Legislative Update

Aid to Cities and Counties: The House version of the omnibus tax bill was made public yesterday morning. It increases local government aid to cities by $50 million and county program aid by $20 million. Like the Senate's tax bill, it does not include the Governor's proposal to impose levy limits. The House Tax Committee will consider amendments to the tax bill later today and will then pass the bill out of committee.

Omnibus Education Policy Bill (SF 3001): Last night the House passed its version of the omnibus education policy bill after six hours of debate. Much of the controversy centered around a sex education provision that was added to the bill on the floor. The bill will next go to a conference committee. Both the House and Senate versions of the bill include the establishment of a technology task force charged with establishing technology standards for K-12 schools. This would continue the work of a task force convened by the Department of Education whose members include Gary Ganje and Patrick Plant. Both versions of the bill also include a provision changing the name of the Minnesota Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped to the Minnesota Braille and Talking Book Library and allowing its advisory council to conduct meetings via telephone or other electronic means under certain conditions. The Senate version also allows ELM access for unaffiliated public libraries.

Broadband Task Force (SF 1918): The Governor has signed the bill establishing a task force to make recommendations regarding the creation of a state ultra high-speed broadband goal and a plan to implement that goal. The task force includes representatives of business, state agencies, higher education, K-12 schools and regional public libraries. The task force will be appointed by the Governor.

REAL ID: As expected, Governor Pawlenty has vetoed HF 1351, the omnibus transportation policy bill, because of his objections to a provision prohibiting Minnesota from complying with the federal REAL ID law unless the federal government funds at least 95% of the cost of compliance. The American Library Association is opposed to REAL ID. You can access the governor's veto message via this link:
http://www.governor.state.mn.us/stellent/groups/public/documents/web_content/prod008848.pdf