Minnesota lawmakers can draw additional state funds for security costs
Minnesota lawmakers will have access to additional state funding to secure their homes following a pair of shootings targeting elected agents Members of the state Senate and House will be able to draw up to to cover the cost of home protection systems deadbolts and other safety features The money will come from each chamber s operation fund according to the Secretary of the Senate Tom Bottern and a House official who spoke without being identified by name The move was first communicated by WCCO Lawmakers have increasingly spoken of the need to safeguard their houses in the wake of a June fatal attack on House DFL Caucus Leader Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark They were shot in their Brooklyn Park home by a man impersonating a police officer Sen John Hoffman and his wife Yvette were shot in their Champlin home as well in a similar attack that also put their daughter Hope at jeopardy The suspect in both shootings faces state and federal charges Administration say he went to the homes of at least two other Democratic lawmakers and had a list of others in the car he abandoned when he fled the Hortman home State Sen Aric Putnam DFL-St Cloud commented he installed additional guard measures at his home a couple years ago after he was threatened I was experiencing selected threats so I used chosen campaign information to install a safety system in our house he mentioned Thursday to MPR News With me being out down at the Capitol four months out of the year we thought it was a prudent and significant and necessary assets Putnam used campaign funds for those precaution measures State law permits candidates to use up to from their campaign accounts toward guard costs A Minnesota House official who spoke only on the condition of anonymity noted there would be an effort to continue the funding automatically into the future The goal is to ensure that lawmakers elected later could also access protection enhancements Putnam announced he thinks adding more allowances for guard for general authorities is a good idea I think it s major that legislators feel safe and that people who get involved in general facility have several degree of safety he commented adding that he thinks that should extend to Supreme Court justices and others Related Articles State Sen Nicole Mitchell resigns from office after felony convictions Patrick Knight What s the plan if our expansive new family-leave law doesn t work as imagined Letters With statements of more huge fraud in Minnesota these questions come to mind Minnesota State Sen Bruce Anderson dies at age State Sen Nicole Mitchell to resign after burglary conviction There s lots of folks who get involved in inhabitants function and in becoming constituents you kind of lose control over various of those boundaries Putnam continued So whatever we can do to kind of help maintain those boundaries so that people can maintain as normal life as they can I think is a good thing Congress has also taken similar action in recent days to increase funding for lawmakers safety when they re away from the Capitol Additional conversations about Capitol-area prevention are ongoing and a panel tasked with managing safety on the Capitol complex is scheduled to meet Aug
