Keywords: 1183, house

Keywords: 1183, house

Keywords: 1183, house

Keywords: 1187, senate, all

Keywords: 1187, senate, all

Keywords: 1187, senate, all

Summary: The Senate Transportation Finance and Policy Committee met on April 4, 2022, to continue work on the transportation omnibus bill, Senate File 1154. The committee first adopted a technical reviser’s amendment, A22-0408, and then heard a detailed walkthrough of the A37 cleanup/omnibus amendment, which adjusted appropriations and base amounts across MnDOT, DPS, Safe Routes to School, school bus camera grants, driver services, vehicle services, and other items. The amendment also added language on IIJA federal matching funds and reporting, and it was adopted. The committee then adopted the A19 amendment, which expanded the special license plate process to include Minnesota sports teams with charitable foundations, with proceeds going to those foundations. Senator Kent’s A10 amendment, which restored language directing data-security account funds to the Legislative Auditor for oversight of state data security, was supported by the bill author and adopted. Senator Kiffmeyer’s A36 amendment, adding factors to life-cycle cost analysis and related clarifications, was accepted as a friendly amendment and adopted. Senator Dibble’s A21 amendment, intended to allow shared micro-mobility facilities for bikes and scooters with sponsorship/advertising in the public right-of-way, drew questions about scope and local authority; after discussion with Minneapolis representatives and concerns that the language was too broad, Senator Dibble withdrew it for further work. Senator McEwen presented the A17 amendment to create a one-year reintegration driver’s license for certain people leaving incarceration. Testimony from U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services emphasized barriers caused by unpaid fines, suspended licenses, and the need for transportation to support employment and reentry. Senator Osmek and Chair Newman said the concept had merit but needed more work and likely belonged in another committee; Senator McEwen withdrew the amendment. Finally, Senator Johnson Stewart offered the A29 amendment, which would redirect the bill to better maximize federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funds, including transit operating support, Metro Transit funding, and guideway-related provisions; a roll call vote was requested and granted, but the transcript cuts off before the vote result is shown.

Keywords: 1187, senate, all

Summary: The Senate Health and Human Services Reform Finance and Policy Committee held its final hearing of the session on an omnibus budget bill focused largely on direct care and human services workforce funding. Chair and staff described the proposal as about $1.322 billion over three years, with most of the money devoted to rate increases for providers serving seniors and people with disabilities. Key items included higher rates for nursing facilities, PCA services, home care, homemaker services, elderly waiver services, ICF-DD facilities, non-emergency medical transportation, emergency staffing pool funding, and other ongoing supports. Members also discussed smaller grants and policy items such as residential settings closure prevention, community and recovery programs, and a TANF proposal to raise the earned income disregard in MFIP from 50% to 60% to encourage work. The chair emphasized that the bill was intended to preserve access to services and support independence, and staff noted that many amounts were placeholders or still awaiting fiscal notes. Commissioner testimony from DHS broadly supported the bill’s workforce investments, including PCA rates, emergency staffing, HCBS implementation, and MFIP changes, while also urging additional investments not included in the bill, such as child care, homelessness response, DHS modernization, licensing resources, and health care renewal processing after the public health emergency. The commissioner also said the department would continue reviewing the bill for conference committee. The chair raised concerns about the Cardinal residential care situation and broader technical assistance needs for struggling providers, noting that the department had responded quickly once alerted. Public testimony included support for the EIDBI autism benefit and requests that DHS maintain broad stakeholder input and require completed background studies before staff work with vulnerable children. Another witness supported an amendment to raise adult day treatment mental health rates, arguing that COVID disruptions, outdated reimbursement levels, and parity concerns had made the service difficult to sustain; the witness said the increase would help keep programs open at relatively low state cost. The hearing ended with discussion of the bill’s major rate components and the committee moving toward further action and conference committee negotiations.

