Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1941-01-23
The Legislature
AS | See 1t
BY Rep. Chas. l.. Halsted.

by rep. ChaS. l.. HalSted.
In order to reach the editor in time
for publication, l am writing this for
mailing on Monday, January 20. AL
ready in this 90-day session we have
seen eleven legislative days 60 by,
up through Saturday, January ID.
Although the legislative mill grinds
slowly, especially at first, we do not
yet have any evidence that it grinds
exceedingly fine, legislatively speak,
ing. Up to this time 81 bills have
been introduced in the House, and
So in the Senate.
ReapportiOnment and Reduction.
In the Senate, Val hmm of Mankato
has introduced his bill to reapportion
the legislative districts in accordance
with the 1910 census, and he also
provides for a reduction of the State
Legislatures membership fr m the
present 81 Senators and 131 Repre-
sentatives to "A Senators and 80 Rep
resentatives.
AT the present time 16 counties have
one Senator each and several have
more than one. In the House, only
few counties do not have at least
one representative. Until acted upon
by the Committee we will not know
the final form of the bill. However,
any bill to reduce the number of
members will have tough Shedding,
as many would be voting themselves
out of a job. While it is true that
the present membership, especially
of the House, is rather large and un-
wieldly, yet the ever-present danger
of reduction in amount of members
is of course, that special interests
would find it easier to dominate fewer
members.
At the present time our joint House
and Senate membership of 1913 makes
Minnesota the 18th in size among the
48 State Legislatures.
will appreciate hearing from you
as to what you think about cutting
the number of members. I will in
form you more later concerning the
arguments pro and con.
Housing.
In his inaugural message the Gov
ernor puzzled many people by call
ing for action by the Legislature to
pioneer in an experimental way in
attempting to make real progress in
improving the homes of the ill-housed
citizens of our state. l say puzzle
because the pioneering work in this
field has already been done by the
Federal government. The Republic
can controlled Senate in the 1887 SEES
sion, and the Stassen controlled House
and Senate of 1899 did nothing to
avail Minnesota citizens of the slum-
clearance projects of the Federal gov
eminent, although the Liberals con-
tinually fought for it. AS a result
we are tagging far behind. We are
one of the two states in the nation
that have not adopted enabling acts
to permit this program to function in
our cities. U. S. Housing Authority
representative, Leon H. Keyserling,
was in the Cities the past week try
ing to find out why this is So "Rent
relief now paid in St. Paul alone,
he said, amounts to about 100000 a
year." U. S. H. A. Housing is not
competitive with private building, as
it is for the poorest people. I trust
we can do something this session
on this important question, and that
the credit will go where it belongs,
to the Federal government which has
already pioneered in this field, as the
Governor should admit, now that the
campaign is over.
The State Budget.
At II o'clock a. m. last Thursday,
January Is, the Governor delivered
his budget address and recommended
tons to joint session of the House
and Senate. In the Minneapolis Star
Journal for that day we read sub
headline preceding its report of this
address which was very interesting,
to say the least. It reads: 1T Bal
ances, Says the Governor. We could
detect slight questioning tone, as
they perhaps thought of the bill we
have already passed in which we had
to appropriate $1,200,000 to cover a
deficiency in the Old Age Assistance
fund for the present fiscal year end
ing June 80, 1941.
Let me also partially quote an edi-
torial from the st. Paul Dispatch of
December IA, last month. speaking
before the Hennepin County Bar As
ISOLATION, Harry Fiterman, Tax Con-
sultant, said the state general reve-
nue. fund had a deficit of about 49,
100000 in July, 1889, and that this
deficit now has grown until it is be-
tween $6,400,000 and $7,50O,000. The
.. figures definitely prove one
thing that the States accounting sys-
tenn which is a fundamental part of
the Reorganization Act, is not func-
tioning, although it is now more than
Is months since the law was passed
One of the purposes of the
Reorganization Act was to end def
cit financing but from the figures
that are available it would seem that
this objective has not been accom-
plished"