A NONPARTISAN PUBLICATION APRIL 12, 2002 ESSION VOLUME 19, NUMBER 11 Weekly SMINNESOTA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES • PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE In this issue: TOBACCO ENDOWMENT FUNDS DIGITAL TV OVERRIDE, NEW LAWS, AND MORE HF3713-HF3714 ESSION S Weekly Session Weekly is a nonpartisan publication of the Minnesota House of Representatives Public Information Office. During the 2001-2002 Legislative Session, each issue reports daily House action between Thursdays of each week, lists bill introductions and upcoming committee meeting schedules, and provides other information. The publication is a service of the Minnesota House. No fee. CONTENTS To subscribe, contact: Minnesota House of Representatives HIGHLIGHTS Public Information Office 175 State Office Building Banking • 5 Government • 7 Local Government • 11 St. Paul, MN 55155-1298 Business • 5 Health • 8 Recreation • 11 (651) 296-2146 or 1-800-657-3550 Crime • 5 Higher Education • 9 Safety • 12 TTY (651) 296-9896 Elections • 6 Housing • 9 Technology • 14 Environment • 6 Industry • 10 Transportation • 14 Director Gambling • 6 Insurance • 10 Veterans • 14 LeClair G. Lambert Game & Fish • 7 Editor/Assistant Director Michelle Kibiger Assistant Editor FEATURES Mike Cook At Issue: Technology — Now 35 years old, public broadcasting receives a Art & Production Coordinator Paul Battaglia relatively small percentage of its budget from state and federal sources. • 15 Writers People — Rep. George Cassell (R-Alexandria) is planning a run for the David Maeda, Lisa Hilton, Minnesota Senate this fall. He is leaving the House after this term, having been Sarah McKenzie, Theresa Stahl paired in the same district as Rep. Torrey Westrom (R-Elbow Lake). • 16 Chief Photographer Tom Olmscheid People — Rep. Bob Milbert (DFL-South St. Paul) will step down from his seat in the Minnesota House after 16 years in the Legislature. • 17 Photographers Andrew Von Bank, Becky Ekstam Policy — Legislators draw on a number of sources, including other states, to Office Manager find ideas for Minnesota laws. • 18 Nicole Wood Staff Assistants Christy Novak, Kelli Lin Foster Session Weekly (ISSN 1049-8176) is published weekly during the legislative session by the Min- DEPARTMENTS/RESOURCES nesota House of Representatives Public Information Office, 100 Constitution Ave., St. Paul, MN 55155-1298. Periodicals postage paid It’s a Fact: Arbor Day assets 4 Bill Introductions (HF3713 – HF3714) 22 at St. Paul, MN, and at additional mailing offices. Resources: Committee Schedule (April 15-19) 22 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Minnesota House of Representatives Reflections: State Capitol motifs 23 Session Weekly, Public Information Office, Minnesota House of Representatives, 175 State Members by Term 19 Minnesota Index: Smoking statistics 24 Office Building, 100 Constitution Ave., Governor’s Desk St. Paul, MN 55155-1298. (CH280,CH315 - CH332) 21 Printed on recycled paper which is 50% recycled, 30% post-consumer content. On the cover: A sure sign of spring are the tulips that grace the desk of Rep. Mary Murphy in the House Chamber. —Photo by Tom Olmscheid 2 April 12, 2002 IRST READING F Conference committees meet, Targeted spending House members discuss progress House, Senate plans differ on using tobacco endowment Legislative leadership and House and Sen- monies to help solve state budget deficit ate conferees have not yet reached agreement on the major issues to be resolved before the Legislature adjourns this spring. Those issues include the following: BY SARAH MCKENZIE literature, health officials emphasized the im- • Final budget balancing legislation — A defi- onferees questioned the effectiveness of portance of statewide prevention efforts as a cit of $440 million is still projected at the end of the 2002-03 biennium, despite a statewide smoking prevention campaigns way to reduce costs down the road. nearly $2 billion fix already enacted in law; CApril 5, in light of a House plan to drain During discussion of proposed health and • Construction and transportation bonding; $325 million from the state’s tobacco endow- human services spending cuts at the confer- • Anti-terrorism and response to bioterrorism ment in order to reduce the remaining pro- ence committee meeting, Rep. Kevin Goodno threats; jected budget deficit for the biennium. (R-Moorhead), a conference committee co- • Stadium plans; and • State-employee contracts. High on the list for scrutiny — Target Mar- chair, distributed song lyrics reportedly per- Conference committees continue to meet ket, the aggressive youth-led campaign to curb formed by a Chicago punk band at a Target to review differences in the House and Senate smoking among Minnesota teens, that receives Market event in October 2001. versions of bills. In fact, many of those com- a small, though visible, portion of the The Alkaline Trio lyrics, “I need a beer to wash mittees are taking public testimony, which