Wright County's McDonald: Time to Look Forward to 2012 Session

I want to thank all the local citizens who attended the town hall meeting I hosted last week at Delano.

The wide variety of opinions made for a very productive discussion and the diverse perspectives constituents shared with me are helpful in preparing for the 2012 legislative session. It is important for me to hear from as many District 19B residents as we ramp up to January and I encourage you to continue providing me with your opinions.

A key topic of discussion at the town hall meeting was reform and we can expect to hear a lot more about it in the upcoming months. We are in the process of putting together a package of new government efficiency measures called "Reform 2.0" and are looking for suggestions on what we can do to help improve the way our state operates. Our goal is to engage all Minnesotans – citizens, businesses, nonprofits, local governments, public sector employees – in this process.

I always welcome your input via email, phone, or face-to-face conversations, but you can also take advantage of social media to submit your reform ideas. There is a Facebook page at www.facebook.com/reform2 and you also can follow @reform2 on Twitter. It is important to receive a wide variety of ideas as to how we can reform, innovate and redesign state government and I hope you will participate.

Enjoy the final weeks of summer and I will send out word when another town hall meeting is in the works.