Archive for the ‘Mary Franson’ Category

Mary Franson proposed a bill in the last session that would’ve punished parents who subjected their daughters to female genital mutilation. Since it didn’t pass last year, she’s proposing it again this year. As this editorial powerfully states, “Franson deserves 100 percent support from her fellow House members as well as lawmakers in the Senate.”

I’ll just add that this legislation deserves the governor’s signature, too. Additionally, anyone that doesn’t support this legislation should be immediately thrown out of the legislature. I can’t state this opinion emphatically enough.

According to the editorial, it “is currently a felony in Minnesota to perform a mutilation, but the actions of the parents are not properly addressed. Under Franson’s bill, parents could be more severely punished, and have their children taken away.”

Anyone that subjects their daughter to this horrific treatment is a beast who needs to be locked up immediately and for a long time. Why people haven’t supported Rep. Franson’s legislation enthusiastically is beyond explanation. This isn’t a partisan issue. It’s the right thing to do.

When it comes to child care issues, Rep. Mary Franson is the go-to person. As I do each week, I get an e-letter update from Rep. Franson. This week, the highlight of Rep. Franson’s e-letter was her work on the child care issue. The letter states “A shocking report recently revealed upwards of $100 million of state childcare subsidies being allocated to fraudulent childcare facilities, and then funneled overseas – possibly ending up in the hands of terrorist organizations. In the days following this report, I have received countless calls and emails from people who are rightfully outraged with this level of fraud at the expense of our state’s taxpayers.”

It continues, saying “In response to this concerning report, House Republicans unveiled legislation to prevent childcare fraud and ensure fraudulent public program dollars aren’t sent to countries on the US State Department travel ban list.”

Included were the highlights of the proposal:

• Allows Department of Human Services (DHS) to use “Immediate Temporary Suspensions” to close childcare providers that do not fully cooperate with investigators if they are suspected of fraud.
• Creates criminal and civil penalties for those who transfer fraudulent public program funds to countries on the US State Department travel ban list.
• Creates increased fraud prevention measures in public programs including Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) and other welfare programs.
• Directs the Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) to investigate CCAP.

Additionally, on the House floor on Tuesday, I successfully offered an amendment to a bill to mandate DHS take money from its existing budget and allocate it for training for childcare licensing agencies to identify and prevent fraud in the child care assistance program. This is, by far, the biggest Minnesota news story this year. In this post, I wrote that the Dayton administration ignored this fraud:

According to Stillman, he alerted a number of people in DHS, including the Commissioner’s Chief of Staff, with the following message: “Significant amount of these defrauded dollars are being sent overseas to countries and organizations connected to entities known to fund terrorists and terrorism.”

Finally, I’m as appalled as Rep. Franson about this:

I remain deeply troubled that nearly $100 million dollars per year have been fraudulently billed to the state of Minnesota. This breach of public trust indicates that DHS has failed in its duty to protect Minnesota taxpayers, and ensure childcare assistance dollars are going to those who truly need it to afford childcare. This bill starts the conversation as the legislature now intends to prevent future cases of fraud and hold DHS accountable.

The Dayton administration is filled with cronies who weren’t held accountable. This is why a legislator shouldn’t be elected governor. They’ve never run things. Gov. Dayton, as a former US senator, never ran things. That shows in this list of Dayton administration mistakes:

Unfortunately, the widespread fraud of childcare assistance funds is just the latest in a series of blunders by the Dayton Administration’s state agencies. This repeated pattern is highlighted by complications with MNsure’s rollout; MN IT Services’ failed handling of MNLARS; and the inability of DHS to accurately bill tens of thousands of MNcare enrollees. Failures such as these demonstrate the lack of accountability within this administration, and each instance of mismanagement has cost taxpayers millions of dollars. Simply stated, Minnesotans have grown frustrated with this administration’s inability to effectively provide services through taxpayer-funded government programs.

The thieves in the DFL got embarrassed this week when Rob Undersander testified in front of a House committee. Specifically, he testified that “he received food stamps for 19 months to prove a point: Not everyone who gets the aid needs it.” The DFL, meanwhile, was livid. Here’s what happened.

During his testimony, the “Waite Park resident did it to call attention to a bill from Rep. Jeff Howe, R-Rockville, that would require personal assets to be included in the government’s formula for food stamp recipients. Undersander legally collected food stamps during a period in which he had little income, the key criteria for receiving the benefit.” The article states that Undersander is a millionaire.

That made DFL heads explode. “Rep. Laurie Halverson, DFL-Eagan, joined others in her party to criticize Undersander. ‘I am finding it incredibly offensive that $6,000 in benefits were taken,’ Halvorson said. Added Rep. Jennifer Schultz, DFL-Duluth: ‘I think it is inappropriate to apply for these benefits.'” Meanwhile, “Rep. John Considine, DFL-Mankato, said ‘You knew this was wrong and you did it anyway. I find it pretty despicable. … I am just sorry there is no way we can prosecute you.'”

