Do you like libraries?
Do you want to have well-funded libraries?
At CMLE Headquarters, we do too!!
We encourage you all to consider attending the Minnesota Library Legislative day. It will happen on Wednesday, February 22, with an optional ceremony and briefing session the night before that. Register in advance, so everyone can be excited to look forward to seeing you there! Continue reading Let’s Advocate! Library Legislative Day!!
The 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 this lobbyist to serve the best interests of academic, K-12, public, and special libraries in Central MN. (Latest information is at the top)
Received Monday, May 2, 2016 at 12:25 PM
The Senate bonding bill (SF 2839) was released this morning, and it contains good news for libraries. Here are the specifics:
Library Construction Grants: The bill includes $2 million for the grants. There are no earmarks, so the entire $2 million would be available for competitive grants. $2 million was the amount included in the governor’s budget.
East Central Regional Library Headquarters and Cambridge Public Library: The bill includes $2.414 million for a new building. That was the amount requested by the city of Cambridge. This must be matched with an equal amount of funding from non-state sources.
Bagley Public Library: The bill includes $50,000 in general fund money for a grant to the city of Bagley for “improvements, furnishings and equipment for the city’s library or to reimburse the city for improvements, furnishings and equipment for the city’s library.” The language is a little unusual because the library project was completed two years ago. The 2014 bonding bill included $50,000 for the project, but the state later determined that this was an ineligible use of state bond funds and in 2015 the appropriation was canceled. That is why this year’s appropriation is from the general fund.
Minnesota State Community and Technical College, Wadena Campus: The bill includes $820,000 to relocate the current library to a new space and to convert the vacated space to a student services center. $820,000 was the amount included in the governor’s budget. This was the only higher education library project proposed this year.
East Side Freedom Library: The bill includes $500,000 from the general fund to renovate the former Arlington Hills Public Library in St. Paul, which recently became the home of the East Side Freedom Library. The library is operated by a nonprofit. Its mission “is to inspire solidarity, advocate for justice and work toward equity for all.”
The Senate bonding bill is even larger than had been rumored, spending a total of $1.8 billion. That is significantly larger than the $1.4 billion proposed by Governor Dayton and triple the amount that House leaders have said they want to spend. Even so, many requests were not funded at all or were funded well below the amount requested. Senator Leroy Stumpf, chair of the Senate Capital Investment Committee, said they received $5.2 billion in requests. The bill will be heard in the Senate Finance Committee tomorrow and then will head to the Senate floor.
Received Friday, April 29, 2016 at 3:23 PM
The legislative session must end no later than 3 weeks from Monday. Here is an update on issues of interest:
Supplemental Budget: The House and Senate passed their omnibus supplemental budget bills this week. The Senate has combined all of its budget bills into one omnibus supplemental budget bill (SF 2356).
The House split the budget into three smaller omnibus budget bills, as follows:
Education and Higher Education (HF 2749)
Agriculture, Environment and Jobs (HF 3931)
HHS, Public Safety and State Government (HF 3467)
How the bills will be conferenced has not been announced, but it is widely assumed that there will be one conference committee made up of ten members. The conferees are expected to be appointed early next week.
Broadband: Last month Governor Dayton proposed $100 million in Border-to-Border Broadband Grants. The Senate included $85 million in its budget bill, while the House included $15 million for FY 17 and $25 million in FY 18. The House also included $7 million for broadband grants for schools in its education finance bill. Those who attended Library Legislative Day heard me describe this new grant program in detail. For those who were not there, the proposal actually would fund two separate types of grants, as follows:
Broadband Wi-Fi Hotspots: A school district may apply for a grant to support wireless off-campus learning through a student’s use of a data card, USB modem or other mobile broadband device that enables the student to access learning materials through a mobile broadband connection. A school district that qualifies for sparsity revenue may apply for a grant to provide Internet access on school buses. The maximum grant is $100,000 for a school district applying by itself or $200,000 if applying with a community partner such as a public library, community education department or adult basic education program provider.
Capacity Building: A school district that is a member of a telecommunications cluster may apply for a grant of up to $100,000 to be used in any manner and with any community partners that will allow the district to expand telecommunications access for students, teachers and community members.
Of the $7 million appropriated, $5 million is for the broadband Wi-Fi hotspot grants and $2 million is for the capacity building grants. This is a one-time appropriation.
Total Operating Capital: The Senate has included in its budget $10.1 million to provide a one-time increase of $10.88 per pupil in total operating capital. There is a list of 25 permitted uses of this funding in statute. Among the permitted uses are:
“To improve and repair school sites and buildings, and equip or reequip school buildings with permanent attached fixtures, including library media centers”
“ To purchase or lease interactive telecommunications equipment”
“To purchase or lease computers and related hardware, software, and annual licensing fees, copying machine, telecommunications equipment, and other non-instructional equipment”
“To purchase new and replacement library media resources or technology”
“To purchase or lease telecommunications equipment, computers and related equipment for integrated information management systems”
“To pay personnel costs directly associated to the acquisition, operation and maintenance of telecommunications systems, computers, related equipment, and network and applications software”
After School Grants: The Senate has included in its budget bill $500,000 in one-time funding for grants to after school programs. This is the program that we have worked with Ignite Afterschool to support.
