Bonding bill hanging on; Budget discussion on docket; Contract ratification moves; GAMC override; Federal jobs bill passes House

Legislative Update
Feb. 26, 2010

Bonding bill lives another day

A lot of legislative activity on the bonding bill occurred early this week. On Sunday, conference committee members met late into the evening to try to wrap up the bill. Conferees finalized the language Monday morning and sent the bill to the floor Monday evening, where it passed both the House and Senate. However, Gov. Tim Pawlenty had sent a letter to legislators prior to the debate on the floor informing lawmakers that he would veto the entire bill rather than use line-item vetoes.

Legislative leadership decided to hold the bill and not send it to the governor in order to trim it down to the governor’s requested $725 million and produce a bill he will sign. The conference committee report and the governor’s bonding recommendations are approximately $300 million apart. House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, DFL-Minneapolis, said, "I think it will allow for maybe a little cooling-off period here in the next 24 to 48 hours."

Now that the bonding bill has been sent back to the Senate, a capital investment working group has begun further negotiations on the bill, and the governor and legislative leadership have been meeting.

During the working group discussions, Sen. Sandy Pappas, DFL-St. Paul, chair of the Higher Education committee, said the House and Senate respect the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities bonding process and that the colleges and universities play a vital role in the state's economy. Other members of the working group said the system is a model for getting shovels in the ground quickly.

As a reminder, the conference committee report includes $305.9 million (including user financing) for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system, of which $52 million is for repair and replacement, also referred to as HEAPR. Find a link to the conference committee report here. We will continue to keep you updated as negotiations continue over the weekend.

Lawmakers begin budget discussions in an attempt to resolve $1.2 billion deficit

After Gov. Pawlenty released his supplemental budget last week, lawmakers have been grappling with how best to resolve the $1.2 billion state budget deficit. You will recall the governor proposed a reduction of $10.5 million to the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system. As reported last week, the state can cut $46.6 million from higher education and still meet the federal “maintenance of efforts” requirement on receiving the federal stimulus funding. The governor took the rest of the higher education cut from the University of Minnesota at $36.1 million, which aligns the current budgets of both higher education systems with their 2006 funding levels.

The House Higher Education and Workforce Development Finance and Policy Division this week discussed the University of Minnesota’s budget. President Robert Bruininks told committee members the state has had a proud tradition of supporting higher education, but state support is declining. If this is the new norm, he said, higher education will have to be defined differently in Minnesota.

The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system is scheduled to speak to this committee about the system's budget Tues., March 2. Also that day, we anticipate the release of the February economic forecast, which will tell lawmakers and the governor whether the $1.2 billion budget deficit forecast in November is still on target and will set the stage for the supplemental budget process this session.

Contract ratification bill moves through committee process

The annual contract ratification bill, the bill that ratifies labor agreements and compensation plans worked on since the prior session, has cleared another hurdle this week, this time in the Senate. On Wednesday, the Senate State and Local Government Operations and Oversight committee passed SF 2386. The bill includes plans for Minnesota State College Faculty or MSCF; the Minnesota State University Association of Administrative and Service Faculty or MSUAASF; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees or ASCFME, the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees or MAPE; the Middle Management Association or MMA; the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Administrators; the Commissioner’s Plan; and the Managerial Plan. As reported last week, the bill is working its way through the committee process in the House and will be heard next in the Finance Committee.

Senate votes to override GAMC bill

On the Senate floor this week, senators were successful in overriding the governor's veto of the General Assistance Medical Care bill by a vote of 45-21. General Assistance Medical Care covers adults with yearly incomes of less than $8,000, including many with chronic health problems, chemical addictions and mental illness. The program was eliminated by Gov. Pawlenty last year through executive actions. The bill is an attempt to restore funding to the program, which is due to end April 1.

House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, DFL-Minneapolis, said legislative leaders will spend the weekend working with the governor’s office to find a compromise, and said a signed bill is preferable to an override situation. However, she said that if negotiations fail to show progress by Monday, Democrats may attempt an override vote on the bill.

Jobs bill passes U.S. Senate, House to consider measure

The U.S. Senate's $15 billion jobs package ran into immediate opposition from the House of Representatives after it passed in the Senate by a larger-than-expected 70-28 bipartisan vote. Although House Democratic leaders indicated they would like to quickly enact a jobs bill to show the public they are working on the issue, House leaders as late this week had not decided how to proceed on the measure.

Tracking students to employment

There has been a long debate over the privacy of student data, and it’s now heading to the federal level. Should states be able to track if and where students are employed after graduation? The Obama administration is saying yes. The president’s education plan pushes for more accountability in higher education through data. This includes tracking where students end up and if they have jobs after pursuing higher education degrees. Former President George W. Bush proposed having a national database that tracked students from elementary school to employment. Obama’s plan is different because it would allow individual states to collect the data. Many in the research community believe access to this data would help track the records of students and institutions and lend a greater understanding of how students end up in a particular field. The U.S. Department of Education is researching how to collect this data while complying with federal privacy laws.

Here's What's Happening at the Capitol:

This schedule shows all meetings that we are aware of at the time of publication that may have an impact on the system. This schedule may change. Please watch the House and Senate schedules posted on the Legislature's web site.

Monday, March 1

11:00 AM
Senate in Session

11:30 AM
House in Session

12:30 PM
Senate Business, Industry and Jobs
Room: 123 Capitol
Chair: Sen. James P. Metzen
Agenda: Recommendations from the Minnesota Science and Technology Initiative.

2:45 PM
House Agriculture, Rural Economies and Veterans Affairs
Room: 5 State Office Building
Chair: Rep. Mary Ellen Otremba
Agenda:
HF2672 (Newton) Transit fee exemption provisions clarified for veterans with service-connected disabilities.
SF2475 (Newton) Veterans of Foreign Wars Day designated as May 28.
HF2621 (Doty) Higher education benefit eligibility requirement eliminated for surviving spouse and children of a deceased veteran who dies as a result of military service.
HF3101 (Doty) Minnesota "Support our Troops" account eligible money use expanded.

3:00 M
Senate State and Local Government Operations and Oversight
Room: 123 Capitol
Chair: Sen. Ann H. Rest
Agenda:
S.F. 2397-Prettner Solon: Duluth Spirit Mountain recreation area authority membership expansion.
S.F. 2286-Olseen: State building projects nonhazardous construction and demolition waste recycling requirement.
S.F. 2518-Rest: Open meeting law modification.
S.F. 2644-Betzold: Minneapolis employees retirement fund (MERF) administrative functions transfer to the public employees retirement association (PERA); MERF consolidation account in PERA establishment and operation provisions.

Tuesday, March 2

8:30 AM
House State and Local Government Operations Reform, Technology and Elections
Room: 200 State Office Building
Chair: Rep. Gene Pelowski
Agenda: HF2899 (Pelowski) Data practices and open meetings law violations provided an administrative remedy, civil penalties provided, and money appropriated.
HF3108 (Winkler) Elections provisions modified.

10:30 AM
House Bioscience and Workforce Development Policy and Oversight Division
Room: 200 State Office Building
Chair: Rep. Tim Mahoney
Agenda: HF3079 (Hortman) Permitting efficiency provided, and environmental review
provisions modified.
HF3205 (Mahoney) Preference created for community banks and credit unions for
the state's general revenue account, state depository accounts required to be held in community banks or credit unions, and a study required of possible further use of community banks and credit unions by the state and municipalities.
HF2839 (Bunn) Minnesota entrepreneur virtual assistance network authorized,
and money appropriated.
HF2849 (Norton) Minnesota and Wisconsin small business start-ups comparative
study of state laws provided.
HF2750 (Davnie) Small business investment tax credit provided.
HF37 (Mullery) Research credit extended to individual income tax, portion of credit made refundable, and money appropriated.
HFXXXX (Downey) Fast track small business formation and registration
HFXXXX (Rosenthal) Research and development tax credit
Presentation by the Small Business Caucus

10:30 AM
House Agriculture, Rural Economies and Veterans Affairs Finance Division
Room: 5 State Office Building
Chair: Rep. Al Juhnke
Agenda: Dairy Day on the Hill. Presentation by the Minnesota Milk Producers.
Lutheran Social Services C.O.R.E. Program. Case management, outreach, referral and education services for veterans, military members and their families.
NexGen Energy Board Report.

11:15 AM
Minnesota Management & Budget press conference to release the February Economic Forecast
Room: 15 Capitol
Agenda: February Forecast

12:30 PM
Senate Higher Education Budget and Policy Division
Room: 123 Capitol
Chair: Sen. Sandra L. Pappas
Agenda: To be announced.

1:00 PM
House Higher Education and Workforce Development Finance and Policy Division
Room: 5 State Office Building
Chair: Rep. Tom Rukavina
Agenda: Minnesota State Colleges and Universities budget hearing
James McCormick, Chancellor
Laura King, Vice Chancellor for Finance

Wednesday, March 3

8:30 AM
House K-12 Education Policy and Oversight
Room: Basement State Office Building
Chair: Rep. Carlos Mariani
Agenda: HF2106 (Bly) Alternative learning centers and charter schools five-year pilot program established to identify systemic improvement measures to best serve eligible students, and money appropriated.
HF3157 (Mahoney) Parent notification of child maltreatment in a school facility modified, mental health assessment required of teachers disciplined for child maltreatment, teaching license revoked of repeat child maltreatment offenders, and district policy required for educating employees about mandatory child maltreatment reporting.
HF2986 (Hornstein) Responsible family life and sexuality education program created. (pending referral from Health and Human Services Policy Committee)
Meeting Documents: Author's amendment to HF3175

8:30 AM
Joint Senate Hearing: Committee on Taxes; Committee on Finance
Room: 15 Capitol
Chairs: Sen. Thomas M. Bakk, Sen. Richard J. Cohen
Agenda: 2009 February Economic Forecast overview.

8:30 AM
House State and Local Government Operations Reform, Technology and Elections
Room: 200 State Office Building
Chair: Rep. Gene Pelowski
Agenda: (Thissen) Minneapolis Employees Retirement Fund; administrative functions transferred to the Public Employees Retirement Association, consolidation account created within the Public Employees Retirement Association, and money appropriated.
HF2557 (Kahn) State Webmaster position established, and state chief information officer required to develop standards for enhanced public access to state electronic records.
Bills will be heard that were approved at the Local Government Division meeting on 3/1/2010.

2:45 PM
House K-12 Education Finance Division
Room: 10 State Office Building
Chair: Rep. Mindy Greiling
Agenda:
HF2751 (Morgan) Students who do not pass the reading and language arts GRAD allowed to retake the test in paper-and-pencil format.
HF2880 (Kath) Graduation-Required Assessment for Diploma requirement for retakes amended.
HF3123 (Morgan) K-12 special education third-party billing process made more cost effective.

6:30 PM
Joint Committee: Finance and Ways and Means Committees
Room: 200 State Office Building
Chairs: Rep. Lyndon Carlson, Rep. Loren Solberg
Agenda: Presentation of February forecast

Thursday, March 4
8:30 AM
House K-12 Education Policy and Oversight
Room: Basement State Office Building
Chair: Rep. Carlos Mariani
Agenda: HFXXXX (Newton) Advisory task force on school desegregation and integration.
Additional bills or topics may be added.
Meeting Documents: HFXXXX (Newton) Advisory task force on school desegregation and integration.

12:30 PM
Senate Higher Education Budget and Policy Division
Room: 123 Capitol
Chair: Sen. Sandra L. Pappas
Agenda: To be announced

1:00 PM
House Higher Education and Workforce Development Finance and Policy Division
Room: 5 State Office Building
Chair: Rep. Tom Rukavina
Agenda: HF2570 (Anzelc) Douglas J. Johnson economic protection trust fund and the Ironworld Discovery Center renamed.
DEED bills
HFxxxx Obermueller relating to unemployment insurance; proving for an extension
HFxxxx Obermueller relating to workforce development; modifying unemployment insurance; clarifying workforce centers duties and responsibilities

2:45 PM
House K-12 Education Finance Division
Room: 10 State Office Building
Chair: Rep. Mindy Greiling
Agenda: HFXXXX (Garofalo) Governor's supplemental K-12 education funding provisions

Friday, March 5

10:00 AM
Legislative Commission on Pensions and Retirement
Room: 107 State Capitol
Chairs: Rep. Mary Murphy, Sen. Don Betzold
Agenda: TBA

11:00 AM
Legislative Audit Commission Topic Select Subcommittee
Room: 318 State Capitol
Chair: Rep. Rick Hansen
Agenda: Working session to select 8-10 evaluation topics for further consideration by the subcommittee

1:00 PM
House K-12 Education Policy and Oversight
Room: 10 State Office Building
Chair: Rep. Carlos Mariani
Agenda: (Mariani) Prekindergarten through grade 12 funding provided, including general education, education excellence, special programs, and early childhood education.
The presentation of HF3163 will be information-only.