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Lakeland Currents your public affairs
program for north central Minnesota. Produced by Lakeland
PBS with host Bethany Wesley.
Production funding for Lakeland Currents is made possible by Bemidji
Regional Airport serving the region with daily flights to Minneapolis
St. Paul International Airport. More information available at
bemidjiairport.org. Closed captioning for Lakeland
Currents is sponsored by Nisswa Tax Service. Tax
preparation for businesses and individuals online
at nisswatax.com.
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Bethany: Hello, welcome back to Lakeland Currents I'm Bethany Wesley.
The Minnesota Legislature will convene for it's regular session
on Tuesday. Legislators will come together in St. Paul
as the state faces a projected deficit of
188 million dollars based on a November economic forecast.
An updated forecast is expected later this month.
Tonight I welcome to our table two area legislators
to discuss some of the issues and topics expected
to be debated and perhaps acted upon before the May
21st deadline. Representative Matt Bliss, a republican
from Pennington represents district 5A.
He is a small business owner serving his first term and will be
up for re-election this fall. Bliss is the vice
chair of the veterans affairs committee and also serves
on the environment and natural resources policy
and finance committee, the government operations and elections
policy committee and a sub committee
in mining, forestry and tourism. Senator Justin
Eichorn, a republican from Grand Rapids represents district
5. He also is a small business owner serving his first term
but as Senator will not be up for re-election until
2020. Eichorn is the vice chair of the E12
policy committee and also serves on the following committees:
Capital investment, E12 finance,
environment and natural resources finance and
environment and natural resources policy and legacy finance.
Welcome thank you for coming. Justin: Thanks for having us,
this is a great opportunity. Bethany: Our intention today is to kinda look forward
to the session that is coming what people can expect to hear
about and hear kind of debated. But then also as a part of that we'll probably
touch on some of the things that were done last year. [Ok] So,
first things first, I'm sure in your eyes, is you guys need a budget.
[Yup] Justin: Absolutely if we don't at least
on the senate side, if we don't get funded by the end of February
the senates gonna pretty much be out of money. We borrowed
some money from the legislative coordinating committee in order to get to this
point but we do need Governor Dayton to approve
the legislative budget in order to continue on. Otherwise the
session will probably end up having to stop. But I think there's a pretty
favorable chance that we do get a budget signed. That'll be the first
order of business though. Bethany: Were you worried or were you surprised
when he vetoed the budget last year? Matt: I was surprised
....he had agreed to all the items that were
in the budgets and at the last minute he decided
to veto our numbers. Which really kinda put
our staff, our full time staff, both
partisan and nonpartisan in kind of an awkward situation.
Didn't know how long their jobs were going to be there. And as a result we
had quite a bit of turnover in the house. I don't know how the senate
did but we had a large turnover of people. Bethany: But you guys were able
to keep going, right? Cause you found other funds to kind of keep you afloat until you
can pass hopefully the budget then...for the days and weeks to come. Justin: Yup, that's correct.
It's kind of a skeleton crew so to speak and that's why the senate
didn't do their bonding, capital investment tours throughout the
summer. We are working on those now serving on that
committee. And I'm actually doing that next week. We're on our last little leg of
our tour so we are able to see some of those projects that are important to
the state. And we were able to come through Bemidji here a couple weeks
ago and we had a really great capital investment tour
here. Bethany: Alright, so let's start moving to some of these topics.
The first one we'll talk about is probably a big one, taxes.
Last year your tax bill if I remember correctly was
600 or almost 650 million, right?
[Yup] In different savings over the next two years. But this year
there's going to be some discussion in terms of how to
manage the code in response to the federal? Matt: Correct a tax
conformity bill. Bethany: Ok, so tell me what are you hearing? What are you expecting to
kind of be the main points down at the capital?
Justin: Well I would say that a lot of people were saying Minnesota was kind of a
leader in some tax reformat, it was a couple decades since we
had done tax reform in the state of Minnesota.
And we made a lot of big gains last
year, I mean we got for social security income
for you know, tax credits for students, money in
payment lieu of taxes and Indian child welfare act to help the counties. Matt: Small
business owners. Justin: Small business owners. So we did a lot of really good
things. So the state of Minnesota really led. And from what
I've been hearing they would like us to continue to be a leader.
We need to at the bare minimum conform with the federal government
otherwise we're gonna see some tax increases. Most likely
considering that Governor Dayton doesn't like tax bills. That was part of the
reason our funding was vetoed is he didn't like the tax bill.
