Tag Archives: library legislative update

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

End of session legislative updates

State CapitolThe following legislative updates were written by Elaine Keefe, library lobbyist for the Minnesota Library Association (MLA) and Information Technology Educators of MN (ITEM). CMLE helps pay for lobbyist services in order to serve the best interests of academic, K-12, public, and special libraries in Central MN. (Latest information is at the top of this post)

Received Monday, May 23, 2016 at 3:30 p.m.

The 2016 legislative session has ended with very mixed results.  Last night the Legislature passed the omnibus tax bill and the omnibus supplemental budget bill.  However, as noted in my previous message, the Legislature failed to pass the bonding bill before the midnight deadline for passing bills.

Governor Dayton held a press conference a few minutes ago and indicated he has not yet decided whether to call a special session.  He said that he and legislative leaders need time to get some rest and assess the situation.

Bonding Bill:  The bonding conference committee reached agreement on a $1.135 billion bill on Sunday evening, just a few hours before the midnight deadline for passing bills.  The bill included $2 million for Library Construction Grants and $820,000 for the library at the Minnesota state Career and Technical College in Wadena. It did not include funding for the new East Central Regional Library headquarters/Cambridge Library, the Bagley Library or the Eastside Freedom Library.

The bill passed the House by a vote of 91-39.  It was amended in the Senate to raise the limit on how much the Metropolitan Council could contribute to a rail project (clearly aimed at the Southwest Light Rail Transit line) before passing by a vote of 53-12.  Because the bill had been amended on the Senate floor, it had to go back to the House for a final vote, but before that happened the House adjourned.  It was messy and chaotic and House and Senate leaders are blaming each other for the failure of the bonding bill to make it across the finish line.

Supplemental Budget Bill:  The budget bill spends a total of $182 million.  It includes $35 million for Border to Border Broadband Grants and  $500,000 for grants of up to $50,000 to K-12 schools for broadband Wi-Fi Hotspots.  It does not include an increase in total operating capital and does not provide any funding for after school programs.

Omnibus Tax Bill:  The tax bill increases aid to cities by $20 million per year and increases aid to counties by $10 million per year.

Legacy Bill:  The Legacy bill dealt mainly with appropriations for the Outdoor Heritage Fund, for which appropriations are made annually rather than for the biennium.  However, we were keeping an eye on one piece of language designed to reinforce the idea that Legacy funds are meant to supplement, not supplant, previous funding.  The original language in the House bill was rather awkward, as a couple of you pointed out to me.  The final version included in the bill is much more clear.  It states:

“Any state agency or organization requesting a direct appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund must inform the house of representatives and senate committees having jurisdiction over the arts and cultural heritage fund, at the time the request for funding is made, whether the request is supplanting or is a substitution for any previous funding that was not from a legacy fund and was used for the same purpose.”

Received Thursday, May 19, 2016 at 5:29 p.m.

End of Session Negotiations:  There is still no agreement between legislative leaders and Governor Dayton on targets for the supplemental budget, taxes and transportation.  It remains to be seen whether they will reach an agreement in time to get the bills passed before the end of the session.  Session must end by midnight on Monday, but the Legislature cannot pass bills on the day of adjournment.  This means that bills must be passed by midnight on Sunday night.

Bonding Bill:  Today the House bonding bill failed on the House floor.  A 3/5 supermajority is required to pass a bonding bill, which means 81 votes are required to pass the House.  The bill only received 69 votes.  All but two DFLers voted against the bill, while all but 5 Republicans voted for the bill.  DFLers complained that the bill was too small and that projects in DFL districts had been passed over in favor of projects in Republican districts.

However, a conference committee has been appointed for HF 748, a bill from last year that will be used as a vehicle for a bonding bill.  This is a highly unusual twist in the legislative process.

The Senate conferees are Senator LeRoy Stumpf (DFL – Plummer), Senator Katie Sieben (DFL – Cottage Grove), Senator Jeff Hayden (DFL – Minneapolis), Senator David Tomassoni (DFL – Chisholm) and Senator Carla Nelson (R – Rochester).

