Rep. Joe Schomacher recounts various actions from nursing home rate reform to transportation bill

The Star Herald reached out to local state representative and senator to recap the recently completed 2015 legislative session, highlighting areas our Rock County readers might care most about.
By Joe Schomacker
I, of course, am going to start out by noting the nursing home rate reform bill that I carried through the legislature this year.  We completely overhauled the way we fund our nursing homes in the state because we just weren't keeping up with even the basic cost of care. 
Under the new law, we will automatically keep up with the cost of care. Employees will be able to see more consistent pay raises, and retention for employees, and therefore care for our seniors will increase.  The final price tag on this is $138 million. 
The second part of that reform legislation is focusing on workforce development, by expanding scholarship and loan forgiveness opportunities to those who work in nursing homes.  I believe the Good Samaritan Society home has taken advantage of this program in the past, and now we've expanded it to include for slightly higher reimbursements and to reduce the number of hours needed to work in order to get into the program to help those who are trying to balance work, school, and families.
Workforce housing saw a bump from the job growth and energy affordability omnibus bill, and broadband received $10 million.
MN Pollution Control Agency Citizens Board is dissolved.  The final authority for rulemaking and permitting will now rest with the commissioner. This was in response to the citizens board's action in the last two years that seemed less than rational.
We changed the way the MPCA handles self-reporting incidents.  There was at least one case earlier this year where a regulated business in Minnesota called MPCA to double-check their compliance on an issue, and since they weren't compliant, MPCA fined them. The business was trying to do the right thing and they would have been better off just keeping quiet.
A new provision in law would give a business that does this a window to come into compliance before any fines or penalties could be rendered.
Buffer strip legislation. This came back very much different from when the governor proposed it at the beginning of session. The final agreement allowed for voluntary implementation of buffer strips and instead of one-size-fits-all, the language gives soil and water conservation districts, in coordination with the board of water and soil resources, the authority to promote, educate and assist private landowners in the installation and implementation of buffers.
In the Health and Human Services area, the Born-Alive Infant Act passed through conference committee and was sent to the governor. Here, if an infant is born alive as a result of an abortion, that infant is considered a human and has full rights. Medical professionals then must take all reasonable approaches to ensure that the infant is cared for, or risk civil and disciplinary actions.
Telemedicine is growing in greater Minnesota, and the HHS bill cleared the way to making this reimbursable to doctors and hospitals as an actual visit.  Currently they are unable to bill accurately for this, which doesn't encourage hospitals and clinics to expand this option, particularly in Greater Minnesota.
MnSCU students at two year schools will receive a two-year tuition freeze, with an actual tuition reduction of 1 percent in the second year. Four-year students will have a tuition freeze in the second year.
Finally, the transportation bill that was passed includes a focus on small cities.  That means towns under 5,000 that currently get no funding from the gas tax collected in their towns would start to get a piece of that for their local projects.
And of course this is all subject to the governor signing these bills, as he had agreed to on May 18, and that received broad, bi-partisan support in their passage.