AGRICULTURE AND VETERANS
The Policy committee passed veterans bills giving preferences to veteran-owned small businesses. It also passed ag bills dealing with pesticide application along railroads, classification of ag research data, and changing loan program terms.
COMMERCE & LABOR
The committee passed a bill this week (HF 866-Hosch) to create a health insurance program for all school district employees in the state.
The Labor Division passed a bill (HF 1214-Davnie) that seeks to crack down on abuses in contracts for deed and rent-to-own arrangements and it also passed a bill (HF 612-Lesch) that would require all employers in the state to offer paid sick leave to their employees. In addition is also passed a bill (HF 528-Davnie) that reforms Minnesota’s law on reverse mortgages.
EDUCATION — EARLY CHILDHOOD
The Early Childhood Committee heard the Department of Education’s policy and finance bills related to early childhood. (H.F. 1026/Slawik and H.F. 1411 (Downey).
EDUCATION — K-12 POLICY & OVERSIGHT
Under state law, in order to graduate, public high school students in the class of 2010 must score as proficient on the MCA II assessments or they must pass the GRAD exams (a subset of questions on the MCA II assessments in reading and math). There is concern that many high school students may not pass the math test and would not receive their diploma.
EDUCATION — K-12 EDUCATION FINANCE
Charter Schools — On Tuesday, the committee acted on HF 935 (Slocum). The bill represents the culmination of the House Charter School Work Group’s response to the 2008 Legislative Auditor report on charter schools.
HF 680 (Kalin, Federal stimulus funding allocated for energy programs) received a hearing and was moved to the Energy Finance Committee. The committee also heard HF 1227 (Rukavina), a bill that makes the necessary changes to Minnesota law in order to receive federal stimulus money.
HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES POLICY & OVERSIGHT
On Tuesday, the Committee passed a bill (HF 42 – Thissen) to provide 145 days of Temporary MinnesotaCare coverage to involuntarily unemployed persons. People would be eligible if they had 18 months of consecutive work history, are not eligible for COBRA, have income below 275% of poverty, and do not have access to coverage through a spouse.
PENSIONS AND RETIREMENT COMMISSION
The committee heard a proposal that would merge the Minneapolis Employee Retirement Fund (a fund that is closed to new members) with the Public Employees Retirement Association.
STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS, REFORM, TECHNOLOGY AND ELECTIONS
Government Operations passed the Early Voting Bill (HF 1113-Morgan) that would allow voters to cast an official ballot in person, without an excuse, up to 15 days before the election. The bill is an improvement on Minnesota’s current complex in-person, excuse required, absentee voting system.
TAXES
The Department of Revenue presented findings from the 2009 Tax Incidence Study to the Tax Committee which found that the tax system became even more regressive from 2004 to 2006, meaning that higher-income earners paid lower effective tax rates compared with lower-income earners. Tom Stinson underlined for the Tax Committee the historic nature of the drop in revenues that Minnesota has seen over the last 9 months. He stated that the $4.5 billion (or 13%) drop in revenue from the end of session to February is probably the largest in magnitude that Minnesota has ever seen.
For more information you can refer to the House website or click on the-pdf-file1