Bonding
The House Ways and Means committee took up the House’s $825 million bonding bill this morning, which includes $123 million for Minnesota State. Bill author Rep. Dean Urdahl, R-Grove City, presented the bill to the committee. Rep. Alice Hausman, DFL-St. Paul, said that if by chance more money becomes available for bonding, she would hope lawmakers would put that funding toward higher education asset preservation. After much discussion, the committee passed the bill and sent it to the House floor. The Senate has not yet released their bonding bill.
Supplemental budget conferees meet
A conference committee of House and Senate members appointed to work through the differences in the supplemental budget bills met for the first time yesterday, and staff walked conferees and the public through the funding in nine
spreadsheets that summarize
the bill’s (
HF4099
/
SF3656
) financial impact. The higher education fiscal impact in both the Senate and House bills can be found at:
Higher Education
As shared earlier, below are the conferees assigned to work through the differences in the bills.
Senate:
Senator Julie Rosen, R-Vernon City
Senator Michelle Benson, R-Ham Lake
Senator Mary Kiffmeyer, R-Big Lake
Senator Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove
Senator Scott Newman, R-Hutchinson
House:
Rep. Jim Knoblach, R-St. Cloud
Rep. Jenifer Loon, R-Eden Prairie
Rep. Pat Garafalo, R-Farmington
Rep. Paul Torkelson, R-Hanska
Rep. Gene Pelowski, DFL-Winona
With just 12 days remaining, legislative leaders and Governor Mark Dayton will work to negotiate a successful end to the session. The major pieces of legislation left to negotiate include bonding, supplemental budget and taxes.
The supplemental budget conference committee will meet again today at 3:00 p.m. to review bill language.
Pension bill movement in House
The House Government Operations and Elections Policy committee unanimously passed the omnibus retirement bill Monday and referred it to the House State Government Finance committee where it will be heard Friday morning.
The bill takes steps to address the state’s unfunded pension liability and spends $27 million this year. Specifically, the bill includes a postponement and reduction in cost of living adjustment increases, a reduction in actuarial assumptions from 8% and 8.5% to 7.5%, increases in employer and employee contributions, and direct state aid funding – all of which would result in Minnesota’s public plans being 85-95% funded by the end of the amortization period in 30 years.
The legislation is a result of years of work by many. The Senate unanimously passed the bill off the floor by a vote of 66-0 back in March. Governor Dayton has also included a pension bill in his top priorities for this legislative session.
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This Week at the Capitol
Wednesday, May 9
8:00 a.m.
House Ways and Means
Room: 200 State Office Building
Chair: Rep. Jim Knoblach
Agenda: HF3424 (Johnson C.): Lease provisions modified, public land sale requirements modified, state park and forest additions and deletions provided, mixed uses authorized, and state land sales and conveyances of interest provided.
HF4404 (Urdahl): Public land and building improvement spending authorized, previous appropriations modified, new programs established, existing programs modified, bonds issued, and money appropriated will be heard pending referral to the Ways and Means Committee.
8:30 a.m.
Senate Taxes
Room: 15 Capitol
Chair: Sen. Roger C. Chamberlain
Agenda:
S.F. 2454-Ingebrigtsen: Perham local sales and use tax authorization.
S.F. 1883-Relph: St. Cloud food and beverage and lodging tax rate increase authorization.
S.F. 2603-Simonson: Duluth sales and use tax authority modification.
S.F. 3485-Bakk: Two Harbors local option sales tax authority modification.
10:00 a.m.
House in Session
Calendar for the Day:
HF368 (Bliss) Assignment of military pay or benefits prohibited, and remedies provided.
SF2692 (Howe) National Guard members provided access to information regarding state-sponsored life insurance program.
HF3199 (Poston) Military code scope clarified.
SF3004 (Lueck) Secretary of state directed to collect veteran status data from applications for appointments to state agencies, boards, councils, commissions, and task forces.
HF3750 (Franke) GI Bill statutory language recodified, and technical changes made.
SF1703 (Poston) July 16 designated as Atomic Veterans Day.
SF3262 (Bliss) Purple Heart City or Purple Heart County designation authorized.
10:30 a.m.
Senate in Session
2:30 p.m.
Senate State Government Finance and Policy and Elections
Room: 1150 Minnesota Senate Bldg.
Chair: Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer
Agenda: Campaign Finance and Public Disclose Board confirmation hearing:
Peggy Leppik: Republican
Gary Haugen: Republican
Robert Moilanen: DFL
Daniel Rosen: Republican
Stephen Swanson: DFL
3:00 p.m.
Omnibus Tax Bill Conference Committee
Room: 15 Capitol
Chair: Rep. Greg Davids and Sen. Roger Chamberlain
Agenda: HF4385 (Davids): Omnibus tax bill
3:00 p.m.
Omnibus Supplemental Budget conference committee
Room: 1200 Senate Building
Chairs: Rep. Jim Knoblach and Sen. Julie Rosen
Agenda: Review bill language
Thursday, May 10
8:00 a.m.
House Ways and Means
Room: 200 State Office Building
Chair: Rep. Jim Knoblach
Agenda: HF4437 (Torkelson): State general sales tax revenue related to motor vehicle repair and replacement parts allocated exclusively to fund roads, conforming and technical changes made, and constitutional amendment proposed
HF1180 (Uglem): Hands free cell phone use while driving mandated
10:30 a.m.
Joint Convention of the House of Representatives and Senate
Agenda: University of Minnesota Regent Selection
Friday, May 11
9:00 a.m.
House State Government Finance
Room: 10 State Office Building
Chair: Rep. Sarah Anderson
Agenda: SF2620 (Tim O'Driscoll): Minnesota statewide and major local public employee retirement plan benefit and contribution changes made, and money appropriated.
