This is the site to track issues of importance to ACEC/MN on the state level. Below you will find information on current legislation, legislative tracking by our lobbyist and other legislative issues as they come up.

Legislative Tracking List for April 29, 2011

 

Legislative Wrap-up for 2011 (May 23, 2011)

As was expected almost from the beginning of the current legislative session, the legislature and governor were not able to come to agreement on a budget during the regular session, which concluded on May 23. We are now headed for a special session and possibly a government shutdown in July. Many major issues have not been finished. Most omnibus finance bills have been or are likely to be vetoed by the governor and the budget will be back to square one. Unless someone blinks, this is going to be very messy.

Some of the things we were interested in were completed by the adjournment date, but several big issues such as bonding and a Viking stadium may linger into the summer or even the fall.

Many of the issues we were tracking were policy issues and were heard late in the session. The legislature was focused on tackling the budget before dealing with policy issues, which pushed our issues to the end of the line.

ACEC/MN’s effort to get the Taxpayers Transportation Accountability Act (TTAA) eliminated, or modified to clearly exclude engineering services from this law, ran into strong opposition from the Governor’s office. It was clear to us that any legislation containing a modification to the current law would be vetoed by the Governor. We are disappointed, but not surprised, by this development, given the Governor’s campaign positions. The TTAA requires a price comparison between state employees and the private sector for services provided to Mn/DOT.

Though there has been little talk regarding a bonding bill from the Republicans, there has been some rumbling from their caucus that we might see a very limited bonding bill being used as trade with the governor. We’ll be keeping an eye out if that emerges.

Earlier in the session we brought up the specter of a possible tax on services being quietly floated as part of the budget balancing solution. This was one of the issues members brought to legislators on our Capitol Consulting Day in February and we believe they have received the message. We heard nothing to further this rumor during the regular session and at this point it would come as quite a surprise if it did come forward in a special session.

Limitation of indemnification clauses to our errors or omissions (SF387) Brown, Rest (HF390) Hoppe, Hortman

This legislation was heard and passed out of the Senate Commerce and Consumer Projection Committee. It was then referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Introduced by ACEC/MN, this bill would limit our liability to only our errors and omissions. Though we were able to work out our differences with several other interested parties, we encountered strong opposition from the American Subcontractors Association (ASA). They want the limitation of extending liability for the benefit to others to apply to them as well. If the change is made to the legislation to accