For more information contact: Ted Modrich 651-296-5809

HOUSE BRIEFS

2011 LEGISLATIVE SUMMARY (SPECIAL & REGULAR SESSIONS) — PART TWO

CONSUMER AFFAIRS

• Liquor sales on Sunday: Not authorized.
• Surly Brewing Company: Created a new class of license, a brewer taproom license, for the on-site sale of a brewer's beer in a taproom at their brewery. Prohibited large brewers (over 250,000 barrels) from having a taproom.
• Baseball & beer: Authorized municipalities to issue licenses for wine and malt-liquor sales at summer collegiate baseball games.
• Liquor store clothing: A proposal to authorize liquor stores to sell clothing marked with the specific name, brand, or identifying logo of the store was not enacted.
• Bed and Breakfasts: B & Bs authorized to provide at no additional charge to a person renting a room not more than one glass per day containing not more than 12 ounces of Minnesota-produced beer. No liquor license needed for doing so. Currently, B & Bs can provide up to two glasses per day containing not more than four fluid ounces of wine.
• Broker Price Opinions: Authorized real estate brokers, real estate salespersons, and appraisers to prepare and provide a “broker price opinion," and charge a fee for it. A “broker price opinion" or "BPO" is an estimate of the probable selling price of a particular parcel of real estate and provides a varying level of detail about the property's condition, market, and neighborhood, and information on comparable sales, but does not include an automated valuation model.
• Unhealthy food consumption: Vetoed—a proposal granting immunity from civil liability to producers, growers, sellers, marketers, manufacturers, packers, etc. of food and nonalcoholic beverages for claims arising from weight gain, obesity, or a related health condition resulting from a person’s long-term consumption of a food or nonalcoholic beverage.
• Event tickets: A proposal to make it unlawful for a ticket issuer to prohibit or restrict the resale of an event ticket by a lawful possessor of the ticket was not enacted. The proposal would have prohibited restrictions on reselling paperless tickets to sporting events, concerts and other events. Paperless tickets are one way to prevent businesses that sell tickets in the secondary market from buying up large quantities and selling them at inflated prices. The proposal was opposed by the major sports teams and concert promoters, and supported by ticket resellers such as Stub Hub.
• Torts: Several proposals to modify litigation practices were not adopted including: (1) an increase in the monetary thresholds for filing conciliation court claims; (2) establishment of a new state and local government tort liability limit of $1 million for any number of claims arising out of a single occurrence, if the claims involve a nonprofit organization engaged in or administering outdoor recreational activities funded in whole or in part by the state or a municipality, or operating under the authorization of a permit issued by the state or a municipality; (3) the process for appealing the certification of a class-action lawsuit; (4) a reduction from six to four years in the general statute of limitation period for bringing certain legal actions. The proposal would not have impacted other statutes of limitation that are expressly delineated in law, such as those governing medical malpractice or sexual abuse; (5) limitations on the awarding of attorney fees; (6) authority for sex trafficking victims to bring a cause of action against the person who induced her/him to practice prostitution.
• Auto insurance – chiropractors: A proposal to limit chiropractic reimbursement levels for the diagnosis and treatment of soft tissue injuries was not enacted. The measure would have linked chiropractic reimbursement rates to the Department of Labor and Industry’s workers compensation fee schedule. Existing law provides that all “reasonable” and “necessary” expenses are reimbursable.
• Auto insurance -- “no pay, no play”: A proposal to eliminate a person’s right to sue to be compensated for “pain and suffering” physical impairment, disfigurement, and other similar nonmonetary losses (as compared to medical expenses) if the person was the owner of an uninsured vehicle involved in the accident was not enacted.
• Auto insurance--car rentals: When processing an auto insurance claim, insurers now required to promptly disclose to the insured that he/she may obtain a rental vehicle from any rental vehicle company if there is the need for a temporary replacement vehicle. Insurers prohibited from requiring the use of a particular vendor.
• Portable consumer electronic insurance: Clarified existing law to make clear that a person processing portable electronics insurance claims using an “automated claims adjudication system” does not need to be licensed as an insurance adjuster if the person is employed by a licensed independent adjuster or its affiliate and is adequately supervised.
• Pawnbroker regulation: Repealed the restriction on pawnshops being located within 10 miles of a casino.

