June, 2015

Dear Friends,

Thank you for giving us the honor of representing Downtown, South and Southwest Minneapolis in the Minnesota Legislature.

A week ago, the Minnesota House and Senate convened in a special session to wrap up work on the state's biennial budget. We are writing to give you a brief update on the 2015 legislative session and seek your continued support as we head into the crucial 2016 election season.

The year began on an optimistic note, with a nearly $2 billion state budget surplus.

We anticipated that there would be some degree of bi-partisan consensus on using our state's good economic fortune to increase support for education, including major new investments in high quality early childhood education, and continuing a tuition freeze for all of our state's publicly funded community colleges and universities.

We looked forward to ensuring, affordable housing, mental health services, and building on last year's progress in promoting renewable energy, curbing destructive pesticides, and cleaning up our polluted waterways.

After the state's historic passage of marriage equality, we were excited to continue moving forward on expanding human rights for all.

As respective leaders in our chambers on transportation, we successfully worked statewide with a broad coalition of Minnesotans to make major new investments to repair crumbling roads and bridges, and to expand access to opportunity through public transit were a top legislative priority.

Yet these hopes were dashed by the need spend the session's final weeks simply fighting off a particularly extreme House Republican budget that squandered a large portion of the surplus on tax breaks for the wealthiest and corporations, while slashing health care for poor and working Minnesotans, underfunding education, and rolling back decades long progress on clean energy and environmental protection.

Incredibly, the House Republicans defeated a Democratic amendment to the jobs and energy bill that simply acknowledged the reality of climate change!

The House Republicans failed to address our transportation challenges in a meaningful way, going even further to propose cuts to Metro Transit bus service by a shocking 25%.

We even needed to fight off discriminatory legislation targeting transgender Minnesotans.

The good news is that thanks to the efforts of DFLers in the legislature and Governor Dayton, most of the destructive House budget proposals were not included in final budget bills.

We made progress in increasing funding for K-12 and early childhood education, affordable housing, nursing homes and tuition assistance, and promoted urban agriculture.

We were disappointed that many important proposals were blocked by House Republicans, transportation investments chief among them-and some bad legislation, particularly on the environment was enacted into law.

The session proved once again that elections matter. And supporting progressive leaders who can give voice - even within their own party - is critically important.

We spoke up for progressive values and what our friend Paul Wellstone called "the democratic wing of the Democratic Party," and with your support will continue to do so. With your support we will continue to dedicate the fullness of our leadership and public service to freedom, fairness, justice, and opportunity for all, and protecting the planet for future generations.

Another consequence of this year's legislative session was the lack of action in addressing the impacts corporate, special interest money in our political system. In fact, the session went the opposite direction in eliminating a major progressive component to our campaign finance system, the Political Campaign Refund (PCR). Over the years many of you have supported us by making a donation of $50 per individual and $100 per couple, and getting a refund check from the State to cover the costs of that contribution.

After June 30 you will no longer be able to obtain a refund for your $50 or $100 contribution and that is why we write you to act today to support us at no cost to you (though if you are so moved, please feel free to write a check for up to $1,000).

Please consider giving online today: Dibble Donation: www.scottdibble.com

Hornstein Donation: http://tinyurl.com/HornsteinDonate

Or by mail at:

Volunteers for Dibble attn: Jill Schwimmer, Treasurer 3100 44th Ave S Minneapolis, MN 55406

Hornstein Volunteer Committee attn: Ben Somogyi, Treasurer 4344 Drew Ave S Minneapolis, MN 55410

Or in person at an upcoming party and celebration:

Sunday, June 28, 5 to 7 p.m. home of Ruth Hornstein & Peter Scal

2120 Oliver Avenue South Minneapolis, Minnesota 55405

For directions: http://tinyurl.com/Ruth-PeterHome

Yours in justice,

Senator Scott Dibble Representative Frank Hornstein

p.s. Time is extremely urgent. Donations have to be in hand by June 30, 2015. Contributions are limited to $1,000 (of course any amount is welcome). Please give today. And come to our party even if you've made a donation ahead of time. www.scottdibble.com http://tinyurl.com/HornsteinDonate

Prepared and paid for by Volunteers for Dibble, Jill Schwimmer, Treasurer, 3100 44th Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55406; and

Hornstein Volunteer Committee, Ben Somogyi, Treasurer, 4344 Drew Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55410