Volume 5, Issue 16 May 3, 2019
Weekly Review Video
A weekly message from your Senator
Dear Constituents and Friends,
This week the Senate spent overtime hours late into the evening and early hours of the morning to pass all major budget bills off the floor and send them to conference committee. These omnibus bills include: Jobs, Energy & Commerce; Health and Human Services; Taxes; Transportation; and E-12, respectively. Unfortunately, I was not able to vote for these bills because they include controversial policies like preemption, school vouchers , and an abortion ban. I included at the bottom of the email a side-by-side summary of the House and Senate language for your convenience. I hope to vote for these bills after conference committee with these provisions removed.
Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman, and Governor Tim Walz agreed to provide conference committees with fiscal targets on May 6. Once the budget targets are established, negotiations between the very different budget bills will begin.
As we move through the conference committee process, we will align differences in approaches for affordable health care; world-class schools for Minnesota’s children; jobs that provide good wages and benefits to support all families; and safety at home, in school, at work, and in public spaces. I will continue working with my Senate colleagues to ensure these issues remain a priority.
Please reach out to me with your priorities and what you hope to see reflected in the state’s budget this session.
Sincerely,
Melisa
Senate passes Omnibus Tax Bill
After another session of serving as a member of the Taxes Committee, the Senate version of the Omnibus Tax Bill was presented on the floor. The main piece of their bill is one that most people have been hoping for – federal tax conformity. The bill does not conform to several corporate tax changes, such as taxing foreign corporate profits, which offsets the enormous federal tax benefits Congress approved in 2017.
I did offer a version SF 1110, pre-K tax credit bill, which I co-authored as an amendment which would facilitate about 10,800 childcare professionals qualifying for a credit and benefit about 9,000 children currently enrolled in Parent Aware-rated childcare programs that the state knows about. The approach could benefit up to 20,000 families/kids, while the current tax relief for early childhood expenses in the bill – expanding eligibility for K-12 credit to include these expenses – only benefits around 3,200.
This approach is much broader and better than what is in the bill because it is tied to quality, affects more families/children, and benefits professionals working in this industry, who are typically very under-paid and difficult to retain, which is a main challenge surrounding the childcare crisis in Minnesota. The amendment was not accepted, but it may still be added in the conference committee.
Differences between the Senate and House tax bill now will be worked out in conference committee, which held its first meeting today. (SF 5)
Health and human services omnibus budget bill passes the Senate floor
The omnibus health and human services budget bill passed off the Senate floor this week.
I introduced amendments very similar to the ones I proposed in committee. The first would allow for the use of vaping raw cannabis as a delivery method. Florida and Pennsylvania are allowing it as of recently because it can reduce costs up to 50% for patients. The cost of products in the program have been a noted concern for patients in Minnesota. The other amendment modifies the qualifying conditions by expanding the conditions to include cancer, terminal illness chronic or intractable pain, and any condition for which an opiate would otherwise be prescribed. I also introduced an amendment to strike the language enacting a 20-week abortion ban because this is a budget bill and should not include policy provisions that are not directly tied to budget items.
The bill includes a number of significant funding cuts like the elimination of the child care assistance program (CCAP) after next year, cuts to MinnesotaCare benefits, and the elimination of all dental and vision care for adults on medical assistance. Without child care, many children will not get the quality care they deserve, and communities will feel the strain when parents are forced to leave the workforce. Without benefits like dental and vision, more people will use emergency rooms for care, increasing the cost of health care for everyone.
The bill does include important new funding for programs that help some Minnesotans with disabilities, but it does so by cutting services for children and families, picking winners and losers by putting caps on certain medical assistance waiver services, and limiting the number of people who qualify to receive help from a PCA.
The bill passed in a 36-28 vote and will be taken up next in conference committee. (SF 2452)
Senate omnibus transportation budget bill passes
The Senate passed a funding package for Minnesota’s transportation system this week, which is the fifth largest in the country. The bill provides no additional revenue for our roads, bridges, or transit though significant additional investments will be necessary in the coming decades. Minnesota will have at least 700,000 new residents in the next 30 years while over 50% of our roads are more than 50 years old. Minnesota’s state highways and bridges face a $6 billion funding gap over the next 10 years, and estimates suggest a $18 billion gap just to maintain current performance of our entire transportation system over the next 20 years.
The average Minnesotan spends more than $1,300 per year on additional gasoline sitting in traffic, lost time, and car repairs due to wear and tear, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. In October 2018, the ASCE graded Minnesota’s roads a D+, bridges a C, and transit a C-. The Legislature must have an honest conversation with Minnesotans on the need for additional transportation investments to deliver the infrastructure we expect and deserve moving into the conference committee process.
Passing with a vote of 40-27, the House and Senate will now work through the side-by-side comparisons of the bill to create a conference committee report. The transportation omnibus bill conference committee will likely meet in the coming days and weeks. (HF 1555)
Senate jobs, energy, and commerce bill passes
The Senate passed the omnibus jobs, energy, and commerce bill on a 43 – 24 vote this week. The jobs section of the proposal includes some investments in equity programs, provides additional resources for vocational rehabilitative services, and increases the penalties for labor trafficking.
The energy section of the bill includes numerous policy changes and a significant spend-down of the Renewable Development Account (RDA), which is funded by Xcel Energy’s ratepayers as part of a long-term agreement on storage of spent nuclear waste from the company’s nuclear power plants. RDA-funded items include: compensation awards to businesses harmed by the early closure of the Benson biomass plant, a Prairie Island “net-zero” project, a community energy transition competitive grant program, a “solar for schools” program, and an electric vehicle charging station loan program.
The bill also includes changes to the state’s Conservation Improvement Program (CIP) to benefit electric cooperatives and municipal utilities. Controversial items in the bill include placing a cap on Xcel Energy’s nuclear waste storage payments to the Renewable Development Account, removing the 100-megawatt limit on hydroelectric power for satisfying the Renewable Energy Standard, the removal of the state’s moratorium on nuclear power, and a prohibition on the use of Commerce Department funds for legal challenges involving the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline. (HF 2208)
Marital Rape Exemption Repealed
Minnesota currently has on its books a defense for criminal sexual conduct, including rape, if the victim was married to or in an ongoing voluntary sexual relationship.
That defense has been used in a number of sexual criminal conduct cases. A woman testified in multiple committees about her husband who drugged her and then filmed himself raping her while she was unconscious. He served a limited number of days incarcerated on invasion of privacy after he used the marital rape exemption as a defense.
A bill to repeal this exemption has been through the Legislature this year and was given a final vote by both the House and Senate this week. It passed unanimously in the Senate. The bill was signed by Governor Walz and will go into effect July 1, 2019. (HF 15)