An interim update from your Senator
Dear constituents and friends,
We officially finished the 2017 Legislative Session in May, but my work representing you at the Capitol continues year-round. We started off the summer meeting with constituents and businesses around the district. I visited with the Bloomington, Eden Prairie and Edina Chambers of Commerce, as well as meeting with advocacy groups within the district, such as Conservation Minnesota and the Morningside Rotary Club, and local businesses like InstyMeds. Meeting with education community leaders and the students themselves has been energizing to plan future progress in education policy. As the summer wrapped up, we headed in to the busy fall season with a successful town hall that brought together constituents and legislators alike to discuss issues important to the community.
With that, there have been many updates to report on in the realm of REAL ID, MnLARS and health care policy, the MN legislature lawsuit, and more. I have included some updates on what has been happening at the Capitol and in the district since we adjourned. As always, don’t hesitate to reach out to my office during the interim to share your thoughts with me!
Have a great Thanksgiving holiday and thank you for allowing me the honor to represent you!
Melisa
Health Care
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has issued Minnesota a waiver to operate the reinsurance program passed this session. That waiver also came with an unexpected $369 million reduction in additional federal funds used to support MinnesotaCare. Since the Affordable Care act was passed, federal funding makes up about 90% of the MinnesotaCare program and those dollars are deposited into a Basic Health Plan Trust Fund. That fund currently has enough revenue to sustain MinnesotaCare for about two years, according to the Governor’s office, but that will quickly change as a result of the two recent federal decisions.
In addition, Federal funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program expired in September. Minnesota received a short-term payment but is expected to run out of money at the end of November. This program funds 125,000 Minnesota children and 1,700 low-income pregnant women in the state.
As for MNsure, open enrollment for 2018 health plans begins Nov. 1 for the roughly 5% of Minnesotans purchasing coverage on the individual market. Consumers must purchase through MNsure to access federal tax credits that help lower their costs. You can follow the MNsure website for additional information and assistance. Minnesota’s enrollment period lasts until Jan. 14 – six weeks longer than the federal period.
REAL ID
You can fly on planes with your driver’s license or identification card until at least October 2018 thanks to a waiver granted by the federal government. After years of delays, we passed a REAL ID bill this session that did not contain any harmful anti-immigrant language and will allow Minnesotans to board domestic flights without needing additional documents like a passport. This law granted the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS) the authority to come into compliance with federal REAL ID standards, but it will take some time for that work to be completed. This Department of Human Services extension will likely provide DPS enough time to begin implementing REAL ID-compliant licenses through their new system by next fall.
REAL IDs are not yet available, but all Minnesotans can continue to board commercial airplanes and access federal facilities with their existing driver’s licenses or birth certificates. Until REAL ID-compliant licenses are available, Minnesotans can purchase enhanced driver’s licenses, or EDLs, which meet REAL ID standards. EDLs cost an additional $15 and are available at just 14 licensing stations across the state. Unlike regular driver’s licenses, EDLs can be used instead of a passport at border checkpoints between the U.S. and Canada, Mexico, and some Caribbean countries.
MN Legislature Lawsuit
As a result of Governor Dayton’s line-item veto of $32 million budgets for both the House and the Senate, a lawsuit has been filed regarding legislative funding. After the Governor appealed the trial court holding, the Supreme Court of Minnesota heard oral arguments in late August. The Minnesota Supreme Court ordered mediation between Governor Dayton and the two legislative bodies after upholding the Governor’s line-item veto power. The legislature then filed a memorandum that summarized the status of funding for both the House of Representatives and the Senate, including when the carry-forward funds would be exhausted, as long as the issue remained unresolved. To review the court documents click here.
Last Thursday, November 16, the Supreme Court released their opinion on the matter. They overturned the District Court’s ruling, upholding the Governor’s line-item veto authority. Since then, the Legislative Coordinating Commission (LCC) passed a resolution to allow both the Senate and House of Representatives to continue operations using funding from the LCC’s Carry Forward account as well as the LCC’s second year of operating budget appropriations for fiscal year 2019. Senate Majority Leader Gazelka stated his intention to bring up immediate consideration of a fiscal year 2018-2019 appropriation for the legislature when the legislative session convenes on February 20, 2018.
Puerto Rico Relief
Governor Dayton issued an executive order this month to assist with hurricane recovery in Puerto Rico. This order will direct Minnesota National Guard personnel to support relief and recovery efforts in Puerto Rico after the devastation of Hurricane Maria. There are approximately 13,000 Puerto Rican people living in Minnesota, including me. For more information on the Governor’s executive order and information on how you can help, visit the Governor’s website here.
MnLARS
The Minnesota License and Registration System (MnLARS) is a new web-based information system used to manage the Department of Driver and Vehicle Services (DVS) transactions. The system has been in development for almost 10 years (the process began in 2008).
The MnLARS system is needed to upgrade the 30 year old mainframe DVS had been using prior to the release. The system handles 1.5 million titles, 1.2 million license plates, and 4.7 million vehicle registrations every year. The old system had major security concerns, as the Legislative Auditor noted in 2001 and 2005.
At the November 15 Transportation Finance and Policy hearing, we heard from stakeholders including the Deputy Registrars and Automotive Dealers Association. These groups had new rounds of concerns about the system’s inability to perform necessary functions like transferring license plates between vehicles, or completing sales by transferring titles, and getting lien holder information from the dealership to banking institutions. There were also concerns about continued long lines for consumers, inability to meet consumers’ needs in general, lack of confidence about the accuracy of the taxes being collected, and the costs the private businesses are incurring because of the system’s faults.
Minnesota Information Technology (MNIT) announced the department engaged in conversation with a private sector vendor to do the work related to the REAL ID and Driver’s License side system rollout. This would allow a private sector firm to do the work associated with the driver’s license rollout and open up current resources to troubleshoot the vehicle services side that is having issues. MNIT committed to keeping the committee updated as the talks move forward.
Laws Effective After the 2017 Session
- Sunday liquor sales began July 2
- Economic development funding boasts $14 million in new workforce training
- Education finance law increases school funding with a 2% increase in the general formula
- Changes made to medical faculty physician licenses, removing expiration dates on licenses
- Benefits for people with autism by expanding benefits to younger people and broadening qualifying conditions.
- Increases in biennium funding provide for public post-secondary institutions
- More court funding
- State vendors must certify they don’t boycott Israel
- $1.9 billion appropriated for the construction, reconstruction and improvement of state
highways
- Allowed transfer-on-death beneficiary designation to be entered on a motor vehicle’s certificate of title
- Allowing veterans memorials anywhere in counties
- Companies can limit life insurance to beneficiaries of suspected terrorists
- Co-owners of a car can petition to get back a car seized by civil forfeiture
- Fixes made to unemployment insurance
- Ramsey County allowed to create jobs to be filled by people with intellectual and developmental disabilities who require a job coach.
- Strategic plan to end spread of HIV/AIDS orders departments determine what services, levels of care, and testing would be needed to eliminate HIV in the state.
- Post-discharge CEMT support will be available for nursing facilities and hospitals
- New telemedicine standards
- Changes to CNA training reimbursement increases access
For more information and an extensive list of laws effective since the 2017 legislative session follow these links: laws effective as of July andlaws effective as of August.