A message from Representative Andy Welti 30B
02/19/2007
Greetings DFLer's, a message from Representative Andy Welti 30B.
Regards,
Dawn L. Schomisch
1st Congressional District Secretary
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The House Ways and Means Committee will Host a Town Hall Meeting in Rochester
The Minnesota House of Representatives Ways and Means committee, the committee that has ultimate jurisdiction over the state budget, will be hosting a town hall meeting Monday, February 26 in Rochester at
Kellogg Middle School at 7:30 p.m.
The topics being discussed will be property tax relief, health care and higher education. Besides those signing up to testify at the committee, there will also be an opportunity for those in the audience to participate during the open mic session.
I encourage all of you receiving this letter to attend the meeting to see your state legislature and democracy at
work.
Operation Hometown Gratitude
Public high school students in Rochester have been doing their part to support local troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Operation Hometown Gratitude was created by Rochester students and involves the sending of thousands of care packages to troops.
Everyday items such as tuna fish packets, cookies, magazines, socks, toothbrushes and even X-Box video games are packaged up by the students and sent overseas. Local VFW post 1215 has joined in the cause, helping Operation Hometown Gratitude by donating $500 to aid the process of collecting and sending supplies.
Operation Hometown Gratitude is always looking for donations and has collection bins set up in each school in the District. If you are interested in donating, you can contact Gary Komaniecki at .
Some of the students who are involved in this program are: Kelcey Evers (Senior- Mayo High
School), Katie White (Senior- Mayo High School), Bryan Ehni (Senior- Century High School), Jayna Rench (Century High School), Lindsay Wagner (Junior- Mayo High School), Eric Poland (Junior- Mayo High School), and Levi Hartman (Junior- Mayo High School).
Thus far over 1528 packages have been sent overseas.
"Fun Facts" - District 30B
For the fiscal year 2006 (July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2006), gross lottery sales in District 30B were $3,138,441. Of those lottery sales, $1,944,000 represented scratch tickets while $1,194,441 accounted for online games spending. Lottery sales in district 30B resulted in contributions of $225,968 to the Environment and Natural
Resources Trust Fund and $469,825 to the General Fund. These amounts include unclaimed prize money. A total of $1,345,902 in prizes was redeemed in district 30B.
Lottery sales in district 30B of $3,138,441 contributed to a state record of $450 million in lottery sales for the fiscal year 2006. This is a 10 percent increase over fiscal year 2005. Much of the increase is credited to record Powerball jackpots during this time.
Volunteering rates per state in the Midwest have shown to be consistently higher than the national average, especially those rates in Minnesota. Currently, in Minnesota, 40.7 percent of citizens volunteer, compared to the national average of 28.8 percent.
Minnesota ranks 3rd in the nation for volunteering rates and in the Midwest only Nebraska has a higher rate (42.8 percent). A federal study (available at http://www.nationalservice.gov) concluded that volunteering in the United States equated to a value of $147.6 billion in 2005.
The high volunteering rates in the Midwest have been accredited to state development of more structured methods of organizing and encouraging volunteer efforts over the past 15 years according to Firstline Midwest.
Please contact me at:
389 State Office Building,
St. Paul, MN 55155.
By phone at (651) 296-4378 or 1-888-858-4753, or by E-Mail:
. Webpage:www.house.mn/30B