Legislative Update
Published 04-06-2009
Current Progress as of April 5, 2009
Type III Bus Bill ***HF116 / SF33***
The bill had its final passage on the Senate Floor. Yeah! And has been to its final committee in the House. There are still details that Chief Author Representative Ward is working out. As soon as that happens it goes to the floor of the House for its third and final reading and then will voted upon this week. Then it goes to the Governor’s Office. Once the Governor has the bill, he may 1) sign it and the bill becomes law 2) veto it within 3 days, or 3) not sign it and automatically becomes law. We have heard that the governor is not fully supportive of this bill. Not because he is opposed to Deaf staff driving again, but because of other portions of the bill related to drug testing. We will need you to contact the Governor’s office and ask him to sign the bill. We will let you know as soon as that happens.
Thanks to Ali Porter, Linda Mitchell, Sean Virnig and tons of you for contacting your legislators to get us this far!
Results for Deaf Kids Test Scores and Plan to Improve Education Results ***HF1212 / SF1107***
The bill is included in both the House and the Senate Education Bills. We need to wait for the conference committees to be appointed so the House and the Senate, who have two very different bills, to meet and agree upon how much money to spend and what policies need to be changed. We heard late last week that there may be what is called a “fiscal note.” That is when a legislator asks the Department of Finance how much a bill will cost. The commission will wait to see what the Department of Education (MDE) says. Our position is that this is work that MDE should be doing and it shouldn’t cost MDE anything.
Thanks to Tom Anderson, Dr. Susan Rose, JP Wilson, Jared Treichel and Joyce Daugaard for testifying.
Accessible Technology and Websites Bill ***HF1744 / SF1600***
This bill has been our hardest one so far. The bill will require the Department of Enterprise Technology to adopt the Rehabilitation Act of 1978 Section 508 and the World Wide Web Consortium Web Content Access Guidelines as standards for all software, hardware and Websites. There is money in the bill put aside for captioning of videos and meetings on state websites, video production in ASL of important issues and coordination. We have been in negotiations with the Department of Administration, the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Enterprise Technology.
Many thanks to Commissioner Dana Badgerow, Senator Ann Rest, Representative Bill Hilty, Senate Counsel Tom Bottern, Colleen Wieck and Mary Jo Nichols of the Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities and Jo Erbes and Kim Moccia of the Minnesota STAR program. Thanks to Alicia Lane-Outlaw, Sean Virnig for testifying. Thanks too to Representative Torrey Westrom for testifying on behalf of the bill. His testifmony was powerful. As a blind legislator he was able to speak to the barriers he faces because state software, hardware and web content is not accessible. What’s next? We need to go through about three more committee hearings. Will keep you posted.
Parent Guides ***HF1819 / SF1512***
A bill was introduced that will give permanent funding to Parent Guides an will add $3 to the blood spot fee that is charged each time a baby is born. About $3 is enough to support the program for a year. Trained parents provide support and unbiased information to parents with babies newly identified as deaf or hard of hearing. The bill has a fiscal note of about $140,000. We hope it passes. Their funds run out in 2010. We will let you know when the next hearing is held.
Nonprofit Tax Exemption ***HF872 / SF0751***
SF 0751 was heard in the Senate Tax Committee’s Property Tax Division on Wednesday, March 25th. We were pleased to hear Senator and Division Chair Rod Skoe introduced the legislation as a “consensus bill,” and similar to its companion bill’s hearing in the House, representatives from MCN, the Department of Revenue, and the Minnesota Association of Assessing Officers all testified on behalf of SF 0751, as well as the bill’s chief author Senator and Assistant Majority Leader Tarryl Clark.
HF 872 had its first hearing in the Property and Local Sales Tax Division Committee on Wednesday, March 4, where Representative and chief author Paul Marquart testified, along with Marcia Avner and Rinal Ray of MCN, John Hagen from the Department of Revenue, and Thomas May of the Minnesota Association of Assessing Officers. Their testimony underscored the arduous negotiating process which led to the current bill, the language of which all parties have agreed to. The bill will next be heard as part of the committee’s division report before the full House Tax Committee. See the news page for coverage of the hearing.
