This is a summary only. To receive full legislative updates on a biweekly basis, you must be a member of MNAAP. The emails provide additional details about legislative issues that are not posted on our website and are for members only.
- The 2015 legislative session came to a stumbling stop at the constitutionally mandated date of midnight on May 18, though a special session is certain given the Governor’s veto of the education funding bill. The session saw significant work on several of the MNAAP’s key legislative priorities, including investments in mental health supports and reform of the state’s child protection system. The HHS finance package adds more than $45 million in new supports and programming for mental health, including new suicide prevention programs, mental health crisis services, and chemical dependency treatment and awareness. New investments in the state’s child protection system totaled more than $50 million, and a number of policy changes will be enacted.
- Additionally, the HHS budget continues addresses areas of specific interest of MNAAP – notably funding of SHIP which has long supported obesity prevention efforts, funding of the Poison Control Center and funding of programs to address health disparities for mothers and children.
- With the clock having run out on the legislative session and agreement on a tax bill not in site, no changes were made to the state’s tobacco taxation policies. Bills considered in both the House and Senate would have lowered the tax on many of the most widely available e-cigarette devices while also repealing the annual inflationary increase in the tobacco tax.
