Recently, the Budget News and Tools publication of the Minnesota Budget Project (May 2, 2013), issued a very useful analysis of the Minnesota House and Senate tax plans. The tax plans from the Governor, House and Senate are trying to make Minnesota’s tax system less regressive and end the sad story of continual budget deficits that seem to be chronic these days. Education plays a big role in these bills so it is worth paying attention! With these new proposals, we can hopefully fund investments in quality schools, affordable higher education and strong communities. So, two plans with common goals, different approaches. Read the analysis of the Senate and House omnibus tax bills. The bills are now in conference committee and call on policymakers to come to agreement.
The Minnesota Budget Project is an initiative of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits.
**This update was written by Elaine Keefe, MLA/MEMO Library Legislative Lobbyist** (Received on Monday, April 29, 6:09 pm)
The Legislature must adjourn three weeks from today. Most of the omnibus budget bills were passed on the floor of the House and Senate last week. Conference committees are in the process of being appointed and will begin meeting later this week. Here is the status of the major bills affecting libraries:
Omnibus Higher Education Bill (SF 1236): The bill has passed both the House and the Senate.
The Senate higher education bill includes a $300,000 per year increase in funding for Minitex/MnLINK. The House maintains current funding.
Please contact the conferees listed below and ask them to support the Senate funding level for Minitex/MnLINK:
Omnibus E-12 Education Bill (HF 630): The bill has passed both the House and Senate. Here are the highlights for MLA and MEMO:
Both the House and Senate versions of the bill maintain all library appropriations at current levels.
Both the House and Senate change the terminology in statute from “grant” to “aid” for Regional Library Basic System Support and Multi-type funding.
The Senate includes language clarifying that total operating capital can be used by schools to purchase computer, software and annual licensing fees. I expect the House to accept this language in conference.
The House increases the general education formula by 2% in FY 14 and 2% in FY 15. The Senate increases the general education formula by 1% in FY 14. The House had more money to spend than the Senate did.
House conferees are Reps. Paul Marquart (DFL – Dilworth), Carolos Mariani (DFL – St. Paul), Kathy Brynaert (DFL – Mankato), Will Morgan (DFL – Burnsville) and Dean Urdahl (R – Grove City). Senate conferees are Senators Chuck Wiger (DFL – Maplewood), Patricia Torres Ray (DFL – Minneapolis), LeRoy Stumpf (DFL – Plummer), Alice Johnson (DFL – Spring Lake Park) and Kevin Dahle (DFL – Northfield).
Omnibus Tax Bill (HF 677): The bill has passed the House and is currently being debated in the Senate. Both bills raise a substantial amount of new revenue via increases in income taxes, sales taxes and and cigarette taxes. The House also raises taxes on alcohol. Both bills include property tax relief.
The House bill increases aid to cities by $80 million and aid to counties by $30 million. The Senate bill increases aid to cities by $80 million and aid to counties by $40 million. These increases will be helpful to public libraries.
Legacy: The House Legacy bill was scheduled to be taken up on the House floor 10 days ago and then was pulled. Rumor has it that controversy over the outdoor heritage appropriations have made it questionable whether the bill can pass. The Senate has not yet put its bill together.
**This update was written by Elaine Keefe, MLA/MEMO Library Legislative Lobbyist**
House Omnibus Education Bill: The House omnibus education bill was posted online this afternoon. It maintains current funding for all library appropriations — Regional Library Basic System Support (RLBSS), Regional Library Telecommunication Aid (RLTA), Multi-type funding, the Electronic Library for Minnesota (ELM) and Telecommunication Equity Aid (TEA). The bill also increases the general education formula from the current $5,224 per pupil to $5,328 in FY 2014 and $5,433 in FY 2015. It also repays the education funding shift to the 90/10 payment schedule.
Senate Omnibus Education Bill: The Senate bill will be released Thursday morning.
Senate Higher Education Funding Bill: Great news! The Senate higher education bill increases funding for Minitex and MnLINK by $300,000 per year. Please send thanks to our chief author, Senator Kent Eken sen.kent.eken@senate.mn and the committee chair, Senator Terri Bonoff sen.terri.bonoff@senate.mn
House Higher Education Funding Bill: As expected, the House higher education bill maintains current funding for Minitex and MnLINK. Once the higher ed bill gets to conference committee, we will need to press the conferees to go with the higher funding level in the Senate bill.
Bonding: We had not planned to pursue funding for Library Accessibility and Improvement Grants this year, but were encouraged to introduce a bill by House leaders. We did have a bill introduced to provide $3 million, but today the House bonding bill was unveiled and it does not include any funding for libraries. We will pursue it next year.
Legacy: As previously reported, the House Legacy bill includes $3 million per year for regional public libraries and $300,00 per year for the Minnesota Digital Library. The Senate has just announced the process it will follow. Our Legacy request for regional public libraries will originate in the Senate E-12 Education Division before going to the Senate Legacy Subcommittee.
Elaine Keefe Capitol Hill Associates
525 Park Street, Suite 310
St. Paul, MN 55103
office 651-293-0229
fax 651-293-1709
cell 612-590-1244 elaine@capitolhillassoc.com
**This update was written by Elaine Keefe, MLA/MEMO Library Legislative Lobbyist**
As of Tuesday, April 2nd the Legislature has seven weeks to conclude its work before the constitutional adjournment deadline of May 20.