The House conferees are Rep. Paul Torkelson (R – Hanska), Rep. Tony Albright (R – Prior Lake), Rep. Chris Swedzinski (R – Ghent), Rep. Bob Vogel (R- Elko New Market) and Rep. Alice Hausman (DFL – St. Paul).

According to a press release issued by the Senate DFL Caucus this afternoon, the conference committee will consider portions of the House, Senate and Governor’s bonding proposals.  No meetings have been scheduled for the conference committee as of this writing.

Elaine Keefe
Capitol Hill Associates
525 Park Street, Suite 255
St. Paul, MN 55103
(cell) 612-590-1244
elaine@capitolhillassoc.com

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/oddkzbj, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

MN Library Legislative Update

Capital SunsetThe following legislative update was written by Elaine Keefe, library lobbyist for the Minnesota Library Association (MLA) and Information Technology Educators of MN (ITEM).

 

Received Tuesday April 21, 2015 at 5:35pm

House Legacy Bill:  Yesterday the House Legacy Committee competed work on its omnibus bill and passed it out of committee.  Rep. Dean Urdahl, chair of the committee, made it very clear in his opening remarks that no group was entitled to any particular amount of Legacy funding, regardless of what they had received in the past.  As such, there is no such thing as a “cut” in Legacy funds.  We all start out at zero for the biennium, and the amounts we receive will fluctuate – sometimes they will be higher and sometimes they will be lower than in the past.  He said that some groups needed an “attitude adjustment.”

I spoke with Rep. Urdahl today and he expressed annoyance at the number of e-mails he had received about the level of library funding in the bill.  I assured him that his message was loud and clear and that I would convey it to the library community.  I also thanked him for including funding for libraries in his bill, acknowledging that he has long been a strong library supporter.

So, thank you to those of you who contacted your legislators and members of the House Legacy Committee.  However, we need to stop complaining about the level of funding provided in the House Legacy bill.

Broadband:   I reported last Thursday that the House was providing no new funding for broadband grants, while the Senate had $17 million in its budget and the Governor had $30 million in his budget proposal.   However, on Friday when the omnibus jobs and energy bill was heard in the House Ways and Means Committee, $8 million was added for broadband grants.  Funding for the Office of Broadband, which had been eliminated in the bill, was partially restored.

Library Construction Grants:  Today I met with Rep. Jeff Howe (R – Rockville), a member of the House Capital Investment Committee.  He agreed to introduce our bill to provide $10 million for Library Construction Grants.  The bill is intended to put Library Construction Grants under consideration for inclusion in the 2016 bonding bill.  We need to have it introduced this session so that it is on the radar of the House and Senate Capital Investment Committees as they tour the state this fall to look at proposed capital projects.

House Omnibus Tax Bill:  Today the House Tax Committee passed its omnibus tax bill.  Yesterday the committee took public testimony.  The bill makes deep cuts in local government aid for Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth, but not for any other cities.  Among the witnesses in opposition to these cuts were Kit Hadley, director of the St. Paul Public Library, and two branch managers. They spoke very eloquently about the impact these cuts would have on library services in St. Paul.

Other provisions of interest in the bill are as follows:

A sales tax exemption for building materials purchased by a contractor under a lump sum contract for buildings used by local governments.  This was strongly supported by cities and counties.

An expansion of the current K-12 education expense subtraction to include pre-K expenses and private school tuition.  The inclusion of private school tuition was strongly opposed by various school organizations.

A Property Tax Payers’ Empowerment Act, which allows a reverse referendum if a city or county increases its property tax levy over the previous year. The referendum is triggered if a petition signed by 10% of the voters in the last general election is filed by June 30. The referendum must be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.  This was opposed by cities and counties.

A working group to make recommendations on revising the county program aid distribution formula.

Repeal of library debt service aid for Minneapolis.

Data Practices Training for Local Units of Government:  The Senate omnibus state government funding bill passed on the Senate floor yesterday.  It includes $100,000 in each year of the biennium for the Department of Administration’s Information and Policy Analysis Division, commonly known as IPAD, to conduct training for local units of government on data practices laws.  This was initiated by the League of Minnesota Cities.  The funding is not included in the House omnibus state government funding bill.

