Tag Archives: MN library legislation

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

 

MDE Education Policy Bill: Last week the MDE education policy bill, HF 1591/SF 1495, was heard in committee in both bodies.  The bill includes two provisions of interest.  The first repeals the requirement that school districts have a technology plan on file with MDE in order to be eligible for telecommunications equity aid.  The second requires that the governing board of a regional public library system employ a full-time chief administrative officer.

Parental Review of School Library Media Center Materials:  A bill was introduced in both bodies last week that would expand an existing law requiring school districts to have a procedure for parents to review the content of instructional materials and to arrange alternative instruction if the parent objects to the content.  The bill specifies that this applies to instructional materials in a classroom, school library or media center.  It also requires that when a parent objects to the content because he or she considers it to be sexually explicit or obscene, the district must notify the parents of all students who are being provided that content that a parent has objected to it on that basis.  The name of the parent making the objection would be private data.

HF 1648/SF 1449 was introduced in the House by Rep. Abigail Whelan (R – Anoka) and it has many co-authors, all Republican.  It was introduced in the Senate by Senator Dan Hall (R – Burnsville).  All co-authors are Republicans.  The bill will not receive a hearing this session.

Regional Library Basic System Support (RLBSS): Last week a bill was introduced to change the RLBSS formula by increasing base portion from 5% to 15% of the distribution and reducing the equalization portion of the formula from 25% to 15% of the distribution.  The bill also increases funding for RLBSS by $5 million per year.

The House version, HF 1626, was introduced by Rep. Sondra Erickson (R – Princeton).  Co-authors are Rep. Mary Murphy (DFL – Hermantown), Rep. Greg Davids (R – Preston), Rep. Paul Marquart (DFL – Dilworth), Rep. Bud Nornes – R – Fergus Falls) and 10 others.  The Senate version, SF 1675 was introduced by Senator LeRoy Stumpf (DFL – Plummer). Co-authors are Senator Tom Saxhaug (DFL – Grand Rapids), Senator Gary Dahms (R – Redwood Falls) and Senator Vicki Jensen (DFL – Owatonna).

Coming Up this Week: The House Education Innovation Policy Committee and the Senate Education Committee will each release their respective omnibus education policy bills this week, hear the bills and pass them out of committee by the end of the week in order to meet the first committee deadline, which is Friday, March 20.

Governor Dayton will release his supplemental budget proposal this week.  He has already announced that it will include more funding for universal preschool for 4 year olds, more funding for the MnSCU system and more funding for nursing homes.

 

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

Get ready for Minnesota Library Legislative Day 2015

Minnesota Library Legislative Day 2015

Early Registration is Open!  

 Who:  All are welcome!
 What: Minnesota Library Legislative Day will begin with a legislative briefing from our  lobbying teams of Elaine Keefe and Sam Walseth on the evening of March 2nd.  On March 3rd, the briefing will be repeated at 9am before you meet with your  specific legislators throughout that day. It is important to schedule meetings with  your representative in advance! (Please see below to learn how to schedule meetings with your representative).
 Where: Best Western Plus Capitol Ridge (formerly the Kelly Inn)
161 Saint Anthony Ave, Saint Paul, MN 55103
 When: – Monday, March 2nd – 5:00-6:30pm Legislative Briefing
– Tuesday, March 3rd – 9:00am Legislative Briefing followed by meetings throughout the day. (MLA Hospitality Suite Open Until 1:00pm)
REGISTER HERE
 Why: It’s important for MN library professionals to connect with legislators and advocate as active constituents. Use your voice!

How to Schedule Meetings with your Representatives:

1.)    Visit www.mnvotes.org

2.)    Go to “Get Informed”

3.)    Click on “Find Elected Officials”

4.)    Click on “State and Federal Elected Officials”

5.)    Enter city, state or zip code to find your representatives’ contact information

 

How to Effectively Communicate with your Representatives:
Click HERE to Open Document 
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

MN Library Legislative Update

The following legislative updates were written by Elaine Keefe, library lobbyist for the Minnesota Library Association (MLA) and MEMO/ITEM.

