It is a great situation to have a budget surplus, but the ideas about how to solve it can be quite different. A picture is worth a thousand words when the Governor, the House, and the Senate are trying to iron out differences on budget priorities. The folks at Minnesota Budget Bites have done a fantastic job of sharing the differences in the following easy graphic. Read the full blog post at: http://tinyurl.com/mbebruf
April 22, 2014 blog post graphic from Minnesota Budget Bites.
**This legislative update was written by Elaine Keefe, library lobbyist for the Minnesota Library Association (MLA) and MEMO**
Received: 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
TO: Minnesota Libraries
FROM: State Library Services
DATE: March 5, 2014
SUBJECT: LSTA Competitive Grant Round Open
State Library Services is pleased to announce the 2014 Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) competitive grant opportunity. We welcome applications from any legally established public library, academic library, special library, school library, library cooperative or consortium in Minnesota or any Minnesota organization with tax exempt, non-profit status willing to serve as fiscal agent for a project that benefits a library.
An estimated $600,000 is available to fund grant projects that address the priorities identified in Minnesota’s Five Year LSTA Plan (2013-2017). We welcome proposals that expand programs and services that support Minnesotan’s needs for education, lifelong learning, continuing education, workforce development, 21st century and digital literacy skills; and/or establish a strong infrastructure and build capacity for improved coordination among eligible libraries to improve the quality of and access to library and information services.
Application forms and instructions are available at the Department of Education’s Grants Management Site. Scroll to Library Services and Technology grant opportunity. Please visit the State Library Services LSTA page for the 2014 competitive LSTA anticipated timeline, descriptions of Minnesota’s most recently funded LSTA grants, and Minnesota’s Five Year LSTA Plan (2013-2017).
Please contact Jackie Blagsvedt, State Library Services, with any questions or for more information:Jacqueline.Blagsvedt@state.mn.us or 651-582-8805
**This legislative update was written by Elaine Keefe, lobbyist for MLA/MEMO. Slight clarifications/modifications made by Patricia Post** (Received on 02/26/14 at 6:45 pm)
The 2014 legislative session began on 02/25/14. As is typical in a short session year, things got off to a fast start.
Library Task Force: The MDE policy bill includes a provision establishing the Minnesota’s Libraries and Service Delivery Task Force. It is charged with making recommendations to “increase service collaboration between library systems that ensures both equitable and cost-effective access to library services throughout Minnesota. Recommendations shall not be limited to physical services and should include recommendations to increase access to emerging electronic services.” I asked Kevin McHenry, assistant commissioner at MDE, about the department’s goals for the task force. He said that MDE has gotten good results with task forces on other topics and thought this would be a good way to highlight the good work that libraries are doing and to look at emerging issues like digital literacy and e-books. I brought up the e-book pricing issue that is on our platform and asked if it could be addressed by the task force. Kevin was enthusiastic about the idea, as was state librarian Jennifer Nelson in an earlier conversation.
The bill received an informational hearing yesterday in the Senate Education Committee. Senator Patricia Torres Ray, chair of the committee, asked MDE to develop some more specific language defining the charge of the task force. After the hearing I told Daron Korte, government relations director for MDE, that we would like input into the additional language and he said they definitely wanted to work with the library community.
Maintenance of Effort: Today a new version of the MDE policy bill was posted.
It still includes the task force language referenced above, but it also includes some new provisions, including one that repeals most of the MOE language in Statute 134.34 and replaces it with a cross reference to the language in the 2011 tax bill that reduced all MOE requirements to 90% of the 2011 amount and froze it into perpetuity. I have e-mailed Daron and Kevin to explain that while they may see this as clearing out obsolete language, we had hoped that eventually we could undo the freeze and return to the previous law. That will be more difficult to accomplish if the language is repealed.
Exception to the 20 Hour Minimum : The new version of the MDE policy bill includes a provision authorizing MDE to grant a public library an exception to the requirement that it be open at least 20 hours per week to receive Regional Library Telecommunication Aid if requested by the regional library system for one of the following reasons:
1) short term closing for emergency maintenance and repairs following a natural disaster
2) in response to exceptional economic circumstances
3) building repair or maintenance that requires public areas to be closed
4) to adjust public service hours to respond to documented seasonal use patterns
Data Privacy (SF 1770 / HF 2167): Senator Kari Dziedzic and Rep. John Lesch have introduced a bill clarifying that all data created, collected, received, stored, used, maintained, or disseminated by any party in performing a contract entered into with a government entity must comply with the data practices act as if it were a government entity. Contracts entered into by a government entity are still required to include a notice making it clear that the vendor must comply with the data practices act. However, if the notice is not included the vendor is still obligated to comply with the data practices act. This seems to be a much better approach than the bill that was pre-filed in January by Rep. Peggy Scott that made any contract that failed to include the notice unenforceable.
Library Accessiblity and Improvement Grants: HF 1501, our bill introduced by Rep. Mary Murphy to provide $3 million in the bonding bill for libraries, will be heard next Tuesday, March 4 at 8:15am. This is a joint hearing of the House Capital Investment Committee and the House Education Finance Committee. Pat Conley and I will testify.
Telecommunications Equity Aid: The bill is drafted and Sen. Tom Saxhaug and Rep. Kathy Brynaert will serve as our chief authors. I am in the process of securing co-authors and hope to get the bill introduced on Monday.
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
TO: Public Library Staff
FROM: State Library Services
DATE: February 19, 2014
SUBJECT: Feedback on Public Library Accessibility and Improvement Grant Process
State Library Services is gathering information to aid in updating and revising the Public Library Accessibility and Improvement grant application and guidelines. A short survey has been posted and an online meeting/conference call is scheduled to get feedback directly from the library community. The survey will be available through March 31, 2014. The online meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 3, 2014 from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Call in to 1-888-742-5095 or participate via WebEx. Pre-registration is not required; please join the conversation.
For more information about the Public Library Accessibilty and Improvement grant program, or to request a reasonable accomodation to attend the online meeting, please contact Jennifer Nelson at 651-582-8791 or jennifer.r.nelson@state.mn.us.