is a endowment funds. it all away without a trace/And then I’ll drink 23 bit of a departure from the traditional nego- tiation process, though conference commit- Legislators have not yet been able to reconcile more to wipe this stupid smile off my (exple- tees are open to the public and are allowed to differences in the House and Senate budget tive) face,” prompted Goodno to ask whether take testimony. Target Market has enough Members of the House of Representatives state oversight. discussed the situation on the House floor “We’re sending incon- April 9 and expressed concern regarding when sistent messages if we tell differences will be resolved. Rep. Len Biernat (DFL-Mpls) said schedules kids ‘don’t smoke’ but the made it appear as if their work was slowing band that’s hired tells down. He asked House Majority Leader Tim them it’s OK to drink 23 Pawlenty (R-Eagan) if the House could adjourn beers,” Goodno said. by April 12. He also suggested the House Health Commissioner should recess until negotiated budget targets were established. Jan Malcolm, testifying “Why are we meeting here if we don’t have before the committee, said any targets?” Biernat said. “We seem to be spin- she was troubled by the ning our wheels here and it’s beginning to be lyrics but defended the very, very frustrating.” program, pointing to Pawlenty answered that he didn’t know when the House would adjourn. He noted that studies showing a 25 per- negotiations with Senate Majority Leader PHOTO BY TOM OLMSCHEID cent drop in teen smoking Roger Moe (DFL-Erskine) have slowed because Target Market participants from around the state rally in the Capitol rates in the past two years. Moe said he wasn’t ready to negotiate specific Rotunda March 25. The group may lose some of its funding as legislators She said Target Market spending targets, but would prefer to let both decide how to alleviate the state’s budget deficit. needs to strike a balance sides air out differences. plans, though both bodies have appointed con- between keeping teens engaged and maintain- “Your points that you raise are exactly the points that the speaker and I made to Sen. Moe ference committees to negotiate a compromise. ing adequate adult supervision of youth events. last week,” Pawlenty said. “Please know that we The House plan to plug the remaining Alana Petersen, executive director of Target have been aggressively sharing your concerns $439 million budget shortfall mainly on the Market, said she understands why the lyrics with the Senate.” endowment, which would cover about 75 per- raised concerns but questioned cutting the The Legislature has used 98 legislative days cent of the projected deficit. In addition, the group’s funding based on them. as of April 11. The Minnesota Constitution al- lows for 120 legislative days in a biennium. A House plan proposes further spending cuts for “In the future, we will certainly do further legislative day is counted any time the House the biennium, largely in the areas of health and research on the bands that play at our events,” or the Senate meets in session in either cham- human services. Petersen said. “I hope this incident does not ber. The Senate plan would keep the tobacco detract from the fact that this program is In addition, the constitution requires that endowment intact and instead raise revenues working to reduce youth smoking.” the Legislature adjourn by the first Monday after the third Saturday in May, which is to erase the remaining deficit, including a Conference committee co-chair Sen. Doug May 20 this year. 60-cent cigarette tax hike. Johnson (DFL-Tower) said he suspected that the (M. KIBIGER) While legislators pointed to examples of song was not representative of Target Market’s Target Market-sponsored events and overall work to combat teen smoking. Session Weekly 3 Target Market is funded by statewide grants drawn from interest generated by the tobacco endowment, which was created in 1999 after the state secured a $6.1 billion legal settlement with the tobacco industry. Money set aside for Arbor Day assets the endowment totaled $521 million — Publications focus on promoting the value and proper roughly 9 percent of the settlement. Under the House “phase two” budget plan, planting of woodlands to Minnesotans statewide youth anti-smoking grants would be It has been said that while other holidays a community and urban forestry law re- reduced from $17.8 million a year to look backward to some historical event, quiring several state agencies to further re- $2.3 million. Arbor Day alone looks forward, according search and provide information on suitable The cuts were included in a supplemental to a Nebraska historian. tree varieties. health and human services budget bill The custom of setting aside a special day Under the law, the departments of Agri- (HF2515), sponsored by Goodno. The House to honor and plant trees was first established culture, Natural Resources, and Children, passed the bill 72-60 on March 14.