R ICHFIELD ✹ A PRIL 7, 2011
SPORTS
SUN CURRENT 75¢
Vol. 41, No. 14
In the Community, With the Community, For the Community
PAGE 26
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Senator aims to be business-friendly Sen. Amy Koch speaks on budget issues with local chambers of commerce
Teacher exchange brings taste of India Richfield, Indian teachers swap classrooms, cultures
BY KATIE MINTZ SUN NEWSPAPERS Between Senate approval of bills with cuts to higher education and health and human services spending, Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, RBuffalo, addressed local business leaders. Koch spoke on her party’s efforts to close the budget deficit without raising taxes and other business-friendly measures at a joint meeting of the Bloomington, Eden Prairie, Edina and Richfield chambers of commerce Wednesday, March 30. Chamber members said so far they are pleased with direction of the current legislative session, now past the halfway point. “There’s plenty going on at the state that impacts all of us,” said Pat MulQueeny, Eden Prairie Chamber president, following the luncheon at the Edina Country Club. “Overall it’s been an aggressive approach trying to get things done early.”
Track team numbers show growth
BY BILLIE JO RASSAT • SUN NEWSPAPERS
and most likely for reform – is health and human services. The budget bill approved by the Senate Wednesday afternoon would ban state spending to enact the federal health care overhaul unless the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the law. Koch told chamber members that if any state can handle its own health care it’s Minnesota, home to Mayo Clinic, the University of Minnesota and other renowned institutions.
One Richfield teacher knows what it feels like to not speak the language and be unfamiliar with the culture while in a different part of the world. But now, she’s back, sharing those experiences, and more, with Richfield’s students. “I am a Fulbright Scholar in the Richfield School District,” said Mary Stanton proudly. During the first semester of the 2010-11 school year, she participated in the Fulbright Teacher Exchange, taking some time away from her position as a language arts teacher at Richfield High School. As part of the program, one teacher switches places with another. She was matched up with Rashmi Ashtikar, a teacher from Delhi, India. While in the country, Stanton taught at the Bal Bharati Public School.
CHAMBER: TO PAGE 5
INDIA: TO PAGE 9
Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, R-Buffalo, addressed the Bloomington, Eden Prairie, Edina and Richfield chambers of commerce Wednesday, March 30, at the Edina Country Club. (Photo by Billie Jo Rassat • Sun Newspapers) Koch said the current focus at the capital is balancing the state budget. This year, the Senate set its earliest budget target in history asking for budget bills to be through committee by March 25. Those bills, and their House companions, are now getting votes on the respective floors, something Koch said doesn’t usually until late April or May. That allows extra time for discussion as details are hammered out in conference committees before the bills are sent to Democratic-Farmer-Labor Gov. Mark Dayton’s desk, she said.
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The GOP-proposed budget does not increase taxes. Koch said the budget should fit within the state’s projected revenue of about $34 billion – the same amount spent last biennium. Dayton’s proposed budget increases spending to about $37.4 billion. “We believe it’s important for the government to live within its means,” said Koch, adding the projected $5 billion budget deficit is due to an assumed increase in spending. She said one of the fastest growing areas of spending –
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