I don't think we get any farther than that personally. But I think there is
some desire from members of both sides of the isle to try to maybe
push a little farther and put that money back in Minnesotans
pockets so that way we can continue to grow our economy. Because even
though we see the economy growing a little bit nationally
it hasn't jump started as much as it has in other
states. And I think there's probably some things we can do to help that
along. Bethany: One of the numbers that we've heard is the MInnesota
Department of Revenue says that tax collections will grow by
nearly 850 million dollars in 2 years
if the...if no change is made to the policy. Correct? [Right, yes]
So your goal is to change it so that that decreases?
Matt: We want to make sure that the people in Minnesota
aren't negatively impacted by the federal cuts.
One of the things that the federal government has
done is make....the
tax credits....or your....
withholdings, your personal exemptions...they've doubled them. But they've
taken away a lot of the deductions
in order....to make up for it. And unfortunately I heard yesterday
from a farmer, if he turns in a if he
trades in a combine he gets a 100,000 dollar trade in he
has to now record that as income. Which isn't a big
deal because under the new federal policy he can take 100 percent
of that back off of his income but on the state level
that doesn't come off of that. So,
it....that could negatively impact him. And
that's what we have to look at. Is to make sure that...the good
tax cuts that were put into place in Washington don't negatively impact us.
[Ok] And we don't...need the extra 800 million
dollars right now. So we should make sure that it impacts
Minnesota as least as possible. Bethany: You say that
while, I mean at this time I know we're expecting a new forecast
soon, but you do have a deficit I mean you are looking at
a deficit. Do you worry about cutting them back to the point where that will
increase? Matt: I did, I don't. The last two months
have come back over projections. I think we'll be just fine.
I think that the tax cuts that we made last year
and the Presidents tax cuts are starting to take effect and I think we'll be just fine.
And I think you're gonna be surprised pleasantly at the next
forecast. Bethany: Similar feelings? Justin: I completely agree
with that. I do think we're probably gonna be in a surplus. Maybe not
a lot but I do think we're gonna have a much better forecast. I agree with
the points that Representative Bliss made. We had some
strong indications that is gonna be better.
And you know I'm hopeful for that but we'll see when the numbers come out.
Bethany: One of the things I want to kind of pull out from last year is...
there was an increase to local government aide, you had an
increase of about 15 million. You are hearing
from some city and some lobbyists that they would like to revisit that and have
that go up again this year. What are your
feelings on that and are you hearing from that, is that something you're open to?
Justin: I can tell you that that's something I worked on last year.
And that's something that went through our tax bill. It's a thing that a lot of
people don't realize that tax bills aren't just about
tax cuts, you know. It's sold as oh, it's tax cuts for rich
people or whatever. But there's a lot of other pieces at least in the
Minnesota tax bill that go into that. There's the local
government aide went in there, the county program aide was in there. The Indian
child welfare act money was in there and on and on. There were several things that
helped fund local governments. I think there is some
desire to continue to help local governments especially
in greater Minnesota. There's some disparities between
what greater Minnesota communities get and the metro communities.
So there's some desire on...in both chambers
I think to continue to further that. It's just how much
can we do. Again, going into this tax bill
that we're gonna try to put together this year if we go much beyond that
conformity we run into the point where Governor Dayton's
not willing to sign it just because a distaste for tax bill.
[Ok] So it's hard to say for sure but I do
think there is possibly an opportunity it's just a little smaller
this year than in years coming forward. [Yup] Bethany: Ok. Cause I think what
we've heard or what you know, so many people have been reading you know coalitions asking
to try to go back to those 2002 numbers. And other...I think it's
30.5 million, something like that. But you're saying you think it's probably
a nonstarter for this coming session.
Matt: I don't know about a nonstarter. It's.....
the...appetite for that kind of a bill is probably
not there right now. [Ok] And if you look at the history
you know, 2002 was the absolute peak. You know, of course
we want to get back to the absolute peak. But it has
been growing over the past few years. And I think...you know
we're gonna make steady progress on it. Whether or not it's the
2002 levels, we'll wait and see. [Ok]
Justin: The discus....either way the discussion will certainly be there. It's just [Yeah]
how far we can actually take it. Bethany: How far it gets. Ok. I want
to talk about bonding. It's an even numbered year, which usually
is your big bonding year. Last year was an odd year in that
you still had a bonding bill but that was cause it didn't get done the previous year.