CapitolReceived: Friday, 03/21/2014 at 2:46 pm

Omnibus Education Policy Bill (HF 2397 / SF 1889):  Yesterday both the House Education Policy Committee and the Senate Education Committee marked up and passed out of committee their respective versions of the omnibus education policy bill. Both bills were amended to remove the library maintenance of effort language proposed by MDE.  Both bills include the MDE provision allowing some flexibility in how public libraries meet the requirement to be open at least 20 hours per week in order to be eligible for Regional Library Telecommunications Aid.

The Library Task Force proposed by MDE was not included in the Senate bill.  This was done so that the bill would not be required to go to the Senate State and Local Government Committee.  The House also wanted to avoid having the bill stop in the House Government Operations Committee, but accomplished this in a different way.  They amended the language so that rather than creating a task force the bill requires the Commissioner of Education to consult with all of the same parties who were to have been represented on the task force and to issue a report by February 15, 2015.  MDE does not plan to do anything differently than they would have had their original language been included in the bill.

The House version of the bill was referred to the House Education Finance Committee, where it will be heard next Thursday, March 27.  The Senate version of the bill was sent to the floor.

Telecommunications Equity Aid (SF 2167):  Our bill to increase TEA funding by $6 million was heard in the Senate E-12 Education Budget Division yesterday morning. Marc Johnson of ECMECC and Dennis Fazio of TIES did a great job testifying about the need for an increase.  The bill was laid over for possible inclusion in the omnibus E-12 budget bill, which will be released next week.

Minnesota Digital Library:  On Wednesday the House Legacy Committee heard an informational presentation from the Minnesota Historical Society about the programs they are providing with their legacy funding.  Since the Minnesota Digital Library appropriation is part of the Historical Society’s legacy funding, Valerie Horton testified about the progress of the MDL.  She did a terrific job and was very well received by the committee.  Chris Olson and Michael Scott attended the hearing to lend support.  David Kelliher, lobbyist for the Historical Society, commented to me how nice it was that Chris and Michael came to the hearing, and what great partners libraries have been with the Historical Society.

Received: Sunday, 03/23/14 at 6:27 pm

I am happy to report that there IS an increase in Telecommunications Equity Aid in the House Education Finance bill of $5 million!  The appropriation is increased from $3.75 million to $8.75 million.  This is a permanent increase. Thanks to the the eagle-eyed Sam Walseth for spotting this.  It is in the facilities article, at the top of page 59. It  includes an increase in the general education formula of $58 per pupil, about a 1% increase.

Please send thanks to our chief author, Rep. Kathy Brynaert, who pushed hard for this funding:  rep.kathy.brynaert@house.mn  and Rep. Paul Marquart, chair of the committee: rep.paul.marquart@house.mn

The bill will be heard on Tuesday, and marked up and passed out of committee on Wednesday. Here is a link to the delete-all amendment:  http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/comm/docs/H3171DE4.pdf

Elaine Keefe
Capitol Hill Associates

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Message from Asst. Commissioner McHenry (MDE)

McHenryTO: Minnesota Library Staff
FROM: State Library Services
DATE: March 7, 2014
SUBJECT: MDE Legislative Update

The following message from MDE Assistant Commissioner Kevin McHenry was shared with the Minnesota Library Association through its Legislative Chair this morning. It describes the Minnesota Department of Education’s technical and policy initiatives for the 2014 legislative session. It is being distributed here to reach members of the library community who may not be affiliated with the Minnesota Library Association.

“We submitted a technical proposal to amend Minnesota Statutes, section 134.355 Subd. 8, Regional Library Telecommunications Aid, to allow exceptions to the 20-hour per week eligibility requirement. Permitting exceptions for one-time, limited duration situations such as a building closure as a result of natural disaster, or to allow for adjustments to open hours in response to seasonal usage patterns fits with the intent of the legislation while allowing maximum eligibility.

