Greetings from the Floor,
The House passed two bills off the floor this week.
- HF85: requires the Emergency Medical Services Regulatory Board to propose guidelines authorizing medical first responders to assist in administering prescription medications for patients in emergencies
- SF307: appropriates $10 million from the General Fund to the Disaster Contingency Account
Today is the second committee deadline for all bills to clear the relevant policy committees in both chambers. I had three committee hearings this week on the following bills:
- HF293 in the Tax Committee: reduces tax rates for charitable gaming organizations
- the bill was laid over for possible inclusion in the Tax Omnibus Bill
- HF2110 in the Education Finance Division: adjusting the Long Term Facility Maintenance Revenue formula to ensure state funding is not reduced for a school district that adds building square footage without reducing overall building square footage in the district
- the bill was laid over for possible inclusion in the Education Finance and Policy Omnibus Bill
- HF1340 in the Health and Human Services Finance Committee: requires the Department of Commerce to report to the Legislature on enforcement of federal mental health parity laws
- the bill was laid over for possible inclusion in the Health and Human Services Finance and Policy Omnibus Bill
House Budget targets came out on Monday this week. These targets are the parameters that each committee has to write its respective part of the state budget for the next two years. The total targets equal $47.9 billion, and leave $562 million on the bottom line. The most substantial of these targets is for E-12 Education and Higher Education. The targets would also allow for a Capital Investment Bill around $1.5 billion this session and in 2020. Details of what will be done with these targets (what specifically will be in the omnibus budget bills) will be presented over the next couple of weeks as the final committee deadline nears. For more information, please see this article from non-partisan House media: https://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/SessionDaily/Story/13819. Also, here is a link to the spreadsheet put together by non-partisan House fiscal staff for the House Ways and Means Committee: https://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/comm/docs/103c78f0-0adc-4edf-a279-0426eae9cd3f.pdf.
Thank You for the Opportunity to Serve,
Ben