tax increase under the current distribution formula, which puts Dakota County as one of 11 counties that pays more than it receives.
“We need to equalize that out a little bit,” Gerlach said. “The money is not going to where it’s needed.”
Gerlach said he would not support a state-enacted smoking ban because he said the issue will take care of itself though the free market.
“More and more restaurants and establishments are going smoke free because they find that in the marketplace, their customers demand it,” Gerlach said. “We don’t have to have the government jump in on everything and dictate it. Let’s let it follow its natural course and you’ll find more and more smoke-free places over time.”
On health care, Gerlach said he expects legislation regarding federal conformity with the health savings accounts.
“We have to start here and that’s going to help kick-start the health savings account market,” he said.
Gerlach also foresees a proposal to reduce tax assessments on small businesses for health care by raising the cigarette tax. It will mean lower premium costs for employers and employees. However, Gerlach said he is undecided on the issue.
In terms of funding for K-12 education, Gerlach said he would support an increase.
“I don’t intend on raising taxes. I think there’s enough wiggle room left in the budget. It’s just a question of the decisions we have to make,’’ he said. “The goal is to achieve that inflationary increase.”
Gerlach said the budget for Health and Human Services is projected to increase by 20 percent. He said he hopes for less of an increase to cover costs in education as well as the projected deficit.
“You can’t take the compassion out of it,” Gerlach said. Health and Human Services needs to serve those who truly need the safety net, he said, as well as connecting people with their health care decisions and the costs and bring competition into the health care marketplace.
Gerlach called the projected deficit of $700 million “manageable.”
As for the bonding bill and the Minnesota Zoo’s request for exhibit expansion funds, Gerlach said he supports reviving the state institution.
“It’s time now for the Legislature to step up and fulfill their obligation and make sure that the zoo has what it needs to be successful,” Gerlach said. “I don’t know what the exact dollar amount will be, but I’ll be supportive of whatever the governor comes forth with.”
Last year the zoo requested $68 million from the state and Gov. Tim Pawlenty proposed a dedication of $34 million. However, because the bonding bill never passed, the zoo didn’t see any appropriation.
The thread that runs through all the various topics this year is “we have to get the job done,” Gerlach said. “I’m excited about it. I’m coming at this stuff from a whole different angle now.”
Sen. Chris Gerlach can be reached at 651-296-4120 or 952-432-4100 or by e-mail at sen.chris.gerlach@senate.mn.
Rep. Lloyd Cybart
While door knocking during his campaign this fall, Cybart said one of the most common comments he heard regarded the gridlock last year in the Legislature.
The freshman representative hopes to move issues forward in the House while representing his district during the 2005 session.
One issue he hopes to address is the bonding bill. Cybart said he supports the $34 million the governor had earmarked for the Minnesota Zoo’s exhibit expansion.
“I’m sure it will be along the same lines,” Cybart said.
As far as a smoking ban, Cybart said he supports local control rather than the state taking on the issue.
Health care is also going to be a huge issue this session, Cybart said, “with the runaway costs, something has to be done.”
Ideas he foresees being discussed are health savings accounts, tort reform and curbing state expenses, specifically in Health and Human Services and its anticipated 20 percent budget increase, he said. That increase will need to be dealt with to keep deficit spending down, Cybart said.
On the issue of a gas tax increase, Cybart said he would not support it under the current distribution formula.
“It’s a lop-sided formula, the rural areas get more than the suburban areas,” Cybart said. “If we raise the gas tax it’s still a disproportionate amount of the taxes coming back to Dakota County to fix our problems.”
Cybart’s top priority in transportation is the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line along Cedar Avenue as well as similar transit options along the Interstate 35W corridor in Burnsville to alleviate congestion and bottlenecks into the cities. Last year, $10 million was dedicated to BRT in the House’s bonding bill, funds Cybart hopes to secure this year.
In terms of K-12 education funding, Cybart said he supports increasing appropriations.
“I don’t think that can be held flat for another two years,” he said.
To deal with the projected $700 million deficit, Cybart said he supports a combination of using reserve funds and finding alternative ways of expanding the state’s tax base.