[Correct] So you're back to a bonding year. So last year you
had about nearly a billion dollars in roads and bridges
and some local projects, waste, water, drinking systems.
What are you hearing this year? We just had the bonding group up here
to look at BSU specifically...and then. Justin: Yup, a couple weeks ago we did
the Veterans Home here as well. A lot of excitement around that
project. And then we did the other side of the district about a week
ago and I mean, throughout senate district 5 there's a lot
of priorities. And we saw a lot of those. There's a lot of needs
around Heper, which is a gas preservation for the colleges.
There's a large desire to help smaller communities in greater
Minnesota with waste water treatment needs as you mentioned. The city
of Deer River has that. So we'd be looking forward to
help them with that. But on the bonding
it's really interesting to actually be on the committee. I've kinda
referred to it sometimes as the 'wants and needs tour'.
We've seen a lot of swimming pools and civic centers and gymnasiums
Which....don't
not have merit. But there's a lot of projects like the Veterans Home that we
should really be looking at. That really serve a regional
and a state wide significance that really matter
to a larger portion of the state. And I think that's some of the intention of
the bonding bills. Because you know ultimately our kids are gonna
end up paying that debt that we're taking out to build some of these projects.
So we need to be mindful of that. And the price tag
the Governor came out with with 1.5 billion I think is a little bit high
[Ok] in order to get some of the republican
members to go along with it it's gonna need to be under that billion dollar figure
again. But sitting on that committee, again I think there's a
large desire for...you know, to do some things in higher ed.
And to help smaller Minnesota communities out with like again the
waste water treatment type stuff. Bethany: So Dayton's
bill from what I understand had a lot of emphasis on college
and investments in that way and less so on local projects.
So, how do you feel about that?
Matt: Well, you know....my main focus obviously is
Bemidji, Walker area. And I know part of the projects
that we have proposed up here is the Hagg-Sauer building
in BSU. And I think I believe that's number 2 on
the MN states priority list. And I think that's
really gonna go through. You know last year we tried
to make it geographically balanced and heavy on
infrustructure. And I think that's kinda what we're gonna
focus on again this year. And like Justin said, you
know try to keep it at a billion or under. You
know if you look closely at the Governor's numbers
there's a lot of just numbers 100 million for....this
and it's just kind of a gray area that he just threw
a number at. So I think we can whittle away at that quite
a lot. And I don't think there's a lot of difference in
the numbers really. I think he padded it anytime you go into a negotiation
you want to pad a little bit to give away something. So, I think
I really have a good feeling that we'll come through with something this year. Bethany: But you have a good feeling
about getting some of those local projects in as long as it's statewide. [Absolutely]
Ok, alright. Justin: Both Matt and I are advocating heavily for
those projects so I think we have a very good chance to get those
in our bonding bill, especially the Veterans Home. Bethany: I want to mention
cause we've talked about Hagg-Sauer which is 22.5 million for
Hagg-Sauer and then some other buildings. But then also you have Red Lake, right? Red
Lake is looking for some money for school improvement. Matt: And...that's
that would be Matt Grossell's district. So that would be a project
he's been pushing so I don't know a whole lot about
that project. Bethany: Ok, sounds good. Alright then lets move on
toward transportation. So last year you had 300
billion for road and bridge projects. Last year in your hearing of
course people always want more. So what do you expect for transportation
in terms of....do you think there will anything to even discuss? Or no, you
said maybe just sticking to that conformity for tax issues?
Justin: Well, on tax issues it's gonna stick to conformity I don't think we're gonna...
we're not gonna raise any taxes. That's....
definitely a nonstarter, at least in the senate. I assume it is
in the house as well. But we do need to make
sure we continue to dedicate those funds like last year we
dedicated some, the sales tax from like auto parts
and stuff like that to make sure that went towards transportation
I think we need to make sure some of that is permanent. We need to make sure
some of the additional like auto
tax you pay when you buy your vehicle, that kind of stuff is always dedicated towards
roads and bridges. We see that in different agencies like in the
DNR where you buy your fishing license it goes to fishing. You buy your deer
hunting license it goes to deer management and stuff like that.
I think the intention of a lot of the tax payers in
Minnesota is that we use that money to go towards our roads
and bridges and we've unfortunately raided those funds for many other things.
