SESSION WEEKLY 2011 SESSION WRAP-UP FRESHMEN: DON’T TRY TO KEEP THIS GROUP QUIET SESSION PHOTO ALBUM LAW AND VETOES AND MORE TO COME HF1737 - HF1761 A NONPARTISAN PUBLICATION MINNESOTA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES • PUBLIC INFORMATION SERVICES VOLUME 28, NUMBER 20 • JULY 15, 2011 Dear Readers: The Legislature adjourned May 23 and is scheduled • For information on any House committee or to reconvene for the second year of the biennium at legislative commission meetings scheduled during noon, Jan. 24, 2012. the interim, go to www.house.mn/hinfo/hinfosched. This special issue of Session Weekly provides a wrap- asp. up of all legislation considered during the final days of • To subscribe to the house schedule electronic session, including Gov. Mark Dayton’s veto actions on mailing list, go to www.house.mn/list/join. the major spending bills. asp?listname=houseschedule. Most likely there will be a special session called to • For information on interim meetings that will be resolve the budget issues, and we will continue our video-streamed online, go to www.house. mn/htv/ coverage online of the negotiation process and any schedule.asp. special session. • Subscribe to the House Public Information Services‘ To stay informed, we suggest you follow one or all of Twitter feed at twitter.com/MNHouseInfo; Facebook our online services: page at www.facebook.com/MNHouseInfo; and • Session Daily, the House electronic news source, will YouTube at www.youtube.com/user/MNHouseInfo. be updated during the interim and is accessible on To our readers currently on the Session Weekly the House home page, www.house.mn. Subscribers mailing list, your free subscription will be rolled over to to Session Daily receive e-mail alerts whenever a new next year. The first issue of Session Weekly for the 2012 article is posted. To subscribe to Session Daily, log on session is scheduled to be published Jan. 27, 2012. to www.house.mn/hinfo/sdaily.asp or call — Session Weekly staff 651-296-2146 or 800-657-3550. Contents SESSION WEEKLY Session Weekly is a nonpartisan publication of Minnesota House of Representatives FIRST READING: State of Uncertainty • 3-5 Public Information Services. Produced NEW LAWS: ‘Leo’s Law,’ ‘Hannah’s Law,’ license plates and more • 6-25 during session, it covers the previous week’s news from the House. No fee. FEATURE: Freshmen zeal for reform influences regular session agenda • 26-28 Session Weekly (ISSN 1049-8176) is published RESOURCES: Roster of House members • 29 weekly during the legislative session by Minnesota House of Representatives Public VETOES: Spending bills, cheeseburger, photo ID, abortion issues • 30-37 Information Services, 175 State Office Building, FEATURE: Pictures tell the story of the regular session • 38-41 100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55155-1298. Periodicals postage AT ISSUES: A closer look at the governor’s reaction to bills he vetoed • 42-47 paid at St. Paul, Minn., and additional offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to GOVERNOR’S DESK: Charting new laws, vetoes • 48-53 Session Weekly, House Public Information Services, 175 State Office Building, BILL INTRODUCTIONS: HF1737-HF1761 • 54 100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., RESOURCES: Follow House news online • 55 St. Paul, MN 55155-1298. MINNESOTA INDEX: Session 2011 • 56 Printed on recycled paper which is 50% recycled, 50% post-consumer content. On the cover: A view of the Capitol Rotunda looking down from the hole in the dome where the chandelier would hang. — Photo by Tom Olmscheid State of uncertainty Budget stalemate, government shutdown leave Minnesota in limbo BY NICK BUSSE he Land of 10,000 Lakes has entered uncharted waters. Twenty-two thousand state workers are unemployed, Tmillions of Minnesotans are unable to access a multitude of state services, and essential government functions like law enforcement are operating under court order. First Reading continued on page 4 July 15, 2011 Session Weekly 3 PHOTO BY TOM OlmSCHEID House Speaker Kurt Zellers recognizes Rep. Kim Norton so she can ask a question of Rep. Dean Urdahl during the May 23 floor debate of the Legacy Funding Conference Committee report. First Reading continued from page 3 Speaker Kurt Zellers (R-Maple Grove) called for budget talks. As negotiations intensified “a generational change in Minnesota.” ahead of the June 30 deadline to prevent a Such is the fallout from one of the most But the tone quickly changed when it came shutdown, they agreed to a “cone of silence” difficult and controversial legislative sessions to the state’s more than $5 billion budget gap. that prevented either side from divulging in recent memory — a session that ended Republicans said Minnesota is taxed enough details on the discussions. May 23 with no