Keywords: 1183, house

Summary: The committee heard a walkthrough of the DE2 amendment to House File 4735, which combines child care, early education, and related human services provisions. In the child care sections, the amendment expands child care assistance eligibility to certain foster and kinship caregivers, makes permanent prior waiting-list prioritization changes, raises provider reimbursement rates to the 75th percentile of the rate survey, continues stabilization grants, and creates or continues several provider-support programs including workforce development grants, the Brain Builders Bonus Program, shared services alliances, and technology grants. It also includes licensing changes, safe-sleep provisions, inspection timing technical fixes, authority for DHS to adjust ratios during emergencies, and pilot projects tied to child care regulation modernization. Fiscal staff then reviewed the spreadsheet and described the costs and funding sources, including general fund, federal CCDF, and TANF interactions. They noted a possible spreadsheet/funding adjustment to be clarified later, and one formula error affecting a total that would be corrected in an author’s amendment. The committee did not take a vote during the discussion; members were invited to ask questions, but most deferred until the end of the presentation. The early education portion of the bill was also outlined. It includes changes to Head Start, developmental screening, school aid, a new Grow Your Own early childhood educator program, expanded early childhood family education participation, and major changes to early learning scholarships, including broader eligibility and new priority groups. Additional appropriations were described for Early Head Start, mental health consultation and services, the Minnesota Children’s Museum, Reach Out and Read, and other early childhood supports. The presenters emphasized that some items were tracked across multiple budget areas and that the final numbers would be refined in a later amendment.

Keywords: 1183, house

Summary: House DFL leaders held a news conference to outline their plans to lower costs for Minnesota families, focusing on child care, housing, and health care. Rep. Jamie Long and Speaker Melissa Hortman said the goal was to direct relief to workers, families, and seniors rather than provide broad tax cuts they described as benefiting the wealthy. Tax Chair Paul Marquart highlighted the Great Start Child Care Credit, which would provide up to $3,000 per child ages 0-4, along with a $325 per-child rebate for dependents under 17 and a student loan debt subtraction. He said the tax bill would cost about $1.65 billion in the first biennium and $1.6 billion in the next, and described the package as targeted and responsible. Property Tax Division Chair Cheryl Youakim described the housing-related tax provisions, including the largest long-term investment in property tax cuts and renters’ credits in decades. She said the plan would increase the homestead credit refund, focus relief on homeowners earning roughly $21,000 to $77,000, and shift the renters’ credit from a separate August form to the April income tax return, with changes intended to reach more recipients. Rep. Esther Agbaje also discussed a first-time homebuyer down payment assistance proposal aimed at disadvantaged groups, especially BIPOC Minnesotans who have historically been excluded from homeownership opportunities. Rep. Mike Howard focused on prescription drug affordability, citing more than 1,000 Minnesotans using the state’s insulin affordability program, more than double the prior year. He said the proposal would cap copays and medical supply costs for expensive medications such as insulin, asthma drugs, and EpiPens, and support a prohibition on price gouging. Maria Anderson Lippert testified about the strain of child care, health care, and utility costs on her family and said the child care tax credit would help parents remain in the workforce. In response to questions, DFL leaders said the child care credit is modeled on the federal credit but would be more generous, that the renters’ credit changes could bring in about 120,000 additional renters, that some provisions are ongoing while others sunset after six years, and that they were not eliminating Social Security benefit taxes but would exempt incomes below $75,000. No votes were taken at the event.

