Volume 4, Issue 9 — April 27, 2018
A weekly message from your Senator
Dear Constituents and Friends,
Curious as to what the Legislature is doing to align Minnesota’s tax code with major federal changes? So am I. The Senate Taxes Committee chair still hasn’t released a bill, with just three weeks left until the end of session. The House Taxes Committee chair finally released a plan this week and dubbed it the “Freaky Fast Bill,” admitting that the Legislature needs to move incredibly quickly to come to an agreement without risking automatic tax increases for at least 300,000 taxpayers.
The Governor’s plan has been out for nearly six weeks, and lawmakers have known since late December that this is a looming challenge. It is frustrating and disappointing that once again we are leaving the state’s most important business down to the wire. A bonding bill is also yet to be introduced. A lot of work still needs to happen before we adjourn.
Notwithstanding, we spent close to 12 hours on the Senate floor debating the supplemental budget bill and I was able to pass a modification to Sophia’s Law, requiring carbon monoxide detectors on certain recreational boats, unanimously this week.
Thanks for continuing to share your thoughts and concerns as we wrap up the last few weeks of session.
Sincerely,
Melisa
Supplemental finance omnibus bill falls short
The omnibus finance bill this week was heard and passed on the floor. The bill is made up of several budget bills. The bill was loaded with controversial policy and cuts to agencies that will undoubtedly be opposed by Governor Dayton.
Several members offered numerous amendments that would have improved Minnesota’s quality of life. Instead, the state was left with budgets that avoids the kinds of necessary investments and forward-looking solutions that are needed to address the issues that are critically important to Minnesotans.
Supplemental Energy Finance Article –The article containing the energy provisions caps Xcel Energy’s contribution to the Renewable Development Account and removes future funding for renewable energy in Minnesota. Additionally, the bill includes a provision requiring the Public Utilities Commission to allow public utilities to include excess pension costs in the rate base. This is problematic because it would require utility customers to pay for pension costs as well as the utility shareholder’s interest on the fund. Helping taxpayers must be a priority, but this is an additional cost to ratepayers and does not reflect the current accounting standard used in utility ratemaking.
Higher Education Omnibus Supplemental bill -This bill takes $1 million from a program to help pay two-year college costs for Minnesota students and uses the money to fund other programs in their budget. There is no campus support funding in this bill. Both MinnState and the University of Minnesota requested $10 million each for campus programs, but the University of Minnesota will receive no new funding at all and MinnState only receives $1.5 million. This is unacceptable. Higher education in Minnesota must be a priority.
State Government Finance Supplemental bill – This budget includes abolishing MN.IT services and unfair public employee labor contracts. It also requires additional agency reporting on rules that impact residential construction.
Supplemental Transportation Finance bill – This budget provides funding for technical costs and staff for MNLARS, as well as deputy registrar reimbursements and other transportation funding. The Senate majority declined to take up any of the Governor’s budget recommendations for transportation and public safety, opting instead for one-time fixes and earmarks.
Roads and bridges all over the state are in need of reconstruction and repair, but the bill only provides $1 million in earmarks for feasibility studies to reconstruct two interchanges. The Senate majority has refused to provide additional funding to the DVS call center, even for temporary employees until the vehicle services side of MNLARS is fully functional. This sets completely unreasonable expectations for call center performance and sets up MNLARS for failure instead of fixing the problem.
Despite a looming deficit of $95-100 million in 2020 and 2021, there is no funding for transit, opting instead for further restrictions on transit expansion. The omnibus bill contains a provision restricting the use of state dollars for light rail transit operating dollars for expansion of the system—meaning Metro Transit would not be able to expand service hours using state dollars. Without dollars committed to fill the deficit this year, the state will need to find a solution so there are not drastic cuts to service.
Supplemental Environment and Natural Resources Finance bill
This bill contains reductions and new spending that net out to the Environment Finance Committee’s zero budget target. This funding from the general fund includes money for aggregate mapping, monitoring and modeling of water levels in mine pits and for aquatic invasive species grants, among other things. Potential controversy for the bill comes in the form of air quality standards, water transfers, and other environmental issues.
The bill passed on a 34 to 31 party line vote.
Amendments offered on the supplemental finance omnibus bill
Common-sense gun safety provisions
Two gun violence prevention amendments were offered, which I supported, to the supplemental budget bill.
The first amendment would extend criminal background checks to most private sales, gun show markets, and online transactions within the state’s existing permit to purchase system. A Star Tribune poll this past weekend found that 9 out of 10 Minnesotans support criminal background checks on all private firearm purchases. A recent similar poll conducted by Everytown for Gun Safety found identical support among Minnesotans for red flag and criminal background check bills. Support is broad as well as deep, and crosses political, urban and rural, and gun owners and non-owner lines. Additionally, several Senate Republicans have offered support for gun violence prevention bills of this nature.
This universal background check amendment was ruled not germane, and an attempt to overturn that ruling failed 36-30.
The second amendment would allow law enforcement to seek an extreme risk protection order, also known as a “red flag warning”, a court order temporarily restricting a person’s access to guns when they pose a danger to self or others. In a nationwide study from 2009 to 2016, roughly 42% of mass shootings produced documentation that the attacker displayed dangerous warning signs before the shooting. This amendment was also ruled not germane, and an attempt to overturn that ruling failed 36-29.
Funding for MNLARS call centers
As a result of a decision to block customer service improvements by the majority, hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans cannot get timely answers to their questions about MNLARS. Some people are waiting as long as six weeks for answers, according to the Department of Public Safety.
For the second time this session, Senators offered their plan for customer service improvements on the Senate floor, this time as an amendment to the supplemental budget proposal.
Sadly, the majority derailed the MNLARS call center funding amendment by adding a provision to the amendment that raided $1.9 million from the Metropolitan Council budget. The Metropolitan Council is responsible for handling our wastewater management, regional parks, affordable housing projects, and most recognizably—transit operations. This amendment highlights their disdain for transit and their unwillingness to connect Minnesotans with the resources they need for getting their vehicle tabs renewed, doing vehicle title transactions, scheduling driver’s license exams, and more.
After this detrimental amendment was added to the MNLARS amendment, the author withdrew the provision.
“Academic balance”
Last night, I offered two amendments to put the brakes on an effort to limit the right to free speech in Minnesota classrooms. The legislation is a result of a legal dispute in Edina Public Schools that generated significant media coverage.
Education Minnesota, the Minnesota School Boards Association, and the Association of Metropolitan School Districts, and many others have said the initiative is unnecessary and would chill free expression and discussion of ideas in classrooms. The amendments failed by a vote of 31 to 34.
Changes made to Sophia’s Law
Two years ago, I authored and the Minnesota legislature passed, the first comprehensive carbon monoxide law for boaters in the United States. The law was in response to the tragic death in 2015 of seven-year-old Sophia Baechler, who passed away from carbon monoxide poisoning while boating with her parents. While carbon monoxide detectors are common in homes, many people didn’t think to have them on their boats. This law requires certain boats that have an enclosed accommodation compartment to have a CO detector installed. This session, a modification was added to current law to clarify the requirement for houseboats and to deal with other technicalities. Sophia’s Law will continue to provide boaters significantly greater protection from CO poisoning. (HF 3755)