Tag Archives: lobbyist

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

MN Library Legislative Update

**This legislative update was written by Elaine Keefe, library lobbyist for the Minnesota Library Association (MLA)  and MEMO**

MNStateCapitolReceived: Sun 3/9/2014 6:22 PM

A big thank you to everyone who attended Library Legislative Day last Wednesday.  We had a terrific turnout.  Some of the information I shared in my briefings on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning is repeated below for the benefit of those who could not attend.  However, there are some new developments and they are listed first.

Telecommunications Equity Aid (HF 2696/SF 2167):  Our bill will be heard in the House Education Finance Committee this Tuesday, March 11 at 8:15am in Room 10 SOB.  Chief author Rep. Kathy Brynaert (DFL – Mankato) will present the bill.  Mary Mehsikomer and Marc Johnson will testify.  Our Senate author, Senator Tom Saxhaug (DFL – Grand Rapids) has requested a hearing.

Library Accessibility and Improvement Grants (HF 1501/ SF 1473):  The House Capital Investment Committee will hear an overview presentation on Library Accessibility and Improvement Grants from MDE and also a presentation on the Perham Library on Tuesday, March 11 at 8:15am in Room 200 SOB.

Governor’s Budget:  Governor Dayton released his budget on Thursday.  He is proposing $616 million in tax cuts, adding $455 million to the budget reserve, and $162 million in “essential expenditures.”  The only item in the K-12 budget is $3.5 million for school lunches.  The only higher education items are general operating increases of $17 million for MnSCU and $5 million for the University of Minnesota.

Here is a link to the budget press release, which includes a link to the budget documents:  http://mn.gov/governor/newsroom/pressreleasedetail.jsp?id=102-117142

Data Privacy:  We are following two bills of interest.

HF 2138, introduced by Rep. Mary Liz Holberg, requires that by January 1, 2020, any database maintained by a government entity that contains private or confidential data must have the capacity, within each individual record, to track the identities of users who access the data, including the date and time the data were accessed and the purpose for which the access occurred. This is problematic for library patron records systems. The bill is scheduled for a hearing on Wednesday, March 12 in the House Civil Law Committee at 8:15am in Room 200 SOB. Please let me know if you are interested in testifying.

HF 2167 / SF 1770 is the bill that requires vendors handling confidential data to abide by the data practices act as if it were a government entity, regardless of whether the contract includes notice of this requirement. We support this bill.  It was heard last Tuesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee.  It passed and was re-referred to the State and Local Government Committee.  The House companion was heard on Wednesday in the House Civil Law Committee.  It passed and was sent to the floor.

Pay Equity (HF 2373 / SF 1806):  MLA is a longtime member of the Pay Equity Coalition.  This year the Coalition is backing a bill requiring employers that hold state contracts to comply with pay equity. This is similar to the requirement that they have an affirmative action plan. The bill passed the House Government Operations Committee last Wednesday evening and was re-referred to the House Labor, Workplace and Regulated Industries Committee, where it is scheduled to be heard on Wednesday, March 12 at 8:15am in the Basement Hearing Room of the SOB.

State Economic Forecast:  The forecast was released on Friday, February 28. The state has a projected surplus of $1.23 billion.  The Governor and the House have said that tax cuts are their highest priority.  Not coincidentally, they are both up for re-election this fall.  The Senate majority, which is not up for re-election until 2016, has said their top priority is building up the state’s budget reserve.  The surplus is large enough that they should be able to do some of each.

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

MNStateCapitol**This legislative update was written by Elaine Keefe, library lobbyist for the Minnesota Library Association (MLA) /MEMO** 

Subject:  Governor’s Capital Budget Recommendations, Wednesday, 01/15/14 at 1:54 pm

Today Governor Dayton released his capital budget recommendations.  He did not include any funding for Library Accessibility and Improvement Grants in his recommendations.  While this is disappointing, it is not a complete surprise.  Since the inception of the program in 1994, no governor has included funding for it in his capital budget recommendations, and yet we have consistently been able to persuade the Legislature to include funding in the final bonding bill.

Commissioner of Management and Budget Jim Schowalter noted in his transmittal letter to legislative leaders that competition for funding was fierce.  While the Governor is recommending a total of $986 million in capital projects, more than $2.9 billion in requests were submitted.

The only academic library project included in the Governor’s recommendation is on the Wadena campus of Minnesota State Community and Technical College, Fergus Falls and Wadena.  It states that “renovations will combine classroom and new library space on the Wadena campus.”

You can see the entire list of recommendations on the MMB website:  http://www.mmb.state.mn.us/critical.html

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Subject: Pre-Filed Bills, Wed 01/15/14  at 3:45 PM

Although the Legislature doesn’t convene until February 25, members of the House were given the opportunity to pre-file bills for introduction. The list was made public last night. Here are bills of interest:

HF 1923 (Newton)  Repeals all state aid to nonpublic schools, including telecommunications equity aid.

HF 1978 (Scott) Makes a contract between a government entity and a private vendor unenforceable if it fails to include in the contract a requirement that all of the data created, collected, received, stored, used, maintained or disseminated by the vendor must comply with all state data practices laws as if it were a government entity.  It applies to contracts entered into on or after August 1, 2014.

 HF 1997 (Gruenhagen)  Repeals current exemptions from obscenity laws for public schools and postsecondary institutions.  It leaves exemptions in place for public libraries, churches, museums, medical clinics, physicians, hospitals and government sponsored organizations.

 HF 2120 (Holberg)  Creates a Legislative Commission on Data Practices and Personal Data Privacy.

HF 2126 (Quam)  Requires cities and counties to have written procedures for charging and collecting fees and to make those procedures available to the public.

