Local legislators set personal priorities
By Kirsti Marohn
kmarohn@stcloudtimes.com

Here are a few of their goals:

Rep. Jim Knoblach, R-St. Cloud:
- Bonding for outstate Minnesota parks and St. Cloud-area colleges.
- Allow service cooperatives to market health insurance to businesses.
- Help fund expansion of public safety radio system to St. Cloud.
- Use future budget surpluses to pay back school districts for accounting shifts.

Sen. Dave Kleis, R-St. Cloud:
- Initiative and referendum, which allows residents to put an issue on the ballot if enough people sign a petition.
- Allow Minnesota State Colleges and Universities to opt out of the MnSCU system.
- "Two strikes and you're out," requiring life in prison after two violent felony convictions.

Rep. Joe Opatz, DFL-St. Cloud:
- Change the reciprocity agreements between neighboring states that determine how much tuition students pay.
- Tort reform to reduce frivolous lawsuits.
- Bonding for St. Cloud-area projects, including parks and trails, commuter rail and colleges.

Rep. Dan Severson, R-Sauk Rapids:
- Improve the process for deciding whether to allow a new or expanded hospital.
- Provide $1.5 million for the Gang Strike Force.
- Allow hunters to bring deer and elk carcasses into Minnesota if they have arrangements with a taxidermist or meat packer.

Rep. Doug Stang, R-Cold Spring:
- As chairman of House Higher Education Finance Committee, will consider whether public college students should be able to leave state student organizations or have more control of where student fees go.
- Bonding money for Lake Koronis Trail near Paynesville and St. Cloud Technical College workforce center.

Rep. Mark Olson, R-Big Lake:
- Support for personal rapid transit, an experimental system that uses individual cars that run on a track.
- Support for new septic system technology.
- End social promotion in public schools.

Sen. Michelle Fischbach, R-Paynesville:
- Improve the process for deciding whether to allow a new or expanded hospital.
- Make adjustments to the health-care cuts that were made last session.
- Bonding money for the Lake Koronis Trail near Paynesville.

Sen. Betsy Wergin, R-Princeton:
- Make school funding more equitable by limiting the gap between how much different districts receive.
- Bonding money to improve the intersection of U.S. Highway 10, Sherburne County Road 81 and 200th Street in Big Lake.

Rep. Bud Heidgerken, R-Freeport:
- Increase the market for E-85, an ethanol-based fuel, by providing funding for gas stations to carry it.
- Require that school districts with soda pop vending machines also offer milk.
- Provide incentives for dairy farmers to start or expand operations.

Rep. Sondra Erickson, R-Princeton:
- Call for Department of Natural Resources report on how much has been spent on state/tribal agreements relating to lake and fish management.
- Require schools to teach abstinence-based sex education curriculum.

Sen. Paul Koering, R-Fort Ripley:
- Repeal parts of the all-terrain vehicle bill passed last year.
- Bonding money to fix flooding problem along Fletcher Creek north of Little Falls and for park-and-ride lot along Soo Line Trail between Little Falls and Royalton.

Rep. Greg Blaine, R-Little Falls, could not be reached for comment.