ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - MNsure’s chief executive announced his resignation Monday, paving the way for a third leadership shakeup at the beleaguered agency in less than two years.
Scott Leitz will step down later this month after just 18 months on the job to take a position at a Washington, D.C.-based health policy think tank. MNsure’s board of directors accepted his resignation Monday and appointed one of his deputies to lead the agency in the interim.
The leadership shakeup comes as Minnesota lawmakers debate the exchange’s future, with proposals ranging from abolishing its governing board and establishing MNsure as a full-blown state agency to dismantling MNsure entirely and shifting to the federally-run exchange. Any planning for a permanent replacement will wait until Republicans and Democrats hammer out a deal to solidify MNsure’s future.
A longtime presence in Minnesota health care policy with stints overseeing the state’s Medicaid program and serving as its health economist, Leitz took over at MNsure in December 2013 on an interim basis after the exchange’s first chief executive resigned in a swirl of technological nightmares and a controversy over a tropical vacation. He was named permanent CEO last April.
His last day is May 22.
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ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Minnesota lawmakers moved quickly on Monday to help turkey farmers beset by a deadly and growing outbreak of bird flu, putting together a patchwork of loan programs and emergency response funding to cover farmers’ losses.
The House voted 110 to 18 for a budget bill for the state’s agricultural agencies with a sharp focus on the outbreak. Typically one of the first funding bills lawmakers take up during budget years, the GOP-controlled House hit the pause button on the agricultural budget as the state struggled to grasp the scope of the problem.
Eighty chicken and turkey farms in Minnesota had been hit as of Monday, costing farmers in the nation’s largest turkey-producing state more than 5.3 million birds, according to the state. Officials disclosed Monday that one farm in Nicollet County lost more than 1.1 million hens.
“This goes beyond the immediate crisis of the avian influenza,” said Rep. Dean Urdahl, R-Grove City. “There are producers struggling to hold on to their operations, struggling to keep employees working.”
As lawmakers scramble to piece together the state’s budget - a time typically ripe for partisan bickering - the House quickly added a provision to that would send more than $6 million to better fund the state’s response efforts, another that would extend unemployment insurance to employees at farms shuttered by bird flu and a separate one to expand a low-interest state loan program to help farmers get their businesses back up and running.
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ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Minnesota senators won’t pull back from public assistance offerings for the 2018 Super Bowl in Minnesota.
In a pair of votes Monday, the Senate rejected attempts to bar use of public dollars toward football’s premier event and to repeal a sales tax exemption on Super Bowl tickets. The exemption was on the books since Minnesota hosted the 1992 game.
A tax bill advancing at the Capitol lets the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority reroute $2.7 million to cover some game-related costs.
In trying to undo the ticket tax exemption, Democratic Sen. John Marty said people paying an average of $2,500 per ticket can afford sales tax.
Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk, a fellow Democrat, said it was about keeping the state’s promise contained in a successful bid to land the game.
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ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Minnesota has an idea for a Super Bowl encore: the country’s biggest college football game.
Gov. Mark Dayton is joining others Tuesday morning to announce the state’s bid for the College Football Playoff National Championship. The postseason bowl game is designed to crown the NCAA’s top football team. Ohio State won the first championship game held in January outside Dallas.
It’s not immediately clear what year Minnesota boosters have in mind.
The game is booked for the next two years. Meanwhile, Minnesota has a slate of other major sporting events coming to town.
Minneapolis will host the 2018 Super Bowl and 2019 Final Four in a downtown stadium slated to open next year. The 2016 Ryder Cup, an internationally popular golf tournament, is scheduled for Chaska.
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