Daily Digest: Money and what to do with it

Good morning. Happy Thursday, and happy March. Here's the Digest.

1. New forecast shows a surplus, but not a huge one. Minnesota officials said Wednesday the state now has a projected budget surplus of $329 million, reversing the deficit projection made in December. The rosier forecast for the 2018-2019 budget cycle sets the backdrop for the Legislature's coming debate over tax cuts and potential new spending. Still, while the new numbers represent a $517 million positive swing between fall and winter forecasts, the surplus unveiled Wednesday is smaller than many in the Legislature were predicting and could stop some proposals in their tracks. Minnesota Management and Budget Commissioner Myron Frans noted that the current surplus forecast is less than 1 percent of the state's total two-year budget and urged lawmakers to curb their appetites to spend it. Questions remain about the health of the national economy and the longer-term effects of the federal tax code rewrite, including whether people spend or save as a result of tax cuts, he added. It will also make the tax rewrite plan a slightly more difficult lift. (MPR News)

2. Some legislators want money to prevent opioid abuse. State Rep. Dave Baker lost his 25-year-old son Dan to opioids in 2011. The Willmar Republican is the chief author of two bills he hopes will keep other families from going through the same thing. One proposal would prohibit pharmacists from filling opioid painkiller prescriptions that are more than 30 days old. Baker's other measure would impose what he calls a "stewardship fee" of one cent per milligram of opioids in a pill. "We want to be aggressive about this. We want to go after the folks that have hurt our communities like no one else has. We are asking them and demanding [that they] step up to the table," Baker said. The penny-a-pill tax would raise about $20 million a year for services including addiction treatment, overdose prevention and the state's existing prescription drug monitoring program. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America — or PhRMA — has five lobbyists working on its behalf in St. Paul. In a statement, PhRMA spokesperson Nick McGee said the proposed tax would ostracize and penalize people suffering from pain who rely on the drugs legitimately. He also said the measure "ignores the factors that led to this public health crisis, including the substantial influx of heroin, counterfeit fentanyl and other illegal drugs." (MPR News)

3. Care providers apologize for elder abuse. As Minnesota works to improve protections for seniors and vulnerable adults, long-term care providers offered apologies for past abuses and ideas for improving safety.“To all the seniors and families whose lives have been impacted, in any way, by abuse or maltreatment, please know we share their hurt and their grief and are truly sorry for the heartbreaking experiences they have endured,” Gayle Kvenvold, CEO of LeadingAge, told members of the Senate aging and long-term care committee Wednesday. Kvenvold’s organization represents long-term care providers. She was one of 10 leaders from the long-term care sector to address lawmakers a week after family members detailed the abuse their relatives suffered in assisted living facilities. (Pioneer Press)

4. How will the new federal tax law play in the 3rd District race? The GOP tax overhaul is dividing candidates in Minnesota's wealthiest congressional district, a race some national pundits say is a bellwether on the fate of Republican control of the House. The 3rd District encompasses a swath of western Twin Cities suburbs and exurbs from Coon Rapids to Bloomington. Average household income is $118,546. It's been represented since 2009 by Republican Rep. Erik Paulsen, who is running for a sixth term. He said his constituents will get a larger tax cut than the national average, which is about $1,600 per household according to the non-partisan Tax Policy Center. "For the average family of four in the 3rd District, it's closer to a $5,000 tax cut," said Paulsen.  Democrats are talking about the tax bill signed into law by President Trump much differently. They say it favors the wealthy and piles on the national debt. (MPR News)

5. Mills is for sure not running.  Stewart Mills said “hard data” told him to pass on finding out whether a third time would be the charm in his pursuit of succeeding Democrat Rick Nolan in Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional District. Mills’ decision, spelled out in a Facebook posting Tuesday, puts the Republican right back where he was on Nov. 1, when he disclosed he would not seek to represent the district that stretches from the northern edges of the Twin Cities to the Canadian border. However, when Nolan announced a few weeks ago that he was leaving Congress, Mills said a reconsideration to be a candidate in 2018 was warranted. On Tuesday, Mills said he chose to stay on the sidelines “based off of ‘hard data.’ I finished my review of that data and completed other due diligence [Monday] night and have decided not to run. I owed it to my supporters to take this consideration very seriously; many of those supporters got behind me all the way back in 2013.” Mills’ explanation on Facebook did not elaborate on what data specifically he reviewed. (Star Tribune)

• Politics Friday: Should we stop trusting pre-election polling?
• MPR News congressional debates: 7th District and 8th District
• Politics Friday: 1st District, 3rd District congressional candidates debate the issues