01/27/1986 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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262 COUNCIL MEETING January 27, 1986 Page Two Pension Fund investment in venture capital funds, at this time the investments are made out of the State of Minnesota and the changes will require that the money be invested only in capital venture funds where at least 50% of employees or 50% of their assets are in Minnesota. The fourth item of concern to Senator Dahl is the SEED capital fund. This fund would help get small businesses off the ground and the fifth program is concerned with Anoka County Parks and Open Space. Another area of concern is legislation dealing with tie downs and storm shelters for mobile home residents. Mayor Benson asked how the expected budget cuts will affect local government aid. Senator Dahl felt the State should try to live up to its commitment to the cities but felt the cuts could be as much as 3.5 %. Mayor Benson asked if it would be possible to see larger cuts. Senator Dahl said yes, the Governor wants to maintain the one hundred million dollar rainy day fund. Senator Dahl discussed the crisis on the family farm and indi- cated that family farmers will become tenant farmers with insurance companies, bonds and corporations owning the lands. He also discussed the manner in which the federal government is approaching the farm crisis. Mr. Schumacher asked if fiscal disparities will be restructured and referred to the mega mall issue. Senator Dahl explained he was not in favor of giving exemptions for the mega mall and saw a need to keep fiscal disparities in tack. He did not have any information on tax increment financing but could get the information from his office. Mr. Bisel noted that Minnesota is losing businesses and industries to other states and asked how this could be turned around. Senator Dahl felt his SEED program would help in this situation and said workers' compensation and unemployment compensation will be addressed in this session of the legislature. This problem will take some time to correct. Mr. Reinert expressed his concern that both the unemployment and workers' compensation laws were a real detriment to Minnesota businesses. Senator Dahl explained the difficulty in getting accurate and up to date figures from insurance companies and this is delaying the resolution of this problem. Mr. Reinert expressed his concern regarding the farm situation especially regarding the proposal for using state revenue to encourage banks to make loans to farmers. He said possibly farmers are suffering from mismanagement and this proposal will make matters worse. Senator Dahl explained state revenues would not be at a risk in this proposal.