So I think we need to get back to that as a starter. I know a lot
of people like to talk about additional gas taxes and stuff like that
it's a nonstarter for now. I think that you know...
disproportionately affects lower income individuals.
You know being that our economy hasn't fully recovered yet I don't
think that's a place we want to go at this point. Not a place
I'm interested in going. So yeah, we...
need to dedicate some more funds. There may be some funding in the bonding bill for
transportation. I don't know what that number looks like. Cause there's a lot
of competing projects. But there will definitely be something in
the realm of transportation. [Ok] Matt: And I think we really want to have
the department of transportation focus more on congestion.
And not....you know
maybe put bike paths along an artery you know
let's focus on the congestion. Those are the people that pay the taxes for the
roads, let's make sure that goes for roads and
congestion relief. Bethany: Do you believe it's hard to kind of get that
balance between metro and rural projects when it comes to transportation?
Do you feel like that's something that you know, is always kind of an uphill battle?
I mean, we always hear you know, [inaudible] you know, light
rail, light rail, light rail. And up here probably not gonna effect
us much. So how do you go about having those conversations?
Justin: Well, I was looking...an interesting thing I was actually looking at
this earlier today, at what light rail costs compared
for a mile....compared to like what a mile of four lane
highway costs up here. Light rail is about 100 million a mile
up here it's about 225 to 250
thousand a mile if you were gonna build in Beltrami or Cass
or Itasca county. So we could put in over a hundred miles
of 4 lane road in greater Minnesota for one mile of
light rail. So I'm glad this last year we kinda peeled
back on the light rail. You know, greater Minnesota is not gonna be
paying for that anymore. But to get back to your question
where there is definitely a fight between
what the metro gets and what greater Minnesota gets and
Matt and I are definitely fighting to get some more money up
here. With the way the leadership is now in the house and the senate
you've got Senator Gazelka who is a greater Minnesota
senator who's the majority leader now. You have Kurt Daudt who's a
greater MInnesota representative. So they do have that
greater focus on greater Minnesota, which greatly
benefits you know, Bemidji, Grand
Rapids all of our communities up here. So it is getting better but there's
more work to be done. Bethany: One of the other things that we've
seen in recent weeks is the possible revisiting
of toll roads and kinda looking into that a little bit
further, right? Last year there was an order that MN DOT kinda study
those toll road systems. And now that first reports out
and now he's kinda turning it over to you guys to decide if it should be investigated further.
Is that something that you've heard a lot of discussion about yet?
Or probably not? Matt: I haven't heard a whole lot of discussion about it.
You know, I lived for awhile when I was in the military
in Virginia Beach and they had toll roads down there. You know, I
can see the.....some benefit
to them, you know. Especially on the main thorough fairs through the...
city where....don't take up the
main arteries but if you're gonna build more lanes have the toll roads and have...
pay for them that way. So I'd be open to the discussion. I'd have
to look at the finances and the numbers. And just you know...
I'm open to the discussion. Justin: And that's something
I haven't heard anything additional yet. Maybe when we get into session
they'll talk about it. But it's not something that's
really come up in our realm yet. [Yeah] [Ok]
Bethany: Let's move forward to education. Last year there was
a lot of movement on education. So, were you pretty proud of what
was accomplished? I mean, do you think that's kinda what you wanted? Matt: I was very
proud of what was accomplished. Justin: I was very proud as well. The teacher licensury
form was absolutely huge. Again, for greater Minnesota
and now it's a tiered system.
There's gonna be a new teacher licensure board. That's...
people are getting appointed for that now. And we're gonna go through a confirmation
process for some of that. But it's really gonna allow
schools in greater Minnesota that have a hard time recruiting teachers
to have some other options. It's gonna allow people that
maybe they went to school in North Dakota and didn't
get their degree in Minnesota and now it's gonna give that person an opportunity
to come back to Bemidji, come back to Grand Rapids and have an easier
time getting into a school here. It should help solve some of our teacher
shortages. So, I was actually you know, really
excited about the final product of that bill. It would
start...it started being worked on before Representative Bliss and I even
got elected. [Ok] But you know, we got
to be able to be involved in some of the discussions throughout session
a little bit last year to help tweak it. And I think it was a really good product
that came out. Matt: And the additional funding that we got
for the schools, the 2 and 2. That helps out.
That helps out a lot. Bethany: 2 percent over 2...or
2 years of 2 percent, correct? [Correct] So it ends up being like, what is it?
245 a student I think at the most or something? [Yeah]
Justin: Yeah I think I saw numbers, Bemidji got
3 million? Bethany: 2.7 million for Bemidji, Cass Lake-Bena I think
got 670 plus, 670 thousand
plus. Walker-Hackensack-Akeley was
360 thousand. Matt: Right, that helps a lot. And you know, even
you know the transportation sparsity bill that we fought for
in the house and senate you know, that helps out Bemidji a lot. It was
a drop in the bucket but it's a drop. And it's starting
and it's there for....it's a permanent part of the
calculation now. So it'll always be added to.
Or it could always be added to. Bethany: I want to talk...just make sure we said what it was.
Ok, so that's like where these school districts Bemidji in particular
so large that they actually lose money transporting their kids
versus the money that they get from the state. Matt: Right. The way
the old calculation worked is that...Bemidji I
believe was Roseville was the number..the school district they used.
Same number of students, much smaller more
compact area and Roseville was actually taking money
from their transportation budget and using it in their general
fund. Where Bemidji had to take money from their general fund because they have such a
large area to transport. So what we did is I believe there
was 80....schools in Minnesota that that was affecting
and we went through and we tried to get the whole number
in there but of course as time went on it got whittled down. I believe
we were at 18 percent was the final number. [Ok]
So that's where we stand now. Bethany: But you're saying that because it's an actual line item in
the budget that it's not a one time... [Right] funding situation?
Matt: In the past they've gotten a one time funding bump. But then the
next year it was gone. What we've done is it's there permanently.
[Ok] And according to the people that I've talked with the
school district that's something they've been working on for ten years or more.
And we were able to....and it was a fight. It was a fight
to get it in there. Bethany: Was it uphill? Matt: Yeah it was. Justin: Yup. We....it
got...it was in and out, in and out. And it finally ended up in in the last minute. But
yeah, that's something we both fought hard for. And being on education I was
able to be in the room for some of those discussions to make sure
that that stayed in there. Because that was...I think the
2 and 2 was probably one of the biggest things we heard from school districts overall.
But in Bemidji it was the transportation was probably
just barely above that. Bethany: Is that one of the topics, though that kinda highlights
kind of....I don't want to say gridlock down at the state capital
but some of the problems, like you have this...it's pretty obvious right?
You have a winners and a losers from a transportation budget system
and yet you have legislators that don't necessarily want to give up the money
cause it impacts their...it impacts their district. So how do
you kind of navigate that? How do you....cross
those hurdles? Matt: You gotta be...
bullheaded and you can't take no for an answer. And that's
one thing I learned. I'm a nice guy and I went down there generally
trying to be a nice guy. And sometimes you have to
you know, stick your head into a room even though they don't want to see you.
And you have to repeat what you've already told them
three or four times. Justin: I would agree with that sentiment. And it
just...that entire job is about building relationships
and you know....in an education being
on both of those committee's I spent a lot of time outside of our committees
you know, going to have lunch with the chair of the committee. That kind of thing. It took
to continue to let them know what's important to us up here
and that...those little things go a long way. And so,
those are areas we tried to work hard on to make sure that we could
get things like this transportation to stay in there.
Bethany: Alright, we touched on this a little bit earlier
in the bonding bill but I kinda want to pull it out because it's such a big issue
out here and that's the Veterans Home. We've actually done a full
show on it. So, you made some progress.
Do you feel like you made progress? Matt: I think we made a lot of progress. I.....
the Governors now addressing it when he puts out his budget
for the bonding bill. He specifically....
mentions the reason there was no veterans homes in there. Bethany: Cause it
wasn't funded by it, but he had kinda pointed to it.
Matt: Well...we...it...we had initially put it in the
the last state finance bill and it was removed at his
request. [Ok] And it had been in
versions of bonding bills in the past. But
it's actually got both leaderships full attention
and it's getting attention from the Governor now as well. [Ok]
Justin: I think the Governors comment was they didn't have a location
yet, which is a little bit offensive to people in this
community and I completely agree with it. Because they've been working hard on this project
for about 10 years. You know, they're ready to put
shovels in the ground as soon as they get their money. I mean this project is ready
to go and it's a great project of great regional and state
significance. I think we've probably made more
progress and I hope Matt agrees with me in the last year than
probably the previous 8 years. I think there's
probably a better chance than ever to actually see that Veterans Home
be included in the final bill. There's
a desire from both bonding chairs to see that there's
a Veterans Home in the bill. So, it's probably gonna end
up being just like the transportation we just talked about, it's
gonna be a fight til the end. But you know,
I would say it's probably a number one issue. They say, oh the Veterans
Home, yeah we know! And that's good we're gonna keep that pressure
on because it's...I would say it's number one issue for me.