“For this coming budget, I don’t see us raising taxes to fix that,” Cybart said. “I don’t think it’s as dire a situation as some people make it out to be.”
“I’m excited to get started,” Cybart said. “The reason I wanted to do this is materializing before my eyes, and that’s to make a difference and to serve my fellow man.”
Rep. Lloyd Cybart can be reached at 651-296-5506 or 952-454-3175 or by e-mail at rep.lloyd.cybart@house.mn.
Rep. Dennis Ozment
As the chair of the Environment and Natural Resources Finance Committee last session, Ozment said he plans to continue his work on the state’s priorities in terms of funding in those areas this year.
Ozment will also work on the Impaired Waters Program, a federal mandate in which states have to identify pollutants within its bodies of water.
“We now have to start putting together a plan of action on how we’re going to deal with those impairments and clean up our water,” Ozment said. “And, if we do not do that, the federal government threatens to put sanctions on the state of Minnesota.”
Ozment said the entire state has an obligation to deal with the water quality issues. The program will need funding from the Legislature this year and Ozment said his committee is drafting a bill for the state to eliminate those pollution problems as cost efficiently as possible.
“As long as we’re making adequate progress, we’re doing OK,” Ozment said, however, the state does not have long-term funding sources for the program. “We know that if we don’t deal with it aggressively, the time is kind of running out. I think that it can be done.”
Rather then a smoking ban, Ozment supports improving indoor air quality levels through establishing standards for the air rather then going after specific causes.
“Then the owner of the property can decide as to how they’re going to improve the air in order to meet the standard,” he said. “I don’t think we should be picking out one pollutant and think that it somehow will resolve the air quality problem. Let’s measure the air quality and improvement regardless of what’s contaminating it.”
Ozment said that health care will be a major issue in 2005 and he will be eager to hear what proposals come out of the Health and Human Services Committee.
“I do know we have to get the cost of health care under control,” Ozment said. “It’s the biggest driver right now of what’s happening with our state budget. It’s eating up the money faster than the economy is actually growing.”
Ozment said he would support a gas tax increase only if there was a change in the distribution formula.
“Right now a gas tax increase would enrich the dollars that are going to rural Minnesota inappropriately and it would not help us in the metropolitan area at all,” he said. “The system is broken in my opinion.”
His transportation priorities focus on securing funds for the Cedar Avenue Bus Rapid Transit. The dedicated roads would improve mass transit and assist transportation needs in the south suburban area, he said.
By achieving rapid busing to the Mall of America, Ozment said that riders then could take advantage of the light rail system.
Ozment said he does support an increase in funding to K-12 education and would seek funds within the existing state dollars first.
“Education should be funded by the state of Minnesota and local [operating] levies should not be necessary,” Ozment said. “Our constitution says the state of Minnesota is supposed to be setting up a public education system that has equal opportunities all across the state.”
Ozment is championing the Minnesota Zoo’s request in the bonding bill, for the full amount of $68 million.
“I’m hopeful that we can get full funding for their needs so that we can get that state agency really living up to its full potential,” Ozment said. “It needs a significant upgrade to remain competitive.”
Rep. Dennis Ozment can be reached at 651-296-4306 or 651-423-1331 or by e-mail at rep.dennis.ozment@house.mn.
http://www.mnsun.com/story.asp?city=Apple_Valley&story=149839
* 4 MORE ARTICLES FOUND ON CANDIDATES USING "SMOKING" BY SUN PAPERS
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http://www.mnsun.com/story.asp?city=Long_Lake&story=150079
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Report on CPS to call for big changes-TX
12/30/2004 12:34 PM
By: Associated Press
SAN ANTONIO -- A legislative report soon to be released reportedly will call for "sweeping and systemic" changes in how the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services operates.
As chairman of the state House Human Services Committee, state Rep. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, ordered the comprehensive investigation after a series of deaths of children under the supervision of Child Protective Services.
Uresti told WOAI Radio in San Antonio that among the sweeping changes will be in how caseworkers are trained. It also calls for dramatic funding increases for the Department of Family and Protective Services, higher pay for caseworkers and reduced caseloads for individual caseworkers.