Bonding: As you may recall, Governor Dayton proposed a $1.4 billion bonding bill, which would be the largest in state history. It includes $2 million for Library Construction Grants. House leaders have said they will spend no more than $600 million on a bonding bill, but have not released any specifics and are not expected to do so anytime soon. Rep. Paul Torkelson, chair of the House Capital Investment Committee, has said that the bonding bill’s fate will depend on reaching agreement on other issues such as taxes and transportation. House leaders have characterized the bonding bill as “dessert,” which must come last. The Senate is scheduled to release its bonding bill on Monday. It is rumored that it will be a little larger than the governor’s proposal.
Legacy: The House has passed its omnibus legacy funding bill, HF 3829, out of committee. Unlike the other three funds the Outdoor Heritage Fund appropriations are made annually, and the bulk of the bill is made up of those appropriations. However, there is one provision of interest to libraries in the bill. It reinforces the requirement that legacy funds are to be used to supplement rather than supplant existing funding by requiring any entity requesting funding from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund to inform the Legislature “if the entity funded the same project or program after 2006 and how the previous project or program was funded.” This is based on a recommendation from the Legislative Auditor.
Because sales tax revenue has lagged behind projections, there are deficits in three of the four legacy funds, including the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. To resolve the deficit, Minnesota Management and Budget plans to enact a shift by authorizing agencies to “allot only 97% of their FY 17 appropriations, holding back 3% of each appropriation for spending in the following fiscal year, FY 18.”
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
The following legislative update was written by Elaine Keefe, library lobbyist for the Minnesota Library Association (MLA) and Information Technology Educators of MN (ITEM). CMLE helps pay this lobbyist to serve the best interests of academic, K-12, public, and special libraries in Central MN. You’re welcome!
Governor’s Budget: Governor Dayton released his supplemental budget proposal today. He is proposing to spend a total of $698 million (including $117 million for tax cuts). Of that spending, $411 million is one-time spending and $287 million is ongoing spending. The governor proposes to leave $200 million on the bottom line to guard against a future economic downturn. This is consistent with his statement last week in his State of the State address that his highest priority was protecting the fiscal stability of the state. Here are items of interest in the proposed budget:
A detailed description of each item in Governor Dayton’s proposal can be found here: http://mn.gov/mmb/images/16-17-supplemental-agency-item.pdf
Bills of Interest: Since the Legislature convened one week ago, legislators have introduced 546 bills in the Senate and 747 bills in the House. Here are some bills of interest to MLA and ITEM:
HF 2381 (Baker) Provides $35 million for border to border broadband grants. The bill will be heard in the House Greater Minnesota Economic and Workforce Development Policy Committee this Thursday.
HF 2385 (Lesch)/ SF 2703 (Dibble) Prohibits employers from requiring applicants or employees to divulge their username or password to any personal social media account.
HF 2386 (Lesch)/ SF 2705 (Chamberlain) Prohibits educational institutions from requiring students or prospective students to divulge their username or password to any personal social media account.
HF 2537 (Youakim)/ SF 2510 (Kent) Establishes the right of student journalists to determine the content of school newspapers and student-led publications, unless the content is profane, harassing or intimidating.
HF 2597 (Green) Repeals the requirement that 47% of the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund must be allocated to the State Arts Board.
HF 2645 (B. Johnson)/ SF 2296 (Nienow) Provides $2,414,000 to the city of Cambridge to build a new public library and headquarters for the East Central Regional Library.
HF 2898 (Lucero) Protecting student data privacy on 1:1 devices issued by an educational institution.
HF 2900 (Lucero) Protecting student privacy on personal electronic devices.
HF 2939 (C. Johnson)/ SF 2560 (Sheran) Provides funding for the Travers des Sioux Library Cooperative to hire licensed school media specialists to provide services to schools that do not have licensed school media specialists. This was initiated by a former employee of TDS, and is not supported by the TDS Board. I do not expect this bill to advance.
HF 3069 (Peterson) / SF 2462 (Carlson) Exempts information systems software from the requirement that schools use a competitive bidding process for purchases.
SF 2294 (Dahms) Provides $30 million in bond proceeds for border to border broadband grants.
SF 2447 (Schmit) Provides $100 million from the general fund for border to border broadband grants.
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/olvp485, licensed under CC BY 2.0
The following legislative update was written by Elaine Keefe, library lobbyist for the Minnesota Library Association (MLA) and Information Technology Educators of MN (ITEM). Being its near the end of the legislation season, this post contains 4 separate updates.
