Koch Sets New Priorities to Aid Wright County

In her new office just down the hall from the Minnesota Senate chambers, Sen. Amy Koch, the newly-elected Senate Majority Leader (officially), said it was time to help small businesses get a leg-up in the state. 

"Everything is about creating jobs. About 95 percent of the jobs in this state are created by small business, so we need to create some breaks for those people first," she said. "We need to work with the tax committee and [Sen.] Julie Ortmann to see how we can do that and be fiscally responsible."

She said helping small businesses would assist communities like St. Michael, Albertville, Monticello and Buffalo in her district, which have been hardest hit by the recession. 

Her colleague and President of the Senate, Michelle Fischbach, echoed that sentiment.

"People want to see us get to work, and they want to get back to work," she said. 

Another mission will be to repeal the ban on nuclear and coal-fired generating facilities. A ban has been in place since the 1980s. Koch has taken aim at the nuclear ban, in particular, before. 

She said she's not sure where Gov. Mark Dayton, a DFLer, stands on the issue, but knows a lot of his supporters – union workers – would like to see something done to create jobs in the energy sector. 

"It's going to be one of the first bills we'll see in committee," she said. "If it puts people back to work, that's a good thing." 

In 2008, Koch put a resolution out on Senate floor to repeal the moratorium, self-induced by a past Legislature. It passed, overwhelmingly. But the repeal never got support in the State House. 

Last session, Koch put a bill through the Energy and Technology Committee, but a DFL-majority added an amendment that tied the repeal of the ban to a solution for nuclear waste. It died in committee the same day. 

Finally, she said, a permanent solution must be found for the Green Acres program, which was a tax break for rural landowners who had so-called un-tillabe land. A 2008 vote dropped the program, while a 2009 bill restored it with a new oversight program, but Koch said penalties are still taking a toll on Wright County landowners. 

"It's a program that created more taxes in a time when people can't afford to pay more in property tax. That, combined with increased land values, really hurt a lot of small farms in Wright County," she said.