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Friends and Neighbors-

I write to you from the Wyoming Public Library, where I dropped in to check email between two meetings this morning. I am on the way to the North Branch Chamber luncheon in a few minutes, and coming back from a quick trip to Minneapolis. This morning, Xcel Energy celebrated its 1,000th Megawatt of wind energy coming on to their system. Governor Pawlenty, myself, and a few other legislators joined Xcel for the celebration - their downtown Minneapolis lobby was literally packed.

Pasted below is a release from State Auditor Rebecca Otto's office. As you may know, I am interested in reforming state mandates that don't fit local governments' needs - or ones that are so cumbersome and expensive to implement that the burden defeats the original purpose of the legislation.

During the 2007 Special Session, several of us worked to pass a SSHF 2, to delay implementation of electronic voting machines for spring township elections. The new machines would have cost townships approx. $500 a piece, for elections in which often fewer than a couple of dozen votes are cast in each precinct. I am proud that we eased this mandate for townships until we can find a long-term solution to ultimately comply with the Help America Vote Act.

As always, your thoughts, ideas, comments and questions are welcome and encouraged. I hope all is well with you and your family, and that you're all staying warm!

My best,
Jeremy

Dear Legislator,

The Office of the State Auditor would like to remind you of Minnesota Statute section 6.79 - State Mandates, which provides that:

A county, town, school district, or statutory or home rule charter city may file a written resolution with the state auditor objecting to a state mandate or making recommendations for reforming a state mandate. The state auditor must list on the state auditor’s Web site a list of all state mandates cited in a resolution under this section, and the name of the unit of local government citing the mandate.

We have posted resolutions that were proposed by local governments from across the state on our Web site at http://www.auditor.state.mn.us/default.aspx ?page=MandateReformProposals.

We hope the listing will help inform your decision making as you consider legislation relating to local governments.

Please contact me if you should have any questions.

Thank you,

Jeff Falk
Office of State Auditor Rebecca Otto

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Jeremy Kalin
State Representative - 17B
sign up for my email updates at www.house.mn/17b

Contact me at the Capitol:
Rep.Jeremy.Kalin@House.mn
651.296.5377
579 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive
St. Paul MN 55155

Contact me at home:
11629 Loftman Trail
North Branch, MN 55056
651-257-9861
Jeremy@Kalin.com