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Politics & Government

Capitol Review: Find Out What Senator DeKruif and Rep. Woodard Have Been Doing

Some of the highlights of last week's legislative action include liquor licenses for colleges, a program for high-risk adults and schools sharing resources

Editor's note: Capitol Review is a weekly look at what your state legislators are doing at the Minnesota Capitol—how they're voting, the bills they're writing and the issues they're getting behind. Come back to Northfield Patch every week for a new Capitol Review.

Here’s what’s happened this past week with bills authored or co-authored by local legislators:

State Rep. Kelby Woodard (R-District 25B) of Belle Plaine

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• Co-authored a bill that would allow a municipality to issue liquor licenses to private, non-profit colleges or universities within that municipality. The bill would allow the college or university to sell alcohol on all days of the week to those attending events at the institution (HF 1174).

• Co-authored a bill that would appropriate an undetermined amount of funds in fiscal years 2012 and 2013 from the general fund to the commissioner of public safety. The funds would be used to establish grants to establish a demonstration project for high-risk adults (HF 1182).   

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• Co-authored a bill that would extend by four years the time frame by which residential and commercial entities must comply with the 2008 policy for implementing a subsurface sewage treatment system. Originally, parties would have had to comply with the new rules by Feb. 4, 2012. If Woodard's bill is passed, parties would have until Feb. 4, 2016 to comply (HF 1238).   

• Woodard is vice chair of the Public Safety and Crime Prevention Policy and Finance Committee. He also serves on the Education Finance Committee and Education Reform Committee.

• Tweet of the week: "GOP ed budget called extreme by DFL. Based on status quo of funding inequities and achvmt gap in MN..maybe extreme is overdue.#mnleg"

• Woodard's Twitter handle is @KelbyWoodard 

State Sen. Al DeKruif (R-District 25) of Madison Lake

• Co-authored a bill that would allow individual counties to use private auditors, once per year, in addition to state auditors as long as county funds and personnel permit. The private auditor must meet a standard of approval from state auditors (SF0896).

• Authored a bill that would establish a pilot project to examine how school districts might operate jointly to provide innovative delivery of programs and activities and share resources (SF0946).

• Authored a bill that would authorize special overweight permits for motor vehicles hauling construction aggregate (SF0978). 

• Authored a bill that would clarify and provide for sales tax collection for rent-to-own and lease-to-own motor vehicles (SF0985). 

• DeKruif serves on the Education Committee, Jobs and Economic Growth Committee and the Transportation Committee.

• Tweet of the week: "Congrats to @SenatorBenson! RT @jakeloesch: Claire Ann Benson has arrived! Mom and baby are both doing well."

• DeKruif's Twitter handle is @SenatorDeKruif

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