With the recent spike in Covid-19 cases, Rice County Public Health is reminding everyone that the department continues to host
vaccination clinics at the Rice County Government Services Building in Faribault, as well as at other community locations.
Vaccines are available at local clinics, pharmacies and through Rice County Public Health. Anyone wishing to receive a vaccination from the county, should pre-register on the Rice County Public Health website. Walk-ins are welcome are welcome as well.
Those needing help registering for a clinic or with questions about the vaccine should call 507-332-5928 or 507-384-6450. Vaccination clinics are for first or second doses, additional doses for those with immunocompromising conditions and booster doses. Please bring your vaccination card if you have received previous vaccines, so it can be updated.
Hillmann ‘expects’ special session
When the state legislature adjourned on Sunday night without coming to an agreement on the best way to use the $9.3 billion
budget surplus, it left many undone bills that were close to an agreement. From a Health and Human Services bill that would have benefitted nursing homes and organizations like Laura Baker Services, to a tax bill that would have eliminated state income tax on social security income and offered property tax relief to homeowners and renters alike, there was much left on the table. It left a public safety bill undone, and a transportation bill. It also left undone what many people with the Northfield School District would call a desperately needed education funding bill.
The education bill would address three issues: literacy, student mental health and special education. The special ed funding is especially significant, because that is an issue that has lingered since the early 1980’s. Northfield Superintendent of Schools Dr. Matt Dr. Matt Hillmann has discussed the Special Education Cross Subsidy on numerous occasions. He calls Special Education a morally imperative program that also happens to be mandated by the state and federal governments. However, the funding that is attached to that mandate has never materialized, which means in Northfield’s case, $5 million dollars comes out of the district’s general fund each year to pay for it. Dr. Hillmann has said, at a time when the district is working to cut $4.5 million out of the budget over the next two years, funding special education would make all the difference.
Hillmann said he is extremely disappointed in the legislature. By most accounts, the details on the funding package were very close to coming together, but time ran out, which is a tough pill for the district to swallow.
“The legislature has ten times the amount of money it would take to fund special ed across the state,” he said. “We had a good compromise on the table, and a fair deal. We had a chance to fix a problem that goes back four decades, and we let it fall apart at the last minute.”
Governor Tim Walz is weighing the option of calling a special legislative session to finish the incomplete work but has said he will not do it unless he believes Republicans and Democrats can come together and tie things up in an expedient fashion. Dr. Hillmann feels that the governor does not have a choice in the matter.
“I am very hopeful – actually, I expect, I shouldn’t say I’m hopeful. I expect that we will have a special session and that everybody comes to the table and does good work for the people who live in their communities and the people who go to school in their communities. The lack of doing something here impacts real people in a very real way.”
A decision on a special session should come before the end of the month.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Superintendent of Schools Dr. Matt Hillmann can be heard here
Draheim calls bi-partisan mental health bill a ‘big win’
Despite the legislature’s inability to come together on the budget surplus, there were bills that were passed and sent to Governor
Walz for his signature. Among them was a multi-faceted Mental Health bill that was authored in large part by State Senator Rich Draheim.
Mental Health has always been one of Senator Draheim’s top legislative priorities, and he has authored several bills addressing the matter during his time in office. The bill the governor is about to sign, he said, is a combination of many of those bills, and others written by people from both sides of the aisle, which is something he is proud of.
“The bill was a hodge-podge of other bills. Like a lot of the subject matter bills that we do, you take bits and pieces from a dozen different bills, and you put it together. This is probably the most bi-partisan bill that I have seen in the six years that I have been up here.”
As the bill is made up of so many different parts, it addresses many different mental health issues. Chief among them, said Draheim, is money for the creation of Urgency Rooms. Mental Health Urgency Rooms serve teenagers and young adults up to age 25, offering a place to find help from the moment they realize there is a problem to the point where they are diagnosed and are receiving treatment.
Draheim said there is a deep need for these facilities for several reasons. It addresses initial contact, he said, which, for children, can be the most important part of the issue. Furthermore, it creates a place specifically for mental health patients in crisis to go. Right now, many needing immediate help will go to an Emergency Room, which is generally not equipped to deal with this sort of crisis, and that can only exacerbate the problem.
Draheim said other measures in the bill will help to stabilize the mental health funding counties receive from the state. It offers grant money to school districts for mental health programs. It also offers money for the creation and support of mobile crisis teams. Finally, he said, it funds competency restoration programs that will help some people get to the point where they are deemed competent to stand trial.
Draheim called the bill “probably the most important thing that passed this session,” and said it is a “big win.”
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with State Senator Rich Draheim can be heard here
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
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