budget deal. already; that raising taxes would only weaken For weeks, reporters camped outside the The impact of Minnesota’s ongoing state the state’s sluggish economic recovery. negotiating rooms waiting for word on government shutdown is varied and wide- DFLers and Dayton argued new revenues whether progress was being made. But in reaching: state troopers are patrolling the are needed to avoid kicking thousands off the end, the cone of silence was lifted only highways, but no one can get new driver’s of health care coverage and inviting higher to announce that a shutdown was imminent. licenses. Nursing homes are open, but 26,000 property taxes and college tuition. “This is going to be, I think, one of those families are no longer receiving child care Fast forward to six months later. The moments in our state’s history we’ll look back assistance. The prisons are open, but state legislative session has come and gone without on and be very disappointed,” Zellers said. parks are not. a budget agreement. The two sides’ positions On specific budget areas such as K-12 How did we get here? are fundamentally the same as they’ve education, Dayton and the leaders made For the first time in decades, Republicans been all along. They’ve narrowed the gap significant progress toward compromise. But took control of both houses of the Legislature to $1.4 billion with their latest proposals, on the overall issue of taxation and spending, in 2011, and brought with them a zeal for but the gulf between their two respective they remained worlds apart. reining in government. DFL Gov. Mark philosophies of government is as wide as ever. From the beginning, Dayton argued Dayton wanted to “invest in the future” by Late in the evening on June 30, Dayton the state needed additional revenue, and raising new revenues for state programs, but announced the bad news. he proposed raising taxes on high-income pledged to work together with lawmakers to “I deeply regret that the last week of earners. He originally proposed $3.2 billion solve the state’s looming budget crisis in way intense negotiations… have failed to bridge in new revenues, but later revised it down that would be fair to everyone. the divide between us,” he said. to $1.8 billion. He has now reduced it to Initially, there were signs of cooperation. $1.4 billion, and says he will go no further. Dayton and the Republicans worked “I’m willing to compromise, I’m willing to together to streamline environmental No agreement meet halfway, but I’m not willing to give up permitting for businesses, and enacted an For much of June, Dayton and legislative what I believe and what I was elected by the alternative teacher licensure law that House leaders met off and on behind closed doors 4 Session Weekly July 15, 2011 people of Minnesota to do,” he said. enforcement and payments to school districts Amy Koch (R-Buffalo) heard Dayton’s Republican leaders said their proposed continue at their previous funding levels, but latest proposal: a $1-per-pack tax increase budget was already the largest in the state’s other parts of the government remain closed on cigarettes. Zellers called the governor’s history and that no new revenue would be indefinitely. proposal “very disappointing and a step needed. Zellers said the governor’s proposed Republican lawmakers have proposed backwards.” spending levels are unsustainable. passing a “lights-on” bill that would fund “We’ve made it very clear that we do not “We’re talking about runaway spending government services temporarily, and called on believe we need a tax increase to balance our that we can’t afford. And we will not saddle Dayton to call a special session for that purpose. budget,” Zellers said. our children and grandchildren with mounds Dayton called it a “publicity stunt,” and insists Dayton said the Republicans’ comments of debts, with promises for funding levels that that he will not call lawmakers back to St. Paul show they are unwilling to compromise. He will not be there in the future,” he said. until there is a global budget agreement. said he’s trying to come up with alternative Republican leaders offered to scrap their Republicans argue Dayton “threw in the ways to raise enough revenue to bridge the original plans for $200 million in tax relief towel,” to use Zellers’ words, on budget $1.4 billion gap that remains between his and put the money instead toward increased negotiations at a time when lawmakers were budget plan and theirs, but that they refuse spending. Dayton accepted that plan, but still ready and able to work. He and other every plan he offers. rejected Republican proposals to increase the Republican leaders laid the responsibility for “Once again, it’s their proposal or nothing K-12 aid payment shift and bond for future the shutdown squarely at Dayton’s feet, and at all.