Undersander isn’t the thief in this instance. As far as we know, he didn’t lie on his application. If he had, they’d prosecute him.

Rep. Mary Franson, R-Alexandria, praised the Waite Park man. “I am really sorry about the line of questioning that has been put forth, and the accusations,” she said. “You should be able to come to a committee without being accused of being a thief.”

If the legislature is going to write sloppy bills, people will take advantage of the loopholes. If the DFL wants to complain, they’re best off complaining to the person in the mirror. They wrote the bill, then voted for it, too.

The DFL owns this problem. As usual, Republicans have submitted a bill to clean up the DFL’s mess.

Technorati: Rob Undersander, Jeff Howe, Mary Franson, Welfare Reform, MNGOP, John Considine, Laurie Halverson, Jennifer Schultz, DFL

I just wrote this post about Rose and John Lang. They’re farmers near Richmond, MN. Rep. Mary Franson represents a rural district with lots of farmers. This morning, Rep. Franson took to Twitter to tell people about the crisis-causing health insurance premiums. One story she told talked about Vern. According to the notification letter Vern recently received, Vern’s monthly premium for 2016 was $961.12. According to the letter, Vern’s plan isn’t a MNsure plan so it isn’t available anymore. The cheapest plan available to him through MNsure will charge him $1,898.56 a month.

According to Tina Liebling, “Obamacare was set up to make a failed insurance system work better. People need health care, not insurance.” That’s DFL propaganda. Further, it’s a dodge from the heart of the matter. The ACA is failing so badly that people who have health insurance can’t afford to use it. One of those people is Mary Katherine Ham. Mary Katherine wrote about her situation in this article for the Federalist. What she wrote is heartbreaking. Here’s the heartbreaking part:

This year, my premium is going up 96 percent. Ninety-six percent. My monthly payment, which was the amount of a decent car payment, is now the size of a moderate mortgage. The president refers to these for thousands of citizens as ‘a few bugs’ when to us it feels like a flameout. For this astronomical payment, I get a plan with an astronomical deductible that my healthy family of three will likely never hit except in the most catastrophic of circumstances.

Rep. Liebling, the ACA created a situation where people are insured but they’re paying for most of their medical costs out of pocket. As for the good things that the ACA has done, the truth is that Minnesota’s pre-ACA system was insuring a high percentage of Minnesotans at a fraction of the cost that farmers are getting hit with in these notices. Here’s Vern’s notification letter:

The fact that Gov. Dayton, Tina Liebling and the DFL are attempting to defend the indefensible is offensive. Repealing the ACA isn’t throwing out the baby with the bathwater. The ACA is nothing but bathwater.

In the end, in-home child care providers rejected AFSCME’s forced unionization plan. In fact, the vote wasn’t that close. According to this article, the “vote was 1,014-392 in a Tuesday count by the state Bureau of Mediation Services from ballots mailed to providers last month.”
Don Davis, who wrote this article, is right in saying that the “election was a defeat for Gov. Mark Dayton and other Democrats who promoted the unionization effort. Republicans declared the results show that childcare providers do not want state interference.”

When the DFL pushed the forced unionization vote down the child care providers’ throats, LFR reported on the fight between the child care providers and the DFL’s special interest allies. Though I wasn’t there at the Capitol, I watched until 6:00 am via the House’s livestream. That’s how I gathered the information that went into this post.

The DFL loves to talk about how they’re the party of the little guy. That’s BS. Child care providers rejected AFSCME unionization by a 72%-28% margin. The only time they side with the little guy is when the little guy agrees with the DFL’s special interest allies. Period.

Senate Minority Leader David Hann, R-Eden Prairie, said Dayton administration “did not follow the law” when it set up the election, ruling that many providers did not qualify for ballots.

“This vote should be the final word on Dayton’s shameful effort to pay back the AFSCME union for their early support of his campaign for governor,” Hann said. “Senate Republicans will now push to have the law repealed in the face of such strong opposition from providers and parents.”

House Speaker Kurt Daudt, R-Crown, joined Hann in delivering harsh reaction. “Gov. Dayton tried and failed to rig an election that would have increased childcare costs for hardworking parents and caused headaches for independent providers.”

Sen. Bakk will block the GOP’s attempt to repeal the law because he can’t afford to piss off AFSCME in an election year. It’s that simple. Sen. Bakk isn’t about to fight the special interests that contribute to DFL campaigns and comprise the DFL’s GOTV operation.

Technorati: Child Care Providers, Small Businesses, Mary Franson, Kurt Daudt, David Hann, MNGOP, Mike Nelson, Tom Bakk, Special Interests, DFL

One of my favorite GOP legislators, Mary Franson, apparently has a challenger for the GOP endorsement for HD-8B:

Greetings all Conservatives of the Republican Party of Otter Tail County!!!

After much deliberation, thoughtful prayer and talking with my family, I have made the decision to seek the Republican endorsement for the seat in the Minnesota State Legislative House of Representatives belonging to District 8B.