Keywords: 1183, house

Summary: Committee staff walked through the budget spreadsheet and omnibus housing bill, focusing first on Article 1 appropriations for the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency. Joe Harney outlined House funding positions for the Housing Challenge Program, Housing Trust Fund rental assistance, Home Starts, Family Homelessness Prevention and Assistance, Local Housing Trust Fund grants, supportive housing, flexible financing, the Community Stabilization Program, Lead Safe Homes, and the Department of Human Rights, along with several one-time appropriations for mediation, homeownership education, first-generation homebuyers, and manufactured home lending grants. He noted a technical correction needed to ensure the Department of Human Rights appropriation remained below the related housing amount, and members asked no questions. Justin Cope then summarized the bill language in Article 2 and Article 3. Article 2 expands and creates MHFA programs, including broadening Home Starts eligibility to families with minor children, creating a Lead Safe Homes grant program, expanding housing infrastructure bond uses, authorizing up to $400 million in housing infrastructure bonds, and establishing new grant or pilot programs for naturally occurring affordable housing, supportive housing, mediation, first-generation homebuyers, manufactured home park resident ownership, and local housing trust funds. Article 3 makes technical and policy changes to MHFA law, including rehabilitation financing for accessory dwelling units, tribal housing funding, prioritizing households affected by housing disparities, removing a county sponsorship requirement for Home grants, clarifying debt ceiling and refunding bond provisions, adjusting senior housing definitions, and expanding workforce housing eligibility to counties and tribal reservations. Mary Mullen then reviewed Article 4 on landlord-tenant law. The article would add protections against housing discrimination based on public assistance, change eviction expungement rules, prohibit certain ongoing landlord fees, end 14-day termination of tenancies at will, set winter heat standards, clarify landlord entry notice rules and penalties, allow tenants to end leases for certain health reasons, restrict eviction filings while rental assistance is pending, require 14 days’ notice before nonpayment evictions and keep filings private until court order, and update procedures and filing fees for unlawful exclusion and emergency repair actions. After the walkthroughs, the chair invited questions, but none were raised.

Keywords: 1183, house

Summary: The committee received a walk-through of a DE amendment and related policy provisions for higher education funding and programs. House fiscal staff Ken Savory reviewed the spreadsheet totals and major appropriations for the Office of Higher Education, Minnesota State, and the University of Minnesota, including funding for the student parent center grant, tribal college operating expenses, state grants, underrepresented student teacher grants, teacher shortage loan repayment, emergency assistance, hunger-free campus expansion, American Indian scholarships, inclusive higher education grants, tuition-free college grants, Minnesota Reconnect, and several one-time initiatives such as addiction medicine fellowships, teacher of color scholarships, and social worker scholarships. He also outlined Minnesota State and University of Minnesota items such as campus responsiveness and stabilization, mental health awareness, basic needs support, CTE pilot expansion, reduced cost of attendance burden, safety and security, sustainability improvements, clean water planning, and green training transfers. Nathan Hopkins from House Research then explained the policy sections in Articles 2 and 3. He described changes to hunger-free campus grants to include private nonprofit institutions, new affirmative consent and sexual harassment/violence policy requirements, creation of an inclusive higher education technical assistance center and grant program, a new free college grant program for two-year institutions with a revised sliding family-income scale, changes to the state grant formula, and a new grant program for student parents or expectant parents. He also reviewed changes to American Indian scholarships, including removing a Pell eligibility requirement and increasing award caps, and noted increases to teacher shortage loan repayment amounts. Hopkins further summarized provisions requiring centralized mental health and basic needs resources, major changes to the University of Minnesota Board of Regents selection process, including new composition rules, term limits, and changes to the Regent Candidate Advisory Council, and a requirement that the Joint Legislative Committee for Regent Nomination nominate two candidates per vacancy and prohibit floor nominations. He also noted a clarification allowing private nonprofit postsecondary institutions to receive hunger-free campus grants, an expiration date for the aspiring teachers of color pilot program, a social work scholarship program, and a request that the Board of Regents amend policies so a compensated university employee can serve as a regent. No vote or final action was described in the transcript.