Received Wednesday, May 13, 2015 at 10:08 PM
Our latest intelligence indicates that the Senate has offered to accept the House position on Legacy funding for regional public libraries. This would mean that libraries would receive $4 million over the next two years, as compared to $6 million during the current two-year budget period. If you have not already done so, please contact the members of the conference committee listed below. In addition:
Please contact your Senator and ask him or her to urge Senator Cohen to uphold the Senate position on Legacy funding for libraries. Your senator will likely assume that Senator Cohen will be fighting to uphold the Senate position, but we have strong reason to believe that Senator Cohen has said privately that he prefers the House position.
Please contact your House member and urge him or her to urge Rep. Urdahl to move to the Senate position on Legacy funding for libraries. The Senate position is still $50,000 per year below current funding, but is substantially better than the House position.
Received Monday, May 11, 2015 at 4:45 PM
Legacy Conference Committee: This afternoon the Legacy conference committee was appointed. The ten members of the conference committee will negotiate the differences between the House and Senate Legacy bills over the next few days.
The Senate bill provides $2.95 million per year for regional public libraries. The House bill provides $1.5 million in FY 16 and $2.5 million in FY 17.
Please contact the conferees and ask them to support the Senate level of Legacy funding for libraries!
The conferees are listed below with their contact information:
Rep. Dean Urdahl (R – Grove City)
rep.dean.urdahl@house.mn
651-296-4344 or 800-920-5861
Rep. Denny McNamara (R – Hastings)
rep.denny.mcnamara@house.mn
651-296-3135
Rep. Paul Torkelson (R – Hanska)
rep.paul.torkelson@house.mn
651-296-9303 or 888-727-3891
Rep. Josh Heintzeman (R-Nisswa)
rep.josh.heintzeman@house.mn
651-296-4333
Rep. Phyllis Kahn (DFL – Minneapolis)
rep.phyllis.kahn@house.mn
651-296-4257
Senator Dick Cohen (DFL – St. Paul)
www.senate.mn/senatorcohenemail
651-296-5931
Senator Bev Scalze (DFL – Little Canada)
sen.bev.scalze@senate.mn
651-296-5537
Senator LeRoy Stumpf (DFL – Plummer)
www.senate.mn/senatorstumpfemail
651-296-8660
Senator Katie Sieben (DFL – Newport)
www.senate.mn/senatorsiebenemail
651-297-8060
Senator Michelle Fischbach (R – Paynesville)
sen.michelle.fischbach@senate.mn
651-296-2084
Received Friday, May 8, 2015 at 3:42 PM
Education Conference Committee: The education conference committee met this week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for about 3 hours each day. The first meeting was spent having staff walk through the House and Senate bills. The second meeting featured the completion of the staff walk through of the bills, followed by testimony on facilities, Q-comp and testing. Yesterday’s meeting was devoted to hearing testimony on extended time revenue and early learning scholarships.
The committee will not meet again until Monday. Thus far the meetings have been quite cordial and low-key. Partly this reflects the personalities of the chairs, Senator Wiger and Rep. Loon, neither of whom has a penchant for drama. The other factor is that the tough decision-making won’t get serious until House and Senate leaders and Governor Dayton agree on a budget target for education. I do not expect that to happen until the middle of next week.
Legacy Bill: Last night the Senate passed its version of the omnibus Legacy bill by a vote of 44-9. In his remarks about the bill Senator Cohen acknowledged that two years ago when the Legacy bill was debated on the Senate floor, there was much concern expressed about the low level of funding for libraries, and that he had assured his fellow senators that it would be addressed in the conference committee, and it was. Senator Cohen then pointed out that this year the Senate Legacy bill provides more funding for libraries than the House bill does – the first time that has ever happened. It was great to see that the large number of e-mails you sent to your senators two years ago are still having an impact.
Received Tuesday, May 5, 2015 at 7:55am
The Legislature must adjourn on midnight on Monday, May 18, just under two weeks from now. Here is the latest news:
Senate Legacy Bill: Yesterday the Senate’s omnibus Legacy bill was unveiled and passed out of the Legacy Subcommittee. The bill appropriates 2.95 million per year for regional public libraries. This is $50,000 less per year than the current appropriation from Legacy funds, but it is far better than the House Legacy appropriation of $1.5 million in FY 16 and $2.5 million in FY 17. The Senate bill allocates $300,00 per year for the Minnesota Digital Library, which is the current level of funding. The House Legacy bill provides $280,000 per year for MDL. The Senate Legacy bill will be heard in the full Senate Finance Committee later today, where it is expected to be passed and sent to the Senate floor.
Education Conference Committee: The education conference committee will meet for the first time this afternoon. Typically the first meeting consists of a walk-through of the side-by-side comparison of the House and Senate bills. You can find the side-by-side comparison for each article of the education bill here: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/side_by_sides/
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
The 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