A second technical proposal was submitted to clarify the formula for establishing the state-certified level of library support (maintenance of effort) for counties and cities that provide operating dollars for library services. Currently Minnesota Statutes, section 134.34 does not contain a cross reference to the statutory change made in 2011 through Minnesota Statutes, section 275.761. This creates a significant amount of confusion when communicating with stakeholders about the statutory requirements. Currently, someone reading the statutes has no way of knowing that the provisions of 134.34 have been superseded. While I understand that the library community is interested in pursuing a return to the prior formula, there is a need to ensure that statutes accurately reflect the current requirements.

Finally, we submitted a policy proposal to establish a task force on libraries and service delivery. MDE has had some great success in advancing and promoting issues using task forces. I want to make sure that we are highlighting the work of libraries, particularly in light of recent news articles questioning relevancy. With emerging issues that need to be addressed, such as e-books, a task force can be a catalyst for promoting ideas to work with multiple levels of governance and a positive step forward. There is great energy and enthusiasm within libraries and I would like to see that communicated to a wide audience.

I encourage you to contact me directly if you’d like to discuss any of these proposals. I appreciate any feedback you have to offer. Kevin McHenry, Assistant Commissioner, 651-582-8250 or kevin.mchenry@state.mn.us.”

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/ITEM**

Some rights reserved by Aine D
Some rights reserved by Aine D

Received: Sun 3/16/2014  at 6:04PM

The already very hectic pace at the Capitol will accelerate this week.  Friday, March 21, is the first committee deadline.  By the end of this week, most bills will be dead for the legislative session.  In order to remain alive, a bill must have been passed by all of the policy committees it needs to go to and either be referred to a finance committee or awaiting floor action.  As a practical matter this means there will be long committee hearing agendas filled with bills racing against the Friday deadline, and hearings will last well into the evening.

House Budget Targets:  House leaders released their budget targets on Friday, and the House Ways and Means Committee is scheduled to adopt them on Monday.  The targets call for $550 million in tax cuts, $488 million in new spending and leaving $195 million on the bottom line.  Of the $488 million in new spending, $17 million will go to to higher education and $75 million will go to E-12 education, where the priorities are listed as funding for teacher evaluations, expanded access to high quality early learning opportunities and making reduced-price lunches free.  The targets also include debt service for a bonding bill of $850 million plus another $125 million in cash for capital projects, bringing the total for capital investment to $975 million.

Omnibus Policy and Budget Bills:  Committees will begin rolling out their omnibus bills and taking action on them this week, which is well ahead of the usual schedule.  Both the House Education Policy Committee and its counterpart, the Senate Education Committee, plan to unveil their omnibus education policy bills, mark them up and pass them out of committee this week.  The House Tax Committee will unveil its omnibus tax bill on Thursday. Senator Rod Skoe, chair of the Senate Tax Committee, told MPR that this week he plans to unveil the omnibus tax bill, pass it out of committee and pass it on the Senate floor on Friday.  The other omnibus budget bills, including the Senate E-12 Education Budget bill and the House Education Finance bill, are expected to be unveiled and passed out of committee the following week.

Telecommunications Equity Aid (HF 2696 / SF 2167):  Last Tuesday our bill was heard in the House Education Finance Committee.  Mary Mehsikomer and Marc Johnson did a great job of testifying.  The Senate companion will be heard in the Senate E-12 Education Budget Division this Thursday, March 20 at 8:30am.

Data Privacy:  Last week I reported that HF 2138, Rep. Mary Liz Holberg’s bill requiring government databases to be able to track the identities of users accessing confidential data and the date, time and purpose for which the access occurred, was scheduled to be heard on Wednesday, March 12.  I spoke with Rep. Holberg about the library communities’ concerns and followed up with a more detailed e-mail.  The night before the hearing she sent me a message that she was going to pull the bill from the agenda.  A big thanks to Mark Ranum, who was prepared to testify on the bill and who also provided the information that went into my detailed message to Rep. Holberg.  Rep. Holberg is retiring from the Legislature this year, so I am hopeful we will not need to confront this particular bill in the future.

The other data privacy bill is one that we support, and it is making excellent progress.  I am referring to HF 2167 / SF 1770, the bill requiring 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.  SF 1770 passed the Senate State and Local Government Committee on Wednesday afternoon and was sent to the floor.  Its House companion is already on the House floor.

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