Dear Friends,
The legislative session has just passed the second deadline, after which bills that have not passed all necessary policy committees are formally dead for the year. Policy committees have stopped meeting but finance committees continue. I serve on both the Health and Human Services Finance Committee and the Ways and Means Committee. As other committees wind down, Ways and Means gets busier because any bill that spends money has to pass Ways and Means. The next deadline is April 21, when the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee must act favorably on major appropriation and finance bills. For me this means the pace will continue over the next couple of weeks.
Last week, the annual LCCMR appropriations bill was in Ways and Means. In 1988, Minnesota voters approved a constitutional amendment that created the Environmental Trust Fund, and every year 40% of the net proceeds from the state lottery go into it. The constitution states that money is for “protection, conservation, preservation, and enhancement of the state’s air, water, land, fish, wildlife, and other natural resources.”
The LCCMR (Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources) is a panel of 5 senators, 5 representatives, and 7 non-elected citizens that vets project requests and recommends how the money should be allocated. This year the LCCMR recommended 65 projects for a total of $46.337 million. A bill was written to fund these projects but in the House many were changed by the time the bill got to Ways and Means. In Ways and Means, DFL legislators tried unsuccessfully to put back two of the projects. These were (1) to fund the U of M to produce statewide localized climate model projections useful for climate change planning and adaptation strategies (defeated on a party-line vote) and (2) to the U of M to develop an inexpensive, high efficiency solar energy technology using Petrovskite, a new photovoltaic material (nearly party-line vote with one DFLer—Pelowski—also voting no.)
On Wednesday, there was a hearing on HF 644, a bill to establish a statewide registration system for massage and bodywork therapists under the Board of Nursing. Judging from my email inbox, many Rochesterites are interested in this bill and a couple of them came up to speak at the hearing.
Massage and bodywork therapists are currently regulated under MN Chapter 146A, which allows practice by “alternative and natural health care practitioners” if they give patients certain disclosures—such as their training—and adhere to a code of ethics. Complaints are handled through the Minnesota Department of Health, which has the authority to revoke their right to practice. In addition, local governments also regulate these businesses through ordinances—which vary across the state.
Larger massage businesses find this inconvenient because their employees must meet the local requirements wherever they go, so they want a state-wide system of regulation.
Some municipalities are also looking for a statewide system to assure themselves that practitioners are legitimate.
For many years, lobbyists have been at the Capitol urging passage of licensing or other regulation for massage therapists, but have been blocked each time through the opposition of many small practitioners who worry that they will have to jump through expensive and irrelevant hoops or stop practicing. This year the proponents did not ask for licensure, only a system of “voluntary” registration, which they claim would not impact practitioners who choose not to use it.
In the HHS Finance Committee I offered several amendments to the bill, most importantly to bar municipalities from requiring practitioners to register with the state. The committee overwhelmingly rejected this amendment, confirming the fears of those who believe the registration would not be voluntary at all.
House Republican Budget Proposal
On Thursday, the House GOP leadership revealed their budget proposal. Of the $900 million projected budget surplus, the GOP proposes to spend a net of $2 million. In some budget areas, such as HHS and Education, the budget target is a zero. Others, such as Agriculture, will be cut. But the proposal says nothing at all about either Taxes or Transportation. We were told that’s because those bills passed the House last year and are sitting in conference committees. This essentially means that the House GOP would spend all but $2 million of the $900 million on transportation and tax cuts. The proposal also sets the size of the House Capitol Investment bill at $600 million, well under what experts say the state can afford. A Capitol Investment bill requires a 3/5ths vote each body to pass—which is 81 votes in the House—so DFL votes will be needed. It will be interesting to see which projects are included in the bill, because the requests far exceed $600 million.
As always, please contact me with your questions, comments, and concerns.
Have a good week!
Tina