Elaine Keefe
Capitol Hill Associates
525 Park Street, Suite 310
St. Paul, MN 55103
(office)651-293-0229
(cell) 612-590-1244
elaine@capitolhillassoc.com

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/p4m2ool, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

MN Library Legislative Update

Capital SunsetThe following legislative update was written by Elaine Keefe, library lobbyist for the Minnesota Library Association (MLA) and Information Technology Educators of MN (ITEM).

 

Received Thursday, April 16, 2015 at 7:25 pm

House Legacy Bill:  This afternoon the House Legacy bill was posted online.   I am very disappointed to report that funding for regional public libraries was reduced by one-third in comparison to the current biennium.   In the current biennium, regional public libraries received $3 million each year, for a total of $6 million.  The House bill proposes $1.5 million in the first year and $2.5 million in the second year, for a total of $4 million.  Many previous recipients of Arts and Cultural Heritage funds are also slated for reductions from current funding levels, including the Science Museum (down 45%), Civics Education  (down 40%), the Duluth Children’s Museum (down 38%), the Southern Minnesota Children’s Museum (down 38%), the Minnesota Zoo (down 36%), the Perpich Center (down 35%), Minnesota Public Educational Radio Stations (down 14%), Public Television (down 14%), and MPR (down 6%).

So, where did the money go?  The recipients who saw reductions were relatively small programs.  The largest recipients received substantial increases, namely the Minnesota Historical Society (up 16%) and the State Arts Board (up 7.5%).  Disappointingly, the Minnesota Digital Library, which is part of the Historical Society’s appropriation, received a slight cut – from $600,000 in the current biennium to $580,000.  There are also some new appropriations, including $1 million for restoration and preservation of fine art in the capitol complex and $250,000 for the Bell Museum.   According to committee staff, they received far more in requests than they could possibly fund, and the decisions were difficult.  We have been repeatedly warned that no recipient of Legacy funds has a base budget – we all start over each biennium.   This bill seems designed to drive that point home.

Please contact your own state representative and members of the House Legacy Committee between now and Monday to express your concern about the low level of funding provided for regional public libraries.  Members of the Legacy Committee can be found at   http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/comm/committeemembers.asp?comm=89017   Please keep your messages respectful. 

The House Legacy bill will be heard on Monday at 12:45pm in the Basement Hearing Room.  The committee plans to meet for as long as necessary (up to midnight) to walk through the bill, take testimony and consider amendments before passing the bill.

Senate Legacy Hearing:   On Monday evening the Senate Legacy Subcommittee heard presentations from groups seeking funding from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.  Ann Hutton and Melinda Ludwiczak made the presentation and did a great job.  Special thanks to the gang from East Central Regional Library for bringing a large glass blown parrot made by a local artist from a local child’s drawing to display to the committee.  They seemed to enjoy it very much.  Valerie Horton also testified on behalf of the Minnesota Digital Library.

At the hearing Senator Cohen announced that $3.5 million would have to be allocated from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund  for restoration and preservation of art at the capitol.  He warned that this would make funding increases unlikely for most recipients of Arts and Cultural Heritage Funds.

House Omnibus Education Bill:  Today the House Education Finance Committee passed its omnibus bill out of committee.  Before passage the committee considered about a dozen amendments.  Rep. Kresha successfully offered an amendment with the RLTA language that had been proposed in the Governor’s supplemental budget bill.  We had negotiated a couple of changes to the language with MDE, and I had testified last night that we were supporting the amendment.  It went onto the bill today without a hitch.  Also notable is that the provision requiring a regional public library board to employ a chief administrative officer who is compensated by no more than one regional library was removed from the omnibus bill after I let Rep. Erickson know that MLA opposed the provision.  The omnibus education bill will be heard next week in the House Tax Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee.

