Brown, Sparks get input at town meeting
The meeting started out with Brown and Sparks giving an update about last year's legislative session and a projection of some of the hot issues to face this session.
But it quickly turned to include discussion on other key priorities for Freeborn County residents, specifically, health care.
After listening to the legislative priorities, several members of the community who represented the nursing home industry explained their frustrations with the current funding system for facilities like their own. They talked of the challenges that come with preparing for the aging population.
Others questioned whether Minnesota might ever pass a statewide policy to make sure everyone is insured.
Brown and Sparks confirmed that the current health care system isn't working well for the state and noted that it's an issue they hear about regularly.
"Health care reform is a major issue," Sparks said. "We hear about it everywhere we go. We really need to make some major changes."
Brown and Sparks said the No. 1 priority for this year's Legislature, however, is the capital investment, or bonding, bill. This fall, members of the Senate and the House traveled around the state looking at different bonding requests.
Sparks said they saw nearly $4 billion in requests, but probably only $1 billion can be passed.
Locally, the North Edgewater Park landfill project is vying for some of those bonding funds.
"We will do everything we can to get funding," he said of the North Edgewater Park landfill project.
This project recently did not make Gov. Tim Pawlenty's bonding list.
Sparks said other key issues for this year's Legislature will be transportation, public safety, the environment, the new SEED initiative, property tax relief and consumer protection initiatives.