Committee Deadlines: Last Friday was the second committee deadline. To meet that deadline, bills must have passed through policy committees and have been referred to either the floor or a finance committee in both the House and the Senate. Bills that have not met the deadline cannot proceed on their own, but they can still be amended onto other bills that are moving forward.
Budget: Last week House and Senate leaders released their respective budget targets for each area of the budget (E-12 education, higher education, health & human services, transportation, etc.). Over the next two weeks committees will be unveiling their omnibus finance bills, marking them up and passing them. The deadline for passing omnibus finance bills out of the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee is Friday, April 19.
Legacy: The House Legacy Committee will release the Arts and Cultural Heritage article of its omnibus bill on Wednesday, April 3. We have strong support in the House and I expect libraries to do well in that bill. The Senate Legacy Subcommittee has not met yet (except for two joint hearings with the House on items unrelated to libraries) and no meetings have been announced. Mark Ranum and I have met with most of the members of the subcommittee and they have been supportive. However, we have not been able to meet with the chair, who has previously taken the position that libraries should apply to the State Arts Board for grants rather than receiving Legacy funding directly. We have submitted a proposal for funding to the Legacy subcommittee and I have met with the subcommittee staff twice. I’m told we will have an opportunity to make a presentation at some point, but no schedule has been mapped out. This is consistent with the pattern that has existed since the Legacy amendment was passed in 2008. The House comes out with its bill first, and the Senate takes a look at it and then puts together its own version.
Minitex/MnLINK: As reported previously, our bill to increase funding for Minitex and MnLINK was heard in the Senate Higher Education Policy and Budget Division on March 19 and it was well-received by the committee. We have a very supportive chair in Senator Terri Bonoff and her committee has a fairly generous budget target, so I am hopeful we will see an increase for Minitex and MnLINK in the Senate. The House is another matter. When Mark Ranum, Valerie Horton and I met with the House Higher Education chair, Rep. Gene Pelowski, he told us flat out that this was not the year when we could expect to see an increase, even though he agrees that Minitex and MnLINK are valuable programs. His goal for this year is structural reform of what he views as a bloated higher ed system. He said that we would have our chance in the next budget cycle two years from now. The House budget target for higher education is far lower than the Senate’s target ($150 million in new spending in the House vs. $263 million in the Senate). Our bill has not received a hearing and the omnibus bill is scheduled to be unveiled on Wednesday.
Homework Help: I am very disappointed to report that our bill will not receive a hearing in either body. There are several reasons for this, but I think the main one is that, like the Governor, legislators are focusing resources on the big pieces in the budget — the general ed formula, special education and early learning (all day kindergarten and preschool scholarships). The chair of the House Education Finance Committee, Rep. Paul Marquart, reacted quite negatively to the idea of Homework Help when we met with him. He said, “We are struggling to find the money to adequately fund the things we already have — we can’t fund anything new.” I had hoped that he would come around after budget targets were announced. The House education target is a healthy number — $550 million in new spending. I again asked for a hearing but was told no. Senators on the E-12 Education Budget Division, including the chair, were supportive of Homework Help in our meetings. However, the Senate’s budget target for education is quite skimpy when one takes into account that legislative leaders have dictated that the bulk of the target be spent on buying down education levies and fully funding all day kindergarten. The Senate will probably have to choose between increasing the general ed formula and special ed — they don’t have enough money to do both. In this scenario, Homework Help became a casualty.
Bonding: Although we have normally pursued funding for Library Accessibility and Improvement Grants in the second year of the biennium because that’s when the Legislature traditionally passes a major bonding bill, the House has been pushing hard for a significant bonding bill this year. At the urging of Rep. Alice Hausman, chair of the House Capital Investment Committee, we had a bill introduced to provide $3 million for Library Accessibility and Improvement Grants. The bill is HF 1501/ SF 1473. Rep. Mary Murphy and Senator Alice Johnson are our chief authors and we have a great bi-partisan group of co-authors. The Senate seems to be warming up to the idea of a larger than usual bonding bill in the first year of the biennium, so there may be an opportunity for us. Stay tuned.
Elaine Keefe Capitol Hill Associates
525 Park Street, Suite 310
St. Paul, MN 55103
office 651-293-0229
fax 651-293-1709
cell 612-590-1244 elaine@capitolhillassoc.com
The title of this blog post from the ALA Inside Scoop really grabbed me and made me think back to graduate school. I remember very little discussion there about politics and the importance of both national and state politics in our library world. It is possible that it simply did not grab my interest at that time like other subjects did. Politics is messy, often not very much fun, and just plain hard work. Whether testifying at a hearing, sending email voicing your concern or support, or talking to your legislator while in line to pay at the gas station, your engagement is important. Why? Because libraries must be engaged with their communities. And, community engagement requires political engagement. It is that simple.
Read the full post at http://tinyurl.com/b8q45w5.
Partnering with libraries for visioning, advocating, and educating
Recently, the Budget News and Tools publication of the Minnesota Budget Project (May 2, 2013), issued a very useful analysis of the Minnesota House and Senate tax plans. The tax plans from the Governor, House and Senate are trying to make Minnesota’s tax system less regressive and end the sad story of continual budget deficits that seem to be chronic these days. Education plays a big role in these bills so it is worth paying attention! With these new proposals, we can hopefully fund investments in quality schools, affordable higher education and strong communities. So, two plans with common goals, different approaches. Read the analysis of the Senate and House omnibus tax bills. The bills are now in conference committee and call on policymakers to come to agreement.