According to the Otter Tail County Constitution, any elected member of the Leadership Committee, except state central delegates, who announce their candidacy for Federal or State elected public office shall be placed on immediate leave of absence. I have talked with Representative Franson and told her personally of my intentions and will hope that we will all act in the spirit of a conservative family and make decisions that will best serve our district and our state. You all know me to be issue based, and with that I ask that we realize that the true threat to our freedoms is the march of liberalism and those ugly tentacles that would destroy our rural way of life, our families, and our economy.[emphasis added]

I have notified our deputy chair, Jim Eitzen and he will be taking over the reins and the gavel. I have started work on our County convention for March and will turn that over to Jim and others to make that convention highly successful. I trust that we will all pull together behind our acting chair and his committee to continue the outstanding work of Otter Tail County.

As always best to you, God’s peace and thank you for the opportunity to work with and for you!!

Sue

As I said in the opening paragraph, Mary is one of my favorite conservative legislators so I won’t pretend to be unbiased. That said, Ms. Nelson has the right to challenge my friend if she chooses. The purpose of this post is to simply tell both ladies that this race is now on my radar screen so they’d better play nice. Think Reagan’s Eleventh Commandment. (PS- That goes for associates or supporters, too.)

Since Ms. Nelson brought it up, I’ll pay attention to whether she runs an issues-oriented campaign. I hope she does.

Finally, one of the reasons I like Mary is because of the leadership role she’s taken in defending the First Amendment in the context of fighting the DFL’s forced unionization scheme. Mary has fought the right fight against a formidable opponent because it’s the right fight to pick. Mary, along with Hollee Saville, were the best leaders in the fight to protect small business owners and the First Amendment.
Technorati: Mary Franson, Hollee Saville, First Amendment, Small Businesses, Forced Unionization, Leadership, MNGOP, Sue Nelson, Endorsement Fight, Reagan’s Eleventh Commandment

Rep. Sarah Anderson issued this statement about the DFL’s tax increases:

Dear Neighbors,

As a kid, you dreaded hearing the phrase, “other figures sold separately,” at the end of a toy commercial. It meant you weren’t really getting what you were seeing on the TV. That’s kind of how I feel about the upcoming special session in September.

Shortly after session ended in May, I heard some Democrats say they wanted to repeal the business to business taxes included in the final tax bill. However, when the opportunity to stop the bleeding from this tax came upon us with the proposed special session, we only got the “other figures sold separately” line. This refusal to correct a “bad tax policy” means Minnesota will lose businesses and the jobs these businesses provide along with consumers being forced to pay more for products.

The B2B tax on storage and warehouse services alone could cost our state over 7,000 jobs. Four states who tried the warehouse tax repealed it within six months. One state repealed it in two days.

Today, we heard from former Democrat Speaker Margaret Kelliher asking the Legislature to repeal the telecommunication tax. It is estimated this tax will cost our state 3,300 jobs. I agree with the former Speaker that we need to take action now and repeal all of the business to business taxes. See her comments here: http://kstp.com/article/stories/S3134462.shtml?cat=89

It’s not just jobs we stand to lose; every Minnesota family will pay more for groceries, medicine, personal care products, and much more. The Department of Revenue study notes that families will pay more when new business tax increases are passed on to consumers. In fact, this same study shows that the people who earn the least amount of money will pay the most for the $2.4 billion in tax and fee increases passed by the Democrat-controlled Legislature and Governor’s office.

Though the Democrat leaders announced today that they won’t fix this problem in the September special session, my Republican colleagues and I will continue to encourage them to correct this huge mistake. We cannot afford to lose any more jobs and we should not force higher prices on already struggling families.

The DFL imposed huge new tax increases this session, including a telecommunications equipment sales tax, a farm equipment repair sales tax, the warehouse sales tax and a gigantic cigarette tax increase.

I wrote here about Speaker Kelliher’s call for repealing the telecommunications equipment sales tax. I wrote here about Gov. Dayton, Speaker Thissen and Sen. Bakk breaking their promise to farmers. I wrote here about how the cigarette tax is hurting convenience stores, especially in the Moorhead area. This morning, Rep. Mary Franson confirms the damage being done to convenience stores in this tweet:

met with a wholesaler in my district this week. C-stores along border struggling.

Gov. Dayton and the DFL have made overtures towards green energy companies in an attempt to lure them here from other states. Unfortunately, they’re punishing companies already operating in Minnesota. Playing favorites with the economy is what helped drive the US economy into the Great Stagnation. Apparently, Gov. Dayton and the DFL didn’t learn. Apparently, they think that they can follow the same pattern and get better results. That’s either foolishness or arrogance. Either way, it’s counterproductive, which is what Gov. Dayton’s and this DFL legislature’s reputation should be.

Technorati: Sarah Anderson, Special Session, Tax Increase Repeal, Mary Franson, MNGOP, Telecommunications Sales Tax, Warehouse Tax, Farm Equipment Repair Sales Tax, Cigarette Tax, Tax Increases, Broken Promises, Farmers, Convenience Stores, Mark Dayton, Paul Thissen, Tom Bakk, DFL