The report could be released as soon as Thursday, Uresti said. Last month, he filed legislation calling for a $1-a-pack increase in the state cigarette tax to pay for CPS improvements, but even that won't be enough to meet the changes needed, Uresti said.
http://www.news8austin.com/content/headlines/?ArID=128035&SecID=2
Pub nights out will go up in smoke
PATRICK BROWN
FOR most of us, the festive season means one thing - a lot of parties. Be it the office annual bash or meeting up with friends for that once-a-year reunion, the evening usually ends up in the local pub where over a pint we solve the problems of the world and mark the passing of another year.
But this year may be the penultimate festive season when the evening down the local goes in the time-honoured Scottish fashion, because from spring 2006 the Scottish Executive has something else in mind - it wants to ban smoking in enclosed public spaces.
For better or worse, this will change the way we socialise in the 1000 pubs and clubs across Edinburgh. Indeed, earlier this month the Scottish Executive published its plans in the Smoking Bill which the Scottish Parliament is now consulting on.
In April of this year, a smoking ban came into effect in Ireland and already we have seen a major change in the way our Irish cousins have a night out. If you want to have a smoke then you can’t do that in the pub so you will head for the door and spend some time outside with a cigarette in one hand and a pint in the other, watching the world go by all from the comfort of the pavement.
If you are lucky then your local has a beer garden and you can nip outside to sit on a bench and hopefully have a patio heater to keep the cold at bay - who knows, you might even end up with singed eyebrows if your landlord has misjudged the heat level. There’s a new gag in Ireland that so many smokers now clutter up the pavements outside of the city’s pubs that if you want to have a breath of fresh air you have to go inside.
So does it really matter whether a smoking ban is introduced in Scotland? Well, for your local landlord it does. In the months that a smoking ban in Ireland has been in force a few worrying trends have emerged. The Irish Vintners Federation, which represents 6000 pubs across Ireland, has estimated that 4000 jobs have already been lost, with other studies showing that beer sales up until August have fallen by ten per cent across Ireland and by 14 per cent in Dublin.
SO what, I hear the average pub regular ask? Well the point is that for most pubs even a small drop in turnover can account for a big part of your profits - especially for those in cities where there is a lot of competition for trade - and a drop in those profits could be the difference between opening your doors or shutting up shop for good.
The pub regulars could find themselves without their local, never mind on the pavement, if the Scottish Executive gets its way and introduces a smoking ban in just 15 months.
The licensed trade in Scotland supports the Scottish Executive’s aim of introducing more smoke-free areas in Scotland but we don’t support a total smoking ban in 15 months. Neither, it seems, does the Scottish public, with just 13 per cent supporting a total smoking ban in pubs and clubs.
In our submission to the Scottish Executive’s Consultation on Smoking in Public Places, we put forward proposals which in three years would have resulted in 50 per cent of the total floor space in Scotland’s pub and clubs being non-smoking, would have banned smoking at the bar in all licensed premises and would have banned smoking in all areas where hot food was being served.
The industry didn’t underestimate the challenge it would face to implement these measures in licensed premises in Scotland. We proposed them as a means of taking forward the Scottish Executive’s objective of reducing smoking in licensed premises, giving our customers a choice of a non-smoking environment, whilst managing the economic and social impact of any change in licensed premises.
Unfortunately, the Scottish Executive has so far rejected our plan and look set to proceed with its proposal for a smoking ban in enclosed public places. If the situation in Ireland is repeated, we estimate that a smoking ban in Scotland will cost the beer and pub industry tens of millions of pounds and cost thousands of jobs, hitting traditional pubs in Scotland’s cities and rural areas hardest and tearing the heart out of communities across Scotland.
THE pubs and clubs along Edinburgh’s best-known streets in the city centre, like George Street, will be better positioned than most to meet the challenge, but Edinburgh also boasts unique community pubs based only a bus ride away from the city centre, and it is in those outlying areas where businesses will suffer most.
