Dear Northland Neighbors,
When I took my first nursing home administrator job at Sunrise Home in 1997, I worked hard to create relationships with the community. Soon, I was working with Dr. McMahon and Dr. Josephs as rounding physicians and formed trusting relationships with the hospital and clinic. Not long after I started, I met Warren Johnson, a lifelong resident of Two Harbors and the community. He and I traveled the state to explore models of assisted living facilities to find the best options for Two Harbors. In a very short period, the plan was presented to Lake County Commissioners and the dream came true. This building remains today and is now called Waterview Shores that continues to serve the community.
This experience gave me a tremendous learning opportunity. As the only nursing home administrator in the House or Senate, I was able to testify as to the importance of ensuring we don’t lose our nursing homes in Two Harbors, Silver Bay, or Grand Marais. Imagine driving to Duluth for skilled care nursing homes. I was instrumental in ensuring $300 million was allocated on the last day of the legislative session in 2023. The pandemic was stressful on 24 operations, and this one-time money helped to keep them operating.
Fast forward to the 2023 and 2024 sessions, it was fantastic to be back in a community I once worked in. Now I would be able to work with community leaders once again. I realized how time flies when I was back working with county commissioners and recognized the familiar face of Rick Goutermont. Rick Goutermont was on board when the assisted living campus happened 20+ years ago. My work for the community continued when I was appointed to the Governor’s Aging and EMS task forces, which allowed me to tour the state with both parties for solutions.
Back home, I authored the 11 million dollar gap funding for Highway 61 on the House side, and I supported the bonding bill in 2023. However, the majority party elected to move this capital project out of bonding. I was not able to support the bonding projects in the transportation omnibus because of the $194 million train to Duluth, since current trains are losing money, are ten years delayed, and are massively over budget. I also felt we needed to put more money into fixing our existing roads and bridges. Additionally, I could not support the tax bill since we started 2023 with $17.5 billion in surplus. Unfortunately, the surplus was spent in 5 months, and $10 billion of new taxes were added. Therefore, I could not support growing the government by nearly 40%, knowing you would see higher costs and less money in your wallet every pay period. Not to mention the $2,000 rebate check never happened, it was $260 and then you were taxed on it.
Despite the single-party rule, I was able to work across party lines as I did when I was a nursing home administrator. My goal has always been to get things done, and I did just that. The Executive Director of Lake County Ambulance, Randy Stroymeyer, drove to testify at my workforce hearing for career technical education funding (CTE) partnership with Lake County Schools. This allows high school students to have free training in high school like many of us did in the 1980’s. This $100,000 grant will be administered through the Department of Employment & Economic Development (DEED) in MN in 2024.
When I ran for office, I promised to work to expand the trades in schools, and I was able to get this done. Fortunately, I was selected as a Republican for the Workforce Omnibus Conference Committee and joined 8 Democrats to find common ground. This allowed me to ensure Greater Minnesota was funded with projects, and four of them were ones I wrote for trades and to ensure we attract more Minnesota students to nursing to address the shortage. Our conference committee worked across party lines and this allowed the entrepreneur fund (funds small businesses) and women’s venture (funds family and center childcare operations) to retain funding. Currently, Lake County has lost 50% of family childcare and I continue to work to see more providers join the profession.
Finally, I was thrilled to see the Democrats accept my amendment to ensure every nursing home, assisted living, or hospital patient has one person to visit them if we are ever in a state of emergency or pandemic again. After watching grown 70-year-old men cry outside windows in 20-below weather, I was determined to get a bill passed. Now, no one will have to be alone in any setting in their times of trauma, relocation, dying, or other health issues. I worked with the Minnesota Department of Health and the Ombudsman for two years to get this accomplished, and we did.
Best,
Rep. Natalie Zeleznikar,
State Representative 3B
