Rep. Thissen Worries Republican Budget Targets Will Hurt Middle Class Families

Editor's note: Capitol Review is a weekly look at what your state legislators are doing at the Minnesota Capitol—how they're voting, the bills they're writing and the issues they're getting behind. Come back to Richfield Patch every Monday for a new Capitol Review.

The budget battle continued as Republicans submitted their budget targets last week. House Minority Leader Paul Thissen (DFL-Minneapolis), who represents part of Richfield, described the targets as "attacking middle class families" and said the aggressive schedule would not give the public enough time to weigh in, according to a nonpartisan Public Information Services press release.

As the budget debate continues, Richfield Patch will continue to update readers. For a video of Thissen's comments on the budget targets, click .

In other business, the following is a list of bills authored and co-authored by Richfield's legislative representatives:

State Rep. Linda Slocum (DFL-Richfield)

• Co-authored a variety of bills, including: A bill requiring competitive bills and audits for health care program contracts (HF0884); a bill providing Metropolitan regional parks funding from the parks and trails fund (HF0898); a bill defining the term "person" in the Minnesota Constitution (HF0914); a bill modifying charter school revenue formulas (HF1008); a bill ameding the school district lease levy (HF1040); a bill proposing new penalties for repeat offenders of certain motor vehicle property crimes (HF1043).

State Sen. Ken Kelash (DFL-Richfield)

• Authored a bill appropriating funds for minority business development programs. SF0737 was introduced on March 10 and was referred to the Jobs and Economic Growth Committee the same day.

Thissen did not author or co-author any bills last week.