 HF 2138 (Holberg)  Requires that by January 1, 2020, any database maintained by a government entity that contains private or confidential data must have the capacity, within each individual record, to track the identities of users who access the data, including the date and time the data were accessed and the purpose for which the access occurred.

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, Check this out:, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

VIRTUAL Legislative Day-March 6th Call or Email!

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MLA LogoThis update is from Mark Ranum, MLA Legislative Chair

March 6 is your day to contact your HOUSE and SENATE members and ADVOCATE FOR LIBRARIES!!!

If you can’t make Legislative Day in person, you can still make a difference by contacting your Representatives and Senators by telephone or email and letting them know that library funding from the state is very important!

You can review the platform and documents on specific issues of interest at http://www.mnlibraryassociation.org/committees/legislative-committee#documents

The bill numbers for each issue will be available on the MLA website under the legislative committee documents link listed above, so you can refer to specific bill numbers in the House and Senate when you contact legislators.  Some of the issues will not have specific bill numbers since they are part of the Governor’s proposed budget.

When you call or email, it’s best to advocate for a specific issue or bill, and particularly if that issue or bill is under consideration in one of the committees where your legislator is a member.

Find your legislators at http://www.gis.leg.mn/OpenLayers/districts/   When your Senator and Representative names are displayed, you can click on their names to find out their committee assignments.

You can pass this email along to all your library board members, friends, and advocates, and library patrons!!  Encourage them to contact their legislators!

Even a call or email expressing general library support on March 6 would be terrific and very helpful in our advocacy efforts.  The more positive energy and impact we have that day, the more positive our conversations about libraries continue at the Capitol.

Mark Ranum, Director Plum Creek Library System
Box 697, 290 S. Lake Street
Worthington, MN 56187
507.376.5803 ext. 1 (office)
612.701.9989 (cell)
mranum@plumcreeklibrary.net

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

MNLibLeg-Legislative Update!

This update is from Elaine Keefe, MLA/MEMO Library Legislative Lobbyist

State Economic Forecast:  A new state economic forecast was released today, and it contains good news.  The projected budget deficit for the next biennium has shrunk to $627 million.  This is an improvement of $463 million over the $1.1 billion deficit that was projected in December.

The forecast also contains good news for the current biennium.  The state is now projected to end the current biennium with a positive balance of $295 million.  Under current law, $5 million of that will go into the state’s budget reserve and $290 million will go to repay the education funding shift.

Budget Process:  Governor Dayton is expected to issue a revised budget proposal in about two weeks.  Soon after that, legislative leaders will set budget targets.  House rules require a budget resolution to be adopted no later than March 25, but House leaders have said they hope to do it sooner.  Senate leaders will also set budget targets, but the Senate does not adopt a formal budget resolution in public.

Data Privacy:  Our data privacy bill for public libraries, HF 695/SF 745, will be heard on Friday in the House Data Practices Subcommittee and on Tuesday, March 5 in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Minitex/MnLINK:  Our bill providing a funding increase for Minitex and MnLINK will be introduced in the House this afternoon. Rep. Ryan Winkler (DFL – Golden Valley) is the chief author.  Co-authors are Rep. Bud Nornes (R – Fergus Falls) and Rep. Kathy Brynaert (DFL – Mankato).

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

MLA Logo

MEMO

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Legislative Update

This update is from Elaine Keefe, MLA/MEMO Library Legislative Lobbyist

Data Privacy:  Under current law, records linking public library users to library materials they have searched for or borrowed that are owned by the library are private. HF 695, our bill extending the same protection to electronic data owned by a private vendor and licensed by a public library (e.g., e-books) was introduced last Monday by Rep. Steve Simon (DFL – Hopkins), chair of the House Data Practices Subcommittee.  The companion bill, SF 745, will be introduced on Monday, February 25 by Senator Kari Dzeidzic (DFL – Minneapolis).  Senator Ron Latz (DFL – St. Louis Park), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a co-author.

Homework Help:  Our bill to fund a statewide contract to make a free online homework help service available statewide will be introduced as SF 781 on Monday, February 25.  The chief author is Senator John Hoffman (DFL – Champlin). Co-authors are Sen. Alice Johnson (DFL – Spring Lake Park), Sen. LeRoy Stumpf (DFL – Plummer), Sen. Vicki Jensen (DFL – Owatonna) and Sen. Carla Nelson (R – Rochester).  The House version will be introduced soon.  Rep. Kathy Brynaert (DFL – Mankato) has signed on as the chief author.  If any of these legislators represent you, please write to thank them.

Minitex and MnLINK:  We have secured chief authors in both bodies for our bill to increase funding for Minitex and MnLINK.  Rep. Ryan Winkler (DFL – Golden Valley) will carry our bill in the House and Senator Kent Eken (DFL – Twin Valley) will carry our bill in the Senate.  I am currently recruiting co-authors, with the goal of getting the bills introduced no later than Monday, March 4.

Legacy:  Last Wednesday Mark Ranum made a presentation before the House Legacy Committee about what regional public libraries have done with Legacy funding received to date and about our request for funding for the upcoming biennium (FY 14-15).  It was very well received by the committee, resulting in extended remarks by committee members about the benefits of Legacy programs provided by public libraries and of libraries in general.  Reps. Mary Murphy (DFL – Hermantown), Leon Lillie (DFL – N. St. Paul) and John Ward (DFL – Brainerd) were especially effusive.

State Economic Forecast:  The next forecast will be released on Thursday February 28.  It is widely expected that the forecast will show improvement from the forecast released in December that projected a $1.1 million deficit at the conclusion of the FY 14-15 biennium.  It may also show an increase in the forecasted surplus for the current biennium, which would result in a further repayment of the education funding shift.  Governor Dayton will release his revised budget recommendations about two weeks after the forecast is released.

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