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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Ben Lien (DFL)

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Legislative Update - April 10, 2017

Monday, April 10, 2017

Greetings from Moorhead,

The Legislature is on break this week to observe the Easter and Passover holidays.  The House will reconvene onTuesday, April 18.  In addition to HF 140, the House passed the rest of the large omnibus finance bills that comprise the state budget last week.  Details of these bills are as follows:

HF 140

This bill would eliminate the Board of Teaching and create the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board (PELSB).  PELSB would have sole responsibilities for teacher licensure that are currently shared between the Board of Teaching and Minnesota Department of Education.  This bill came from a Legislative Auditor report and work by the Legislative Study Group on Educator Licensure to restructure and consolidate state government duties for teacher licensure. I understand the current system for teacher licensure is complicated and needs reform; however, I didn’t appreciate the approach HF 140 took.  It would set up a four-tiered system for teacher licensure with none of the tiers requiring a bachelor’s degree in education.  The overall concept is to move toward getting more “community experts”, or people who are career specialists, into the teaching field.  Instead, we must preserve the profession of teaching and build teachers up with more tools and resources for children’s success (school counselors, opportunities for meaningful professional development, special education resources, etc.).  I did not vote for the bill.  

Public Safety Finance Bill

  • increases penalties for sex offenders and child sex offenders

  • creates state crimes for supporting terrorism and provides funding for anti-terrorism efforts

  • expands legal aid services to more famers

  • directs the Department of Corrections to buy or lease-to-own the private prison in Appleton when considering more capacity to address overcrowded prisons (this would preclude the department from considering other options)

  • increases penalties for people who block freeways, airports and transit during protests

I voted for amendments to take the sections out of the bill regarding private prisons and increased penalties for protests.  I did vote for the overall bill in the end as we need to fund our overall public safety system (courts, guardian ad litems, public defenders, etc.).  I also appreciated the increased attention to sex crime penalties and terrorism.

Legacy

The Legacy Bill appropriates money to fund the Outdoor Heritage Fund, Clean Water Fund, Parks and Trails Fund and Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.  These funds were created after passage of the 2008 constitutional amendment to dedicate state sales tax money for these purposes.  Several of these funds pay for recommendations of citizen councils.  The Legislature generally follows the recommendations of these citizen councils, although some legislative changes were made to the Outdoor Heritage Fund recommendations.  The bill passed in the House by a unanimous vote.

Higher Education

I’ve explained the Higher Education bill in recent email updates, and the substance of the bill remained the same.  I did not vote for the bill.

Agriculture Finance

I’ve also discussed this bill in recent email updates, and the bill remained the same from when it left the Agricultural Finance Committee.  The bill also passed off the House floor by a unanimous vote.

Agriculture Policy

This bill contained policy provisions that are separate from budget provision in agriculture.  The bill included changes to the Rural Finance Authority and Farmer-Lender Mediation program. These changes would expand eligibility of the programs and extend them so more farmers can get assistance with loans, and are important for the agricultural economy as crop prices continue to struggle.  The bill would also help cities with tree planting programs to replace trees hit by Dutch Elm and Emerald Ash Borer, and made changes around pesticide use to provide more awareness to land renters and flexibility to respond to new pesticides.  I voted for the bill.

State Government Finance

This State Government Finance bill funds various state departments and agencies such as:

  • Department of Military Affairs

  • Department of Veterans Affairs

  • Department of Human Rights

  • Constitutional Officers’ Offices (Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, State Auditor

  • Department of Revenue

  • Minnesota Management and Budget

  • MN.IT (the state’s information technology services)

  • Legislative Staff

  • Department of Administration

The bill was written around a $90 million budget cut.  These cuts would impact many of the above state departments and agencies (although not all; Veterans Affairs would see a slight increase, while Military Affairs and MN.IT would see flat funding).  The departments and agencies impacted by cuts or flat funding would, by extension, impact all Minnesotans.  A couple of examples are delayed income tax returns this year (which I’ve found out is because of the department doing more identity verification work) and cyber security threats compromising personal data of Minnesotans.  I did not vote for the bill.

Jobs/Energy

  • provided half as much funding as recommended by Gov. Dayton for the Minnesota Investment Fund and Job Creation Fund

  • cut the state Trade Office by 23% which would force the closure of state trade offices in Brazil, China, Germany and South Korea

  • provided $7 million for broadband expansion around the state (the governor’s recommendation was $60 million)

  • policy provision that would ban internet service providers from collecting and selling personal information from their customers without written consent

  • changed the definition of “townhome” for purposes of mandated sprinkler systems in homes; this would exclude twin homes from needing the sprinkler systems

  • exempted pipelines (oil and natural gas) and large scale wind/solar projects from obtaining a Public Utility Commission Certificate of Need

I did not vote for this bill as I don’t appreciate cutting and underfunding strong and proven economic development programs.  At a time when our state economy and budget are healthy, it makes no sense to cut these programs.  We need to invest in these programs to grow our economy even more.  I especially don’t appreciate the cuts to the state Trade Office as this office is crucial to our agricultural economy in getting crops to international markets. 

Health and Human Services

The bill was drafted around an overall budget cut of $600 million.  Furthermore, these cuts are based on perceived savings not backed by non-partisan staff, agency and department fiscal notes (fiscal notes are documents used to do cost analysis on finance bills).  Some examples of these cuts are:

  • regional based bidding for Medical Assistance and MinnesotaCare contracts (Department of Human Services fiscal notes estimate this would cost more money, not save money)

  • eliminate inflation from Medical Assistance cost forecasts, which would greatly reduce the forecasted amounts necessary for the program and lead to funding shortfalls

  • assumptions that additional audits for Medical Assistance and MinnesotaCare enrollees would lead to ineligible people being taken off the programs (the Department of Human Services already audits the eligibility of these programs and department fiscal notes show no additional cost savings)

  • mandatory reimbursement cuts if the Department of Human Services finds health care providers did not take action to save over $200 million

  • three month payment delays from the Department of Human Services to managed care programs

In addition to these perceived savings, no increases were made for employees of long-term care organizations or the state security hospitals.  I did not vote for the bill.

On a final note, the League of Women Voters is hosting a legislative forum on Wednesday April 12 at the Moorhead Public Library (118 5th St S, Moorhead) beginning at 7:00 pm. Sen. Eken, Rep. Marquart and I will be available to give legislative updates and answer questions.  I hope we have a great turnout!

Thank You for the Opportunity to Serve,

Ben