Final Legislative Update - June 2009
Published 07-28-2009
Thanks to Your Advocacy Efforts, All the Bills that you Asked us to Initiate or Support Passed by the Legislature and Signed by the Governor. Funding Cuts to Programs for Deaf, Hard of Hearing and DeafBlind Minimal.
1) Type III Bus Bill (HF 116 / SF 33) Passed and Signed by the Governor on 4/23/09. Last year a bill was passed that had the unintended consequence of barring school staff members that are deaf and hard of hearing from driving Type III vehicles (minivans). Staff members who are deaf and hard of hearing were unable to drive students to off campus activities (sports, job placements). This was demeaning to staff and disruptive to schools. Chief authors Rep. John Ward and Senator Rick Olseen advocated to change the law so deaf and hard of hearing staff could drive again. The new revised law went into effect April 24, 2009. Thanks to Senator Olseen and Representative Ward. Thanks to Alison Porter (who just received the MADC Frank Turk Youth Award for her advocacy and volunteerism), Tom Anderson, Linda Mitchell and Sean Virnig for testifying.
2) Accessible Technology Bill (HF 1744 / SF 1600) Passed and Signed by the Governor on 5/21/09. This new law requires that the state adopt 508 Standards and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Guidelines and establish an advisory committee that will make hardware, software, products and Websites accessible without causing an undue burden (too much cost- not technically feasible) to the state.
Gives $476,000 to the Office of Enterprise Technology (OET) to coordinate the bill; $200,000 for MCDHH to make online state web content available in ASL; and $200,000 for the legislature to caption its live streaming of legislative sessions. We used definitions of “accessible” and “accessibility” that are defined in Section 508 and the Web Content Access Guidelines Checklist
To view the final language of this bill click here Thanks to Senator Rest and Representatives Hilty and Westrom. Thanks to Alicia Lane, Christopher Bell, from American Council for the Blind and Steve Jacobsen and Jennifer Dunnam from National Federation of the Blind for testifying.
3) Deaf and Hard of Hearing Educational Outcome and Improvement Plan Report Bill (HF 1212 / SF 1107) Passed and Signed by the Governor.
The final language reads as follows:
The advisory committee for the Resource Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing shall meet periodically at least four times per year and submit an annual report to the commissioner, the education policy and finance committees of the legislature, and the Commission of Deaf, Deaf/Blind and Hard of Hearing Minnesotans.
The report must, at least:
(a) identify and report the aggregate data-based education outcomes for children with the primary disability classification of deaf and hard of hearing, consistent with the commissioner’s child count reporting practices, the commissioner’s state and local outcome data reporting system by district and region, and the school performance report cards under section 120B.36, subdivision 1; and (b) describe the implementation of a data-based plan to improve outcomes of deaf and hard of hearing children that is premised on evidence-based practices, and provide a cost estimate for ongoing implementation of the plan.
Thanks to Representative Robin Brown, Representative Mindy Greiling and Senator Wiger. Thanks to Tom Anderson, Sean Virnig, JP Wilson, Dr. Susan Rose, Patti Morelli Teachout and Joyce Daugaard for testifying.
4) Parent Guides (HF 1819 / SF 1512) Passed and Signed by the Governor. The blood spot fee that is charged by hospitals for each child that is born was increased by $5 per child to cover the cost of parent guides to provide support and unbiased information to children who are deaf and hard of hearing and to the Department of Health for administrative cost. This was one of the five EHDI bills that MCDHH advocated for in 2007. It was the only bill that did not have ongoing funding. MCDHH met with the Commissioner of Health in 2008 to ask for MDH’s support for the program and sent MDH a proposed budget for Hands and Voices. We asked for this to be a policy recommendation of the Governor in 2009. This did not happen. Lifetrack Resources contracted with Capitol Hill Associates for the session work. We are thrilled that this passed and became part of the permanent infrastructure of the EHDI delivery system. Thanks to Senator Sharon Erickson Ropes and Representative Erin Murphy.
5) MCN’s Charitable Tax Exemption Bill (HF 872 / SF 751) Passed and Signed by the Governor on Saturday 5/16/09. A bill that clarifies which nonprofits meet the standard for public charities and receive tax exempt status was passed and signed by the Governor. A lawsuit in 2007 made it unclear which nonprofits would continue to receive tax exempt status from the state. Thompson Hall, Lifetrack Resources and other nonprofits were at risk of losing their status and having to pay property and sales taxes. Nonprofits from around the state organized with the Minnesota Council of Nonprofit’s leadership and worked to get this important piece of legislation passed. To view the final language of this bill, click here
Funding Because of your advocacy efforts the governor did not recommend major cuts to the programs and the legislators supported his position. Many programs were completely eliminated. We consider ourselves to be very lucky. The governor did not unallot the following programs.
- Funding for Deaf, Hard of Hearing Services Division for deafblind, interpreting, and news captioning, down 3%.
- Minnesota Employment Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing and the VECTOR program for transition aged youth, down 3%.
- Funds for the deaf and hard of hearing program through the Youth Conservation Corp, down 4%.
- Funds to the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf, down 2%.
Congratulations everyone on a productive session. Please take time to thank the legislators listed above and your friends, neighbors and colleagues who took time to come to the capitol and lobby for the bills. Thanks to Emory Dively, Jerry Pouliot and Teika Palkans for coming to the capitol on the last few days of session to make final pleas for our bills. Thanks again to Tom Anderson for visiting the capitol weekly to make our case. Thanks to the 200 of you who came to our training and the 600 of you who came to our Lobby Day.
We are already having discussions with the Minnesota Department of Education, the Office of Enterprise Technology and the Minnesota Department of Administration to begin implementation of the bills. There will be community meetings. All of you who want to be involved with these efforts will be able to be involved. Contact Mary at mary.hartnett@state.mn.us if you are interested.
The Best to All of You—
Mary Hartnett, Cynthia Weitzel, Jamie Taylor and Kay Chiara
