Greetings from the Floor,
The following bills were passed off the House floor this week:
HF 1975: closes a loop hole that allowed cities to enter into multi-year no bid service agreements with engineering firms on water system maintenance work
HF 2636: allows townships to appropriate unrestricted funds for grants to nonprofit organizations operating community food shelves (this authority already exists for cities and counties)
HF 3158: conforms Minnesota state pre-licensure exams for mortgage originators employed at non-depository institutions with national standards set by the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry
On Thursday, the House passed a final agreement on SF 3133 for additional funds to fix MNLARS. The bill appropriates $9.65 million from operating accounts within Driver and Vehicle Services (the appropriations do not come from the General Fund). The bill also specifically directs the appropriations to be used for certain functions in fixing MNLARS, and establishes a legislative steering committee to oversee the work. MN.IT (the state’s information technology agency) and the Department of Public Safety requested a total of $43 million to completely fix MNLARS. I appreciate the newly formed legislative steering committee to oversee the MNLARS fixes and report to the Legislature on the progress of the fixes.
Gov. Dayton released his supplemental budget proposal on Friday last week. His proposal totals $206 million, and leaves $123 million on the bottom line. The budget proposal focuses on education, healthcare, broadband development and taxes. Some additional details include:
-
funding to continue voluntary pre-Kindergarten through the FY 2020-2021 biennium
-
$15.9 million for school safety
-
$5.2 million for student mental health grants
-
$10 million each to Minnesota State and the University of Minnesota for tuition relief
-
$13 million in one-time funding to start a buy-in option for MinnesotaCare
-
$12 million to address the opioid epidemic
-
$12 million to strengthen protections for seniors and vulnerable adults
-
$30 million for the Office of Broadband Development
The conversation around taxes and changing the state’s tax code because of the new federal tax law has been evolving over the course of the session. Gov. Dayton’s plan is based on using the Adjusted Gross Income instead of the Federal Taxable Income for state tax purposes. This would allow people to report their income to the state after federal tax credits have been applied. The governor’s plan also includes:
-
a non-refundable personal and dependent credit
-
expanding the Working Family Credit
-
allow for state itemized deductions on items like property taxes, charitable giving, casualty losses, tuition payments and unreimbursed employee expenses
-
full conformity to federal Section 179 Expensing tax law
-
repealing policies passed by the Legislature in last year’s Tax Bill related to tobacco taxes, freezing the inflationary factor on the State General Levy (for commercial/industrial and seasonal recreational properties) and the estate tax
The House and Senate are still working on their supplement budget proposals. This first committee deadline was yesterday, the second committee deadline is March 29 and the final committee deadline is April 20. This means the legislative committees have another month to hear bills and put their budgets together.
For more information on the governor’s proposals, please go to https://mn.gov/mmb/budget/currentbud/gov18-19/ and https://mn.gov/governor/issues/budget/.
Thank You for the Opportunity to Serve,
Ben