Since the Scottish Executive’s announcement in November of its smoking ban plans, the UK Secretary of State for Health, John Reid - ironically a Scottish MP - announced proposals for tackling smoking in pubs and clubs in England and Wales which stopped short of a total smoking ban. He got it right, the Scottish Executive hasn’t. The Scottish Beer and Pub Association supports the objective of introducing smoke-free areas, but we believe the Scottish Executive’s proposals are flawed, and have the potential to fundamentally damage Scotland’s hospitality industry, costing thousands of jobs and tens of millions of pounds.
We urge the Scottish Executive and the Scottish Parliament to think again before proceeding with the current proposals and to instead work with the industry to introduce the change we all want to see in a considered way.
If we fail in getting that extra time to take our customers with us towards smoke-free areas in pubs then next festive season will be the last Christmas without some member of the party having to nip outside at some point for a smoke.
Spending some time outside on the pavement will certainly add a new dimension to the traditional Edinburgh festive experience. Savour the traditional festive pub spirit this year, it could be one of your last.
• Patrick Browne is chief executive of the Scottish Beer and Pub Association
http://news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=1475432004
Pub cigs ban ends as profits dive -UK
A pub landlord who banned smoking in his hostelry because its effects were damaging his eyesight has relented - after his profits took a dive.
Dave Diamond, of the Blue Bell Inn at Old Ellerby in East Yorkshire lifted the ban after only six weeks.
Mr Diamond had been warned by doctors at Hull's eye hospital that cigarette smoke was exacerbating a medical problem with his left eye.
"My eye's no worse than before", he told BBC News.
Regulars
"The staff at the hospital said cigarette smoke wasn't helping with my problem."
Regulars at the pub were told they would have to go outside for a cigarette, but after a few weeks the pub's takings had dropped by a third.
Although most of his customers accepted the ban a couple of 'passing trade' clients had balked at the move.
"Ours is a pub where people come for pint. It would be different if we were a foody pub."
"It wasn't easy to start with, although those who wanted to smoke went outside.
"We did have a problem with one or two who were passing customers."
Although the publican started out with the best of intentions, the financial realities of a self-imposed ban forced a rethink.
"After six weeks we realised...our takings were down by a third", said Mr Diamond.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/humber/4134377.stm
New Web Site Pinpoints Harmful Chemicals in Communities
December 3, 2004
National Library of Medicine
Robert Mehnert
Kathy Cravedi
(301) 496-6308 publicinfo@nlm.nih.gov
(Bethesda, Md.)--The National Library of Medicine (NLM), a part of the National Institutes of Health, announces an interactive Web site that shows--on maps--the amount and location of certain toxic chemicals released into the environment in the United States. The site, called TOXMAP, is free and no registration is required. The Web address is (http://toxmap.nlm.nih.gov).
TOXMAP focuses on the geographic distribution of chemical releases, their relative amounts, and their trends over time. This release data comes from industrial facilities around the United States, as reported annually to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). TOXMAP also links to NLM's extensive collection of toxicology and environmental health references, as well as to a rich resource of data on hazardous chemical substances in its TOXNET databases (http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/). There are also fact sheets and summaries about the various chemicals, written by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
For example, a family moving to a new city can locate facilities releasing toxic chemicals by entering the city's name and state, generating a map of facilities in that area. For each facility, information, including location and chemicals released, is provided. Information about the health effects of the specific chemicals identified is also provided.
Dr. Jack Snyder, NLM Associate Director for Specialized Information Services, said, "The National Library of Medicine has a special mission to address toxicology and environmental health needs. TOXMAP is part of this mission, and allows us to serve the public and professionals in a unique way. This Web site allows users to explore maps of what and where chemicals are released and by whom."
"In the last several years, the Library has created a number of Web sites with the consumer in mind," said NLM Director Dr. Donald A.B. Lindberg. "TOXMAP is a prime example. It joins Web resources for consumer health information broadly (MedlinePlus.gov), research studies (ClinicalTrials.gov), and older Americans (NIHSeniorHealth.gov)."
Located in Bethesda, Maryland, the National Library of Medicine, the world's largest library of the health sciences, is a component of the National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/press_releases/toxmap_pr04.html