MISCELLANEOUS
• Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund: The $105.3 million appropriated from the “Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund” for arts & cultural-related programs will be used to fund a variety of initiatives that support: (1) artists and arts organizations in creating, producing, and presenting high-quality arts activities; (2) access to the arts, including bringing artists to schools, libraries, or other community centers for teaching, training or performance purposes; and paying attendance fees and travel costs for youth to visit art museums, arts performances, or other arts activities; (3) arts education, including $1.7 million for the Perpich Center for Arts Education; (4) Minnesota’s 12 regional library systems; (5) history programs and projects, including statewide surveys of Minnesota’s sites of historical, archaeological, and cultural significance; (6) a digital library project to preserve, digitize, and share Minnesota images, documents, and historical materials; (7) public radio & TV; (8) Minnesota’s zoos & museums, including childrens’ museums and the Science Museum; (9) the humanities; (10) county agricultural societies & fairs; and (11) programs that celebrate and preserve artistic, historical, and cultural heritage of communities of color. The funds for some of these activities, such as public radio, will be awarded as competitive grants, rather than via direct appropriations to specific organizations.
• Capitol preservation: Established a new Capitol Preservation Commission to coordinate the restoration and preservation of the State Capitol building.
• Pension fund merger: The Minneapolis Police Relief Association and the Minneapolis Fire Relief Association authorized to consolidate their retirement plans with the PERA Police and Fire Retirement Plan if the two plans, PERA and the city of Minneapolis all agree.
• Deaf, deaf/blind and hard-of hearing access: $800,000 appropriated to improve accessibility for people who are deaf, deaf/blind or hard-of-hearing. For example, funding provided to caption live streaming of legislative activity, and provide information in American Sign Language on the website of the Commission of Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard-of Hearing.
• Human Rights Department: Cut 5 percent ($340,000). Proposals during the regular legislative session that were not successful: (1) cut the budget of the Department of Human Rights by 65 percent; (2) curtail its state-supported obligation to engage in education, research, and outreach in order to combat discrimination; and (3) reduce the number of businesses that must obtain a “certificate of compliance” before receiving a contract from the state. (A “certificate of compliance” indicates a business has an acceptable affirmative action plan in force.)
• Gambling: No changes authorized. No slot machines or any other expansion of gambling authorized at Canterbury or Running Aces racetracks (Racino); no state or privately-run casino authorized; no increase in the number of authorized racetracks or card clubs; no video lottery, video pull-tabs, or linked bingo authorized; no slot machines authorized at Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport; no legalization of sports bookmaking.
• Constitutional amendments/same-sex marriage: Over 13 proposed constitutional amendments were introduced in the House of Representatives but only one will be submitted to the voters. In the 2012 general election voters will be asked whether to :define” marriage as between one man and one woman, thereby denying same-gender couples the right to marry.
• “Clawback” limitation: A proposal to limit the ability to recover assets from a qualified charity or religious organization was not enacted. The term “clawback" refers to an attempt to "undo" a transfer of money or other property to an organization or individual when the person doing the transfer was insolvent or obtained the money or other property fraudulently, such as in a ponzi scheme (for example, Tom Peters). Charitable and religious organizations are currently faced with "clawback" claims made by victims of fraud or creditors of the donor, which is proving financially burdensome to those entities.
• Elevator upgrades: Residential and commercial building owners granted more time to comply with mandatory elevator upgrades required by the latest revision to the building code.
• Pound seizure: A proposal to eliminate a requirement that animal shelters that receive public funding to make any animals unclaimed after five days available to a licensed institution for scientific instruction or research was not enacted.
• African American Museum: $1 million allocated for the renovation of an historic mansion to house the Minnesota African American History Museum and Cultural Center.
• Remembering with Dignity: $300,000 allocated for the purchase and installation of headstones for former residents of state hospitals or regional treatment centers who are buried in State cemeteries in numbered or unmarked graves.
• Vikings stadium: No action.