Re-elect Linda Higgins to the Minnesota Senate!

Hello Friends!

Thanks for visiting SenatorLinda.com! Please make sure you vote for me on Tuesday, August 10 in the DFL Primary. I believe I am the strongest candidate in the race, and I ask for your support.

The 2010 legislative session was an odd one. There were some successes and some “missed opportunities.” I’m glad that we will also elect a new governor this year so we can move forward an agenda that helps people throughout Minnesota. It’s been too many years of trying to work around a governor whose best interests are somewhere else.

This year, the legislature sent the governor a very large bonding bill, one that would have put thousands of Minnesotans to work. Governor Pawlenty vetoed hundreds of millions in projects, including several that would have benefited us here in District 58. We did, however, get these projects passed for our district:

• Lowry Avenue bridge replacement ($7 million)
• Minneapolis Emergency Operations center ($750,000)
• Veterans Parks, including Victory Memorial Drive ($2 million)
• Diseased trees and emerald ash borer ($3 million)

In addition, I supported funding for these projects that are near our district:

• Orchestra Hall/Peavey Plaza redevelopment ($16 million)
• Northstar extension from Big Lake to St Cloud ($1 million)
• Metropolitan regional parks ($!0.5 million)
• Hennepin County Medical Center hyperbaric chamber replacement ($5 million)

Projects vetoed by the governor included:

• Funding for MCTC workforce program renovation ($8.6 million)
• Theodore Wirth Park Olympic Training Center ($1 million
• All transit capital funding ($43.5 million)
• Minnesota African American Museum and Cultural Center ($840,000)
• Public housing rehabilitation ($10 million)
• Minneapolis Sculpture Garden and Conservatory ($2 million)

Consumer protection was on my mind this session too. My bill that would take cadmium-laden children’s jewelry off store shelves by 2011 passed. I thought of this bill as a commonsense extension of my bill dealing with lead in children’s products that passed a few years ago. Minnesota continues to lead the way in keeping hazardous materials out of children’s toys, trinkets, and jewelry.

I also was able to successfully author a law to help people who take generic drugs for epilepsy to make it easier for them to protect themselves from unwanted and potentially harmful substitutions in their prescriptions.

We also passed a bill of mine that expands the Military Reservist Economic Injury Loan Program to provide up to $20,000 to recently separated veterans who want to start up a business.

We also passed a bill that designates the third Saturday in June as Juneteenth, recognizing the announcement in Texas of the abolition of slavery – three years after President Lincoln made it the law.

I worked hard this year on a bill that would benefit DBEs – Disadvantaged Business Enterprises, who want to contract for transportation projects that include federal funds. We will continue to work on the issues that face the DBEs. Meanwhile, grants for job training and capacity building are available to strengthen the DBEs.

I authored legislation that defined domestic partners and provides the right to carry out the final wishes of their deceased partners, and allows them to bring legal action in the case of wrongful death. This commonsense, fairness legislation was vetoed by the governor.

I chaired the Public Safety Budget Division the past four years. With the state facing a difficult budget situation, I successfully advocated for a smaller percentage of cuts to public safety and corrections. We pared back, but saved, the Sentence to Service program and, limited cuts to domestic violence, sexual assault, and youth programs.

I also was able to be one of the conference committee members who successfully acted to protect about 500 Minneapolis employees (now mostly retired) from losing their retirement benefits they spent their careers building up. Their pension program, Minneapolis Employee Retirement Fund (MERF) was dangerously close to not being able to pay its obligations. The legislation increased the contribution by employers and employees and reduces retirement benefits.

And did you hear about the amazing thing happened in December? A law that I authored and passed in 2008 was cited by the United States Supreme Court in its ruling that overturned a death penalty in Florida! Minnesota Statute §609.115, Subd. 10 provides a special process at sentencing if a defendant is a veteran and has been diagnosed as having a mental illness by a qualified psychiatrist. Minnesota is one of only two states (California is the other) that provide this kind of accommodation for our veterans. In its order, the court wrote, "Our Nation has a long tradition of according leniency to veterans in recognition of their service, especially for those who fought on the front lines as Porter did. Moreover, the relevance of Porter's extensive combat experience is not only that he served honorably under extreme hardship and gruesome conditions, but also that the jury might find mitigating the intense stress and mental and emotional toll that combat took on Porter."

I'm proud that I was able to pass this bill to help veterans who may be struggling with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or other illnesses that result from their service to our country. It is only one of several groundbreaking laws I have been able to pass in my years in the Minnesota Senate.

I have a strong record of accomplishment at the Senate. As chair of the Public Safety Budget Division, I have worked to ensure safe homes and streets for all Minnesotans. For the past three years, I have carried the Omnibus Public Safety Finance bills, each of which provide approximately $2 billion in funding for law enforcement, crime victim services, youth crime intervention, prisons, the judicial system, and offender reentry programs.

In addition, I am the chief author of some first-in-the-nation laws. Our predatory lending laws are now the toughest in the country. Legislator friends from other states are amazed we could pass such a far-reaching bill. I also carried the bill that bans phosphorus from lawn fertilizer, protecting our state's lakes and rivers. My "e-waste" bill sets parameters for electronic waste recycling, enacting a producer-responsibility model that has been used in other states.

I love being a member of the Health and Family Security Committee. Working with nurses, physicians and other healthcare professionals, I have been able to pass bills to protect healthcare workers with a "safe needle" bill and a "safe patient handling" bill.
Some of my other successful legislative accomplishments include:

• Enacted tenant protection legislation.
• Changed regulations of scrap dealers to curb the growing problem of scrap metal theft.
• Protected children by passing regulations on the sale of jewelry containing lead.
• Extended parents' dependent health care coverage to children up to age 25 regardless of child's student status.
• Obtained $1.2 million each year for summer jobs for Minneapolis youth through Learn to Earn and other summer employment programs.
• Authored the Family Assets Initiative, also called individual development accounts.

In previous years, I have brought home millions of dollars for projects in our senate district, including the following:

• Heritage Park
• Humboldt Greenway
• The new bridge on Plymouth Avenue near Theodore Wirth Park
• Bassett's Creek Trail
• The Minneapolis Urban League's Glover-Sudduth Center
• Minneapolis Community and Technical College's library
• St. Anthony Falls Mill City Museum
• Schubert Center for the Performing Arts
• Lowry Bridge
• and more!

State government affects all of us. As your senator, I try to stand up for what's right and know when to compromise. I am fiscally responsible but I also advocate for more funding for our neighbors who in need. I work well with other senators, city and county officials, and other Minnesotans from around the state. And I know that my first responsibility is to the voters who elected me!

I ask for your vote in the DFL Primary on August 10.

Best wishes,
State Senator Linda Higgins
Proudly representing District 58, North and Downtown Minneapolis