Senate Omnibus Education Bill:  Today the Senate E-12 Budget Division passed its omnibus bill out of committee.  The RLTA language was also amended onto this bill this morning.  Other provisions of interest in this bill are as follows:

  • RLBSS: Modifies the formula and increases funding by $2.85 million over the biennium
  • Telecommunications Equity Aid: Increases funding by $3 million ($1.5 million per year) for the 16-17 biennium only
  • School Technology: Requires school districts to reserve future growth in the proceeds from the school endowment fund for school technology and telecommunications infrastructure, programs and training
  • 1:1 Device Program: Requires MDE to research existing 1:1 device programs and develop guidelines for best practices for Minnesota schools implementing 1:1 device programs

Broadband Grants:  The Senate omnibus environment,  economic development and agriculture bill was released today.  It includes $17 million for broadband grants.  The House employment and economic development bill provides no funding for broadband.  The Governor’s budget includes $30 million.

 

Elaine Keefe
Capitol Hill Associates
525 Park Street, Suite 310
St. Paul, MN 55103
(office)651-293-0229
(cell) 612-590-1244
elaine@capitolhillassoc.com

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/p4m2ool, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Library Legislative Update for MN

Capital SunsetThe following 2 legislative updates were written by Elaine Keefe, library lobbyist for the Minnesota Library Association (MLA) and Information Technology Educators of MN (ITEM).

Received Tuesday, April 14, 2015 at 6:40 pm

Today the House and Senate omnibus education and higher education bills were released.  Most library appropriations remained at current levels.  Here are the items where changes were proposed:

Regional Library Basic System Support (RLBSS):  The Senate education bill increases RLBSS to $14.92 million in FY 2016 (an increase of $1.35 million) and to $15.070 million in FY 2017 and future years (an increase of $1.5 million). The total increase for the biennium is $2.85 million.  The RLBSS formula is modified by increasing the base from 5% to 13% and by decreasing the equalization component from 25% to 17%.  The House makes no change in RLBSS, so this will be an item of difference in the conference committee.

Telecommunications Equity Aid (TEA):  The Senate education bill increases funding for TEA to $5.25 million per year, an increase of $1.5 million per year.  The House provides no increase for TEA, so this will be an item of difference in the conference committee.

General Education Formula:  The House provides an increase of 0.6% in each year of the biennium, while the Senate provides an increase of 1% per year.  The general education formula is the primary source of funding for school library media programs.

MnSCU and the University of Minnesota:  There are no general operating increases proposed for either MnSCU or the U of M.  The Senate higher education bill includes funding for student tuition relief for both systems, while the House bill provides such funding only for MnSCU.

The committees will take testimony and consider amendments to their omnibus bills this week.  The bills will be passed out of their respective committees no later than Thursday evening.

Received Thursday, April 9, 2015 at 2:24 pm

Legislative Calendar:  On Tuesday legislators returned from their Passover/Easter break.  Next week many budget committees will be releasing their omnibus budget bills.  The Senate E-12 Education Budget Division will release its omnibus budget bill online next Tuesday.  They will take public testimony on Wednesday and then will consider amendments and pass the bill out of committee on Thursday.  The House Education Finance Committee has not yet announced when its omnibus bill will be released.  There is a great deal of work to be done before the May 18 adjournment deadline.

Budget Targets:   Before leaving for the Passover/Easter break, House and Senate leaders announced their budget targets.  The education community was shocked and deeply disappointed at the very low targets for education, particularly in the context of a state budget surplus of nearly $1.9 billion.  The House has allocated just $157 million in new funding for education over the next two years.  The Senate has allocated $350 million.  This is in contrast to Governor Dayton’s proposal to spend an additional $694 million on education.  The House and Senate targets will make it very difficult to obtain funding increases for libraries, despite the positive reception our bills received when they were heard in committee.

Senate Legacy Hearing:  On Monday, April 13 at 6pm the Senate Legacy Subcommittee will be taking testimony on the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.  Ann Hutton and Melinda Ludwiczak will present our request for regional public libraries.  The hearing will take place in Room 15 of the Capitol.

