Hann Doesn’t Expect Results From Funding All-Day Kindergarten

‘Simply spending more money and calling it reform doesn’t work,’ the state senator argued.

Sen. David Hann (R-District 48) doesn’t think funding for all-day kindergarten will help the state much in solving its education problems. “We’ve had all-day kindergarten in place for a long time in this state,” Hann, whose district includes Eden Prairie and Minnetonka, told Capitol Report host Julie Bartkey. “If there had been a huge impact as a result of that, we would’ve seen it already. Most school districts already do a significant amount of all-day kindergarten.” The bill provides $485 million over two years in new spending for public schools. It sets aside $238 million to boost the basic school funding formula, with funding increases of 1.5 percent each year. A new all-day kindergarten program funded by the state will receive $134 …

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Hann: New Taxes Would ‘Hit Everybody in the State of Minnesota’

The Eden Prairie legislator condemned taxes like the proposed tax on business-to-business services.

Sen. David Hann (R-District 48) on Thursday criticized DFL tax proposals that he said would hurt Minnesotans and only chip away at the state’s budget problems. At a press conference, the Senate minority leader, whose district includes Eden Prairie, rejected measures like the proposed tax on business-to-business services. “These are taxes that are going to hit everybody in the State of Minnesota—and they’re unnecessary,” he said. “We’ve got a $600 billion problem. You don’t need to raise $2 billion to $3 billion in revenue to solve a $600 billion problem. So with all respect to the governor and his plan, yeah he’s keeping a commitment but it’s not anything that’s going to be good for the people of the state.” Hann also said legislators are …

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Minnetonka, Eden Prairie State Senators: One Votes For, One Against Same Sex Marriage

Minnesota appears to be on the fast track to becoming the 12th state in the nation to allow marriages between same-sex partners.

Minnetonka and Eden Prairie's representation in the Minnesota State Senate cast one vote for same sex marriage and one vote against on Monday.  The Senate gave final approval on the bill with a 37-30 vote.  Gov. Mark Dayton has said he will sign the bill into law, and the law would take affect on Aug. 1 of this year.  House File 1054/Senate File 925 changes the term "marriage" in state law to "civil marriage," and expands the definition of who can get married from "a man and a woman" to "two persons." Republican Senate Minority Leader David Hann, who represents Eden Prairie and a portion of Minnetonka in Senate District 48, voted against the bill. Sen. David Hann (R-District 48) took exception to accusations that opponents of the same-sex …

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Capitol Review: Modifying Tax Exemption for Clothes, Restoring School Payment

Legislators get busy with bills on their first week.

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 Minnetonka Patch every Monday for a new Capitol Review. Senators Terri Bonoff, Rest and Eaton introduced-- S.F. No. 9: A bill for an act relating to taxation; sales and use; reducing the sales and use tax rate and modifying the exemption for sales of clothing; amending Minnesota Statutes 2012, sections 297A.62, subdivision 1; 297A.67, subdivision 8. Referred to the Committee on Taxes. Under the bill, shoppers would pay sales tax on individual clothing items costing more than $200 dollars. The first $200 would be exempt. The bill …

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Hann-McKendry State Senate Seat: Close Race in a GOP Stronghold

The DFL is missing no opportunity to make gains in the Republican-dominated western suburbs.

Letter: Troubled About Southwest Light Rail

"We don’t have enough information yet and our elected officials shouldn’t blindly endorse this huge expenditure of our tax dollars."

To the Editor: I watched the SD48 candidate debate the other night and am troubled about the proposed Southwest Light Rail. I fully support infrastructure investment (I’m a fan of the new I-494/169 interchange) and also appreciate the need for multi-modal transportation alternatives.  However, the arguments put forward by candidates who support the project raise some concerns. First, they mentioned several times the “60,000 jobs” that will be generated by SWLRT.  I find this figure very hard to accept. I did a little digging and found the source of the “60,000” figure.  It comes from the Met Council and it’s a forecast of growth for the region by 2030, not jobs resulting from the project. Those jobs are 3,500 temporary construction jobs …

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Letter: Vote for David Hann

"Senator Hann had a better idea– and the moxie to back it up– slow the rate of growth in entitlements to 5 percent."

To the Editor: Senator David Hann of Eden Prairie must be doing something right in St. Paul.  He is the target of a monsoon of negative DFL political action committee cable ads distorting and misconstruing the fine work he is doing there.  The purpose?  To portray the Herculean efforts of one very fine individual making every attempt to make a positive difference with his elected position as something sinister. Remember the financial mess the Republicans inherited from their DFL counterparts in a $6.2 billion dollar deficit?  The DFL had everything to do with this irresponsible situation, just as other states had around the country.  Senator Hann is the Chair of the Senate Health Policy and Finance Committee that oversees the fastest …

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Tommy Johnson

11:40 am on Monday, November 5, 2012

More, on former GOP Party Chair Tony Sutton's insults to long-time Republican legislators: http://www.minnpost.com/glean/2010/10/questions-over-quislings ***"The AP gets Sutton on record with even more flame-throwing. ... On Thursday, Sutton told the AP he used the word as a common term for traitor. ‘It would be like saying someone's a Benedict Arnold,’ Sutton said, referring to the Revolutionary…   more ›

Letter: Send a Potent Legislative Team to St. Paul

"We should all feel most proud of the contributions of Hann, Stensrud and Loon and grateful the result was not a tax increase."

To the Editor: Eden Prairie and Minnetonka are well represented in high places in the Minnesota Legislature.  The near miraculous fiscal turn-around did not just happen.  Inefficiencies were discovered in education, health care entitlements and many more major programs.  The hardworking team of Rep. Jenifer Loon, Rep. Kirk Stensrud and Senator David Hann worked effectively, dealing with complex pieces of legislation designed to streamline and improve state government.  It has been suggested that slight-of-hand accounting methods are largely responsible with erasing the multi-billion dollar deficit faced by our determined Republican team, but this was not the case.  Rep. Loon and Rep. Stensrud sit on the House Commerce Committee and Senator…

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Daryl Fryxell

4:22 pm on Tuesday, October 16, 2012

When lawyers argue before the Supreme Court, they are not "testifying." As I understand it, "testimony" consists of statements under oath before a judicial body. They don't put lawyers under oath. What would be the point? Like DFLers, they never tell the truth anyway.   more ›