Legislative Notes for the week of April 24 - April 28, 2006

Twins Stadium Dominated Debate at the Capitol this Week

The Twins stadium was the hot issue at the capitol this week. HF2480, sponsored by Rep. Brad Finstad, R-Comfrey, was heard in the House Tax Committee, Ways and Means Committee and passed off the House floor on a vote of 76-55. The bill creates a Minnesota Ballpark Authority to build a $390 million ballpark, or $522 million with financing and infrastructure costs. The 42,000-seat, open-air ballpark would be situated on the edge of downtown Minneapolis , across from the Target Center . The bill includes raising the sales and use tax collected in Hennepin County by 0.15 percent, or approximately 3 cents per $20. The tax would continue until the county’s share of the construction expenses financed through the sale of bonds is repaid. The Twins’ contribution to the stadium includes $130 million. The Senate Tax Committee also heard the Twins stadium bill this week, along with the Vikings stadium and the University of Minnesota Gopher stadium proposals. After the committee came to an impasse on Thursday, they reconvened again today and, as of the time of this writing, still were discussing the stadiums. If the Tax Committee passes the bill, it will head next to Senate Finance.

No Action on Bonding Bill This Week

As reported last week, the House and Senate announced the bonding bill conferees; however, a conference committee did not meet this week. As a reminder, the conferees for the House are Rep. Dan Dorman , R-Albert Lea; Rep. Laura Brod, R-New Prague; Rep. Denny McNamara, R-Hastings; Rep. Bud Nornes, R-Fergus Falls ; and Rep. Alice Hausman, DFL-St. Paul. The Senate conferees are Sen. Keith Langseth, DFL-Glyndon; Sen. Wes Skoglund, DFL-Minneapolis; Sen. James Metzen, DFL-South St. Paul; Sen. Sandy Pappas, DFL-St. Paul; and Sen. Paul Koering, R-Fort Ripley. It is likely the conference committee members will meet next week to iron out the differences in the bills. With the stadiums’ debate taking center stage, it is important to continue advocating on behalf of the system’s bonding request. Stay tuned.

One Supplemental Budget Bill Emerges in House

The House Ways and Means Committee met this week and passed one large supplemental budget bill containing finance provisions from the committee omnibus bills. Included in the higher education bill is $5 million for academic programs supporting the University of Minnesota , Rochester , and $100,000 appropriated to the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Board of Trustees for systemwide veterans assistance. The bill does not include any of the policy provisions from the higher education omnibus bill, which differs greatly from the Senate bill. The Senate and House both now have one large supplemental bill instead of multiple omnibus bills. As the two bills move forward, Capitol observers anticipate how conference committee will play out.

Governor Signs Learning Tax Bill

This week, Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed HF3169, which prohibits all cities from assessing colleges and students with a learning tax. The bill is in response to a St. Paul City Council proposal that would charge higher education institutions in St. Paul an additional $25 per student to pay for city costs. Congratulations to all the students who worked hard to get this legislation passed. Students, along with Trustee Michael Boulton, were in attendance at the bill signing.

Contract Ratification Bill Moves Forward

The bill that ratifies public employee labor contracts including AFSCME, Commissioner's Plan, IFO, MAPE, MMA, MSCF, MSUAASF, Managerial Plan, MnSCU Administrators and Office of Higher Education was passed as a stand-alone bill this week by the House State Government Finance Committee. The measure originally was included in the now-stalled omnibus state government finance bill in the House. The bill has been referred to the House Rules and Legislative Administration Committee. In the Senate, the bill has passed the full body. It is important that this bill travels on its own to ensure that it makes it to the House floor.

Federal Update

Higher Education Act Reauthorization

Completion of the HEA reauthorization continues to remain elusive. Some predict that Congress will not complete the task this session, which would then require starting over from scratch in January with a new Congress. The 110 th United States Congress will convene Jan. 3, 2007, and run until Jan. 3, 2009. All members of the U.S. House of Representatives and approximately one-third of the U.S. Senators will be elected on Nov. 7, 2006.

The Association of American Universities has prepared a side-by-side comparison of H.R. 609, The College Access and Opportunity Act and S. 1614, The Higher Education Amendments Act, which can be found at:

http://www.aau.edu/education/HEA_Side_by_Side_4-18-06.pdf

There are substantial differences between the House and Senate bills and relatively few legislative days in this remaining Congress to resolve those differences.

Commission on Higher Education

The U.S. Department of Education Commission on Higher Education continues to meet.

The transcripts from the fourth meeting (April 6-7) of the Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education are posted at:

http://www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/hiedfuture/4th-meeting/index.html

The next meeting is scheduled for May 18-19 in Washington, D.C. The commission will provide a final report in August.

House Science and Math Hearing

On Wed., May 3, there will be a full House hearing on “Building American Competitiveness: Examining the Scope and Success of Existing Federal Math and Science Programs” scheduled to be Webcast at 9:30 a.m. (CST). Witnesses include Assistant Secretary Tom Luce, U.S. Department of Education Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, and Cornelia Ashby, director of Education, Workforce and Income Security at the U.S. Government Accountability Office. To view the Webcast, link to http://edworkforce.house.gov/committee/webcast.htm.