Governor’s Bonding Proposal:  This week Governor Dayton released his bonding proposal, which totals $842 million.  It includes $2 million for Library Construction Grants.  This is the first time funding for this program has been included in a governor’s proposal.  The likelihood of a bonding bill of that size is very slim.  Traditionally the Legislature passes a fairly small bonding bill in the odd-numbered year session and a much larger bill in the even-numbered year.  House Republicans have said they have no interest in passing any bonding bill this year.  However, they have left open the possibility that they could agree to a small bill as part of the end-of-session negotiations.

Regional Library Telecommunications Aid (RLTA):  The governor’s supplemental education budget bill was made public on Tuesday.  It includes some changes to the eligible uses of RLTA to more closely align it with the federal e-rate program.  The CRPLSA RLTA Committee reviewed the language and suggested two clarifying changes.  MDE has agreed to one of them and is considering the other.  Last night the House Education Finance Committee took testimony on the governor’s supplemental budget.  I testified about that we support the new language on RLTA but were working with MDE on a couple of tweaks to it.  I also expressed disappointment that there is no new money for libraries in the governor’s budget and urged the committee to consider including Rep. Nornes’ bill to increase funding for RLBSS and multi-type funding and Rep. Kresha’s bill to increase funding for TEA and RLTA as they put together their omnibus education funding bill.

State of the State:  Governor Dayton will deliver his state of the state address tonight at 7pm before a joint session of the Legislature.  The address will be live-streamed on many websites, including the House of Representatives website, the StarTribune, the Pioneer Press and MPR and affiliates.  The address will also be broadcast live on MPR.

Elaine Keefe
Capitol Hill Associates
525 Park Street, Suite 310
St. Paul, MN 55103
(office)651-293-0229
(cell) 612-590-1244
elaine@capitolhillassoc.com

 

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

MN Library Legislative Update

Capital SunsetThe following legislative update was written by Elaine Keefe, library lobbyist for the Minnesota Library Association (MLA) and Information Technology Educators of MN (ITEM).

Received Sunday, March 8, 2015 at 3:16 pm

Library Legislative Day:  Thank you to everyone who turned out for Library Legislative Day last week in spite of the snowstorm.  The feedback from meetings that attendees had with their legislators was very positive.

Seed Library:  SF 949, a bill providing an exemption from current seed regulations so that the Duluth Public Library can continue to operate its seed library was heard on Wednesday, March 4 in the Senate Jobs, Agriculture and Rural Development Committee.  Carla Powers, director of the Duluth Public Library, testified in favor of the bill.  Minnesota Department of Agriculture supports the bill.  It  was laid over for possible inclusion in the omnibus agriculture policy bill.

Data Privacy:  SF 337, a bill to conform Minnesota’s data privacy law regarding student records to recent changes in the Federal Educational Records Privacy Act (FERPA) passed the Senate on Thursday by a vote of 62-0.   The bill was initiated by the St. Paul Public Schools to enable them to share student addresses with the St. Paul Public Library so that every student can be issued a library card at school.  Without this legislation, the school district could only share student addresses with the public library if the district classified the addresses as public information.  The House companion, HF 424, was passed by the House Education Innovation Policy Committee and was re-referred to the House Civil Law and Data Practices Committee.

School Technology Hearing:  On Wednesday, March 11 the House Education Finance Committee will hear a presentation on school technology organized by the Minnesota School Boards Association, similar to the one heard by the Senate E-12 Budget Division on January 20.  Three bills are also listed on the agenda to be heard on an informational basis.  All three are authored by Rep. Drew Christensen:

 HF 838 increases funding for Telecommunications Equity Aid (TEA) by $6 million per year.  Note: This committee has already hear HF 583, which increases funding for both TEA and Regional Library Telecommunications Aid (RLTA).

HF 856 establishes special technology revenue, which can be used for the purchase or lease of telecommunications equipment, computers and related hardware and software, assistive technology and new and replacement library media resources or technology.
HF 854 increases total operating capital revenue and reserves the increase for the same purposes listed in HF 856 (see above) as well as for the purchase of electronic textbooks.

Elaine Keefe
Capitol Hill Associates
525 Park Street, Suite 310
St. Paul, MN 55103
(office)651-293-0229
(cell) 612-590-1244

elaine@capitolhillassoc.com