Although listening sessions in Stewartville and Albert Lea are now described on the Minnesota House Property Tax & Local Government Finance Division Committee's schedule as "**This will be an official hearing where public testimony will be provided to the committee,**" during Tuesday's floor session they were described as "informal" by committee chair Steve Drazkowski (R-Mazeppa).
The description came during a tense exchange about the nature of the listening session between Jim Davnie (DFL-Minneapolis), Minority Leader Paul Thissen (DFL-Minneapolis) and The Draz.
After watching the moment as it was livestreamed, Bluestem had asked Mike McIntee at the Uptake to pull the clip. In the description of the YouTube, Transparency Issue Raised About GOP Led Meetings On Property Taxes, McIntee writes:
Representatives Jim Davnie (DFL- Minneapolis) and Paul Thissen (DFL- Bloomington) raise questions about what Republicans are calling meetings to "informally gain feedback" on property tax issues. Davnie said there has been no public notice on what Republicans are calling "listening sessions" and questioned why House committee members were being told not to have a quorum present at the meetings.
Representative Steve Drazkowski (R-Mazeppa) says not providing public notice about all of the meetings was "an oversight." Thissen questioned whether Republicans were going down an "Orwellian" hole to avoid providing the transparency they had promised when they took over the majority this year.
Here's the video (McIntee has edited out moment of silence while Daudt flipped through the rules in order to answer Davnie and Thissen's questions and points of order):
But by the time we visited the committee page, Chairman Drazkowski had apparently changed his mind about the nature of the hearings. Here's what's there now:
Thursday, January 22, 2015
7:00 PM
Thursday, January 22, 2015Room: Note location in the Agenda NotesChair: Rep. Steve DrazkowskiAgenda:Stewartville, MN listening session.
**This will be an official hearing where public testimony will be provided to the committee.**
Stewartville Civic Center
120 Highway 30
Stewartville, MNSaturday, January 24, 201510:00 AM
Room: Note Meeting location in Agenda NotesChair: Rep. Steve Drazkowski
Agenda:Albert Lea property tax listening session
**This will be an official hearing where public testimony will be provided to the committee.**
Prairie Wind Coffee
211 South Broadway Ave
Albert Lea, MN 56007
Social media and news briefs on the meetings
The graphic on the top of this post was shared on The Draz's Facebook page on January 17 along with this comment:
Please join me and Representatives Quam and Pierson, along with Senators Senjem and Nelson and members of the House Property Tax and Local Government Finance Committee as we seek to hear from property taxpayers in southeastern Minnesota. Bring your ideas for improving our property tax system! — with Nels T. Pierson III and Duane Quam.
The Rochester Post Bulletin reported under Talking property taxes in the Political Notebook digest:
Mazeppa Republican Rep. Steve Drazkowski is setting up listening sessions across the state seeking input on property taxes.
Drazkowski, who is chairman of the Property Tax and Local Government Finance Division, said he wants a chance to hear from people across the state about the impact of property tax increases. One of those meetings will be at 7 p.m. on Thursday at the Stewartville Civic Center. Joining Drazkowski will be Republican Reps. Nels Pierson, of Rochester, and Duane Quam, of Byron.
But the spin in Albert Lea is much different: the listening session there is the brainchild of freshman state representative Peggy Bennett.
In Bennett, committee to discuss property taxes, Sarah Stultz reports in the Albert Lea Tribune:
District 27A Rep. Peggy Bennett and members of the House Property Tax and Local Government Finance Committee and will host a listening session in Albert Lea on Saturday to get input from area residents about property taxes.
The session will be from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Prairie Wind Coffee, 211 S. Broadway.
Bennett, R-Albert Lea, said she invited House Property Tax Committee Chairman Steve Drazkowski and other committee members so they can hear firsthand how people are overwhelmed by rising property taxes in Albert Lea and the district. [emphasis added]
“Rising property taxes are an issue that has a significant impact on the budgets of families and farmers in our community,” Bennett said. “This listening session will help us as legislators get a better grasp of the real impacts of rising property taxes and help members of the Property Tax Committee understand the pressing need to get property taxes under control.”
Drazkowski said Bennett has had numerous complaints from residents who are upset to receive double-digit property tax increases, despite promises from previous legislatures that taxes would decline.
“I’m finding that this is a common complaint across Minnesota, so clearly past legislative actions aren’t working, and we need to find new solutions,” he said.
Bennett encouraged area residents with concerns about the impact of rising property taxes to attend the event and share their stories along with their ideas on how to address the issue.
People interested in attending and sharing their story are encouraged to register by calling Grant Erickson, Property Tax Committee assistant, at 651-296-9710 or emailing [email protected].
It certainly seems official in the article, published on Sunday, two days before Davnie and Thissen raised their questions on the House floor.
Bennett is not a member of the committee.
Bluestem had begun looking yesterday for the complete list of listening sessions. A friend on the House staff had come up with a notice at the end of first-term legislator Abigail Whelan's Legislative Update (1-16-15):
Mark Your Calendars
Rep. Steve Drazkowski, Chair of the House Property Tax Committee, and I will be hosting a property tax listening session February 2nd at the Rum River Branch Library, 4201 6th Avenue, in Anoka from 6:00-7:30. I encourage you and your neighbors to attend this session to voice your views on property tax issues in our community. Please keep an eye on future email updates as well as local media as more information regarding this event is made available.
Whelan is a member of the committee.
The listening sessions announced so far are taking place in Republican-held districts, and only Republicans have been named in the press reports, although Draz assured his House colleagues that DFL members of his committee are taking part in the listening sessions.
Images: A graphic announcing the first meeting. Via Facebook, source unknown (above); January 20, 2015 screengrab of the upcoming schedule on the Property Tax & Local Government Finance Division webpage (below).
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