And I believe it is for Representative Bliss as well. Matt: Absolutely. Yeah.
Bethany: Ah, let's move on to MNLARS,
which stands for the Minnesota Licensing and Registration
System. Kinda....
turned out to be a little bit of a wacky launch for that.
So, it started off it was gonna cost 93 million and now it's going
to cost an additional 43 million. So....
what do you do with that? Matt: Well that's what they're requesting is another 43 million.
We're actually requesting...that's another one of those
swag numbers I believe that the government [Ok] comes up with once in awhile.
Once we actually start asking for details the numbers
magically goes down. You
know at first before I get into any of the details I want to shout out to those
county registrars over there that put up with it
and have been doing it for awhile now.
For us as a state to put them in that situation is just
incomprehensible and unforgivable.
We've..this project's been going on for about 9 or 10 years now.
And they said...the project manager for that
project said it was green, it was go let's throw it out there. And
it fell flat. And one of the comments I heard
just recently and it kinda stuck with me is we didn't think
there could be another project in the state that made MNSure roll
out look good. And this....I....
I have an IT background. I am a certified project manager in IT. So
this just kills me to watch what's happening with this.
And the lack of response that we're getting from certain
people, they put in a website now for comments
that is actually the people...the registrars can
load particular problems. And they do get addressed. So they're
working on it. There's some people down there that are actually working hard on it.
Bethany: Do you feel like though, that there's a path to fixing it?
Justin: The path needs to be more than just money that's for
sure. And I know....I'm not on transportation as you mentioned but
I think they are really drilling down
the senate actually set up a website for people to go and actually
put in there comments about it. I think there's a larger issue
here and I think there's probably a leadership issue.
At that state agency. And you had mentioned a shout out to the deputy
registrars but I would say the dealers as well. I mean there's a lot
of dealers that are having a very very tough time.
And it falls back on their hands because the consumer assumes
that it's their fault. When it's really not. And
we've created this terrible issue in MNLARS as a
state. And I think there's a path way forward and we're
definitely working on it. But there's gonna be a lot of discussion around that this
year. Bethany: So as we get to our final minutes here I do want to
just ask, you know what did you learn last year that's
really going to help you do you think, moving forward in the weeks and months
to come here? Matt: Well I can tell you just for myself one of the
things I learned is, you have to advocate
yourself for your priorities. And you...
people down there have different priorities. It's not that they're bad people
or trying to take stuff away from you but
their priorities are different than yours. So if somethings important you have
to go...like I said, stick your head in the door where you're not wanted.
And you have to become that squeaky wheel. And that's what I've learned.
Making relationships down there, like you
said, going to lunch with different legislators. Even on
the other side. You know, it's really powerful if you can get a bill
with bipartisan support. And it's just
making relationships and becoming a lobbyist for your area.
Bethany: Ok, Justin. Justin: I can certainly agree with Matt's sentiment.
And I think the same thing. And for me, one thing that was
really surprising when I got elected I always
thought it was gonna be democrat versus republican butting head.
And it's not that at all. It's rural versus metro.
Of course I work great with Representative Bliss and Senator Utke
and Representative Grossell over here we're all on the same side. But on the other
side of my district it's the edge of the Iron Range.
So I'm the farthest...north east republican. So on that
side of the district I'm working with you know, Senator Tomassoni
and Representative Metsa and some of those guys. And it's been
important to build relationships with them being part of the Range delegation
and understanding their issues. There's a lot of
areas we're able to come together on because our areas are so
similar in so many ways. That again, it's back to
relationship building. That's really what this job is
is building relationships and I've been working very hard on that throughout the
last year just to make sure...keep building and fostering
those so we can get stuff done that truly is good for the area and not
what is good for partisanship, so. Bethany: Well listen, I want to
thank you guys for coming on and talking with us. Let us know what's coming up
in the weeks and months to come. I want to thank you for tuning in and
I also would encourage you to take advantage of using these email addresses on the
bottom of these screen because these two men represent you.
And they'd like to hear from you. Thank you for tuning in please join me
next time.
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