Keywords: 1183, house

Summary: The committee met in hybrid format, took roll, and adopted the March 31 and April 1 minutes by voice vote. Chair Mariani said the committee would hold three hearings that week and aimed to move an omnibus public safety bill by Friday, with amendments due the next day. The committee then moved House File 4608 to Ways and Means and adopted the DE2 amendment, which served as the committee’s omnibus bill vehicle. Staff walked through the DE2’s fiscal provisions, which largely funded Department of Public Safety, Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Office of Justice Programs, corrections, and related initiatives. Major items included first responder wellness, emergency management grants, portable public safety radios, violent crime reduction support, cybersecurity upgrades, Clean Slate and marijuana-penalty implementation costs, domestic violence and sexual assault intervention, youth development and juvenile justice grants, victim assistance, sex trafficking grants, missing and murdered Black girls and women and Indigenous relatives initiatives, body camera storage and grants, soft body armor grants, community intervention and policing grants, corrections programming, and public safety data infrastructure. The fiscal summary indicated about $200 million in general fund spending in fiscal years 2022-23 and $320 million in tails, plus some special revenue and fund transfers. The policy portion of the bill, drawn from several member bills and the Department of Public Safety policy bill, included changes to body-worn camera disclosure timelines, directives for corrections and sentencing agencies to prioritize public safety and human rights, victim notice requirements in civil commitment proceedings, clarification of domestic abuse funding administration, reporting requirements for the commissioner of public safety, expansion of soft body armor reimbursement to firefighters and EMS providers, hazardous materials response terminology and planning changes, creation of a public safety innovation board, a reward fund for missing and murdered Indigenous relatives, an office for missing and murdered Black women and girls, a questioned-identity process for BCA records, changes to criminal justice data access, smoke alarm terminology, and private detective training rules. No final vote on the omnibus bill itself was taken in the portion provided beyond adoption of the DE2 amendment and referral of House File 4608 to Ways and Means.

Keywords: 1187, senate, all

Summary: The committee continued work on Senate File 2673 and first considered Senator Champion’s A-52 amendment, which would fund a broader juvenile public safety approach centered on prevention, intervention, deterrence, listening sessions, and services for youth and families. Champion said the proposal was developed with county attorneys, juvenile judges, public defenders, and community members, and argued that pandemic-related service losses had left communities without enough options for young people. Senator Limmer opposed the amendment on budget grounds, saying the bill was intended to address violent crime and that the added cost was too large. A fiscal note estimated the amendment would total about $100 million over the three-year projection period, and the motion failed. The committee then took up Senator Champion’s A-53 amendment, which was described as youth intervention programming tied to YIP. After discussion, the amendment was revised to a smaller appropriation, with the final version set at $2 million in 2023 and $4 million in each of 2024 and 2025, for a total of $6 million. The committee adopted the amended A-53. Senator Marty’s A-55 amendment, which would have created an office for missing and murdered Black women and girls modeled on the existing office for missing and murdered Indigenous women/relatives, was debated but opposed by Limmer and others who said it was premature without a completed task force report and would need to go through state government. The A-55 motion failed. Senator Marty then offered the A-58 amendment, a smaller proposal related to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives that would create a reward fund and related startup support. Members discussed whether the existing office and pending task force report made the amendment premature, and concerns were raised about jurisdiction and whether the issue should be handled in another committee. Marty ultimately withdrew the A-58 amendment, saying he would continue working on it. Senator Kent then moved the A-56 amendment to increase funding for Pathways to Policing from $1 million to $3 million, citing its success in recruiting a more diverse law enforcement workforce; Limmer acknowledged the program’s value but opposed the increase because it exceeded his spending limit. After negotiation, the committee amended the proposal to $2 million and adopted the amended A-56. The transcript ends as Senator Kent begins introducing an A-57 amendment concerning survivor benefits for the family of a deceased police officer.

Keywords: 1187, senate, all

Summary: The Minnesota Senate Taxes Committee met on April 5, 2022, and first referred Senate File 4455 to the Subcommittee on Property Taxes. The committee then took Senate File 3692 off the table and began discussion of the omnibus tax bill. Chair Nelson described the bill as centered on federal tax conformity, tax relief through a reduction in the first-tier income tax rate from 5.35% to 2.8%, and a full subtraction of Social Security benefits from state tax. Committee counsel walked through the bill’s two articles, explaining the many conformity updates to federal tax law, including changes related to 529 plans, charitable deductions, student loan assistance, disaster relief, business expensing, and other federal acts, as well as estate tax changes and the Social Security subtraction. The fiscal analyst estimated the bill would reduce general fund revenue by about $3.38 billion in FY 2023 and $5.04 billion in FY 2024-25, with the rate cut accounting for the largest share of the cost. Commissioner Robert Doty of the Department of Revenue testified that the department appreciated the committee’s work but said the bill missed opportunities to target relief to lower- and middle-income Minnesotans and to expand refundable credits. He argued the bill’s main benefits would go to higher-income taxpayers, including those receiving the income tax rate cut, the Social Security subtraction, and estate tax changes, and he urged inclusion of governor-proposed expansions to the child and dependent care credit, K-12 education credit, working family credit, and homeowner property tax credit for ITIN filers. The department also said it would continue reviewing administrative issues and policy concerns. Public testimony followed from educators, including Claire Luger, a special education teacher in White Bear Lake, who criticized the bill for not addressing public education funding. She described staffing shortages, large class sizes, counselor shortages, bus cancellations, and the strain on teachers and students, arguing the legislature should invest more in schools and keep pace with inflation and the cost of living. Another educator, Dr. Kelly Pilkesbach, also testified that students are coming to school hungry, sleep deprived, and affected by trauma, and said money matters in meeting students’ needs. No votes on Senate File 3692 were taken during the portion of the meeting shown.

Keywords: 1187, senate, all

Summary: The Senate Environment and Natural Resources Finance Committee heard Senate File 4043, the annual LCCMR/Environmental Trust Fund bill, authored by Senator Westrom. The committee adopted the A2 amendment by voice vote. Senator Westrom explained that the bill is an extension and appropriation vehicle for Environmental Trust Fund projects delayed by COVID and other issues, and that it is intended to align with House action on a common LCCMR vehicle. He described the fund’s purpose as supporting projects that protect, improve, and enhance air, water, natural resources, and wildlife, and said the bill largely reflects projects that received majority support or higher rankings from the commission, including recurring efforts such as Forever Green and cover crop-related work. Staff then walked through the spreadsheet and the bill’s structure, noting that the D amendment spends $70.881 million, matching the LCCMR-recommended amount, and that the emerging issues account leaves $244,000 unspent. They identified several projects and their related Senate files, including aggregate resource mapping, leaded gasoline contamination analysis, the Living Snow Fence Program, forest data inventory, Conservation Reserve Enhancement incentives, ditch improvements and water-level control, pipeline conservation, groundwater storage recovery database, drought-killed seedling replacement, ring levees, septic system replacement, healthy soils best management, Forever Green, the Pigs Eye Landfill task force, aquaculture planning, noxious weed prevention grants, cover crop market development, a bioethanol/diesel demonstration project, and veterinary disease testing equipment. Staff also explained that projects below a certain commission threshold were not included, while some higher-ranked projects were funded at reduced levels. A separate section of the bill addressed a land-sale issue in the city of Buell, tied to a 1987 grant predating the current trust fund structure. Testimony from city and DNR representatives said the grant funded trails, fishing piers, and a beach area, while the land proposed for residential development was on a different part of the site and had not used grant funds. The DNR said it wanted to resolve the issue without creating a precedent for other old grant agreements. Members asked about the process used to select projects, and Senator Torres Ray questioned the addition of an “emerging issues” category and whether the bill altered the commission’s scoring process. Senator Westrom responded that the legislature retains final decision-making authority and that the added projects were consistent with the fund’s purpose and with past LCCMR priorities. The LCCMR director was invited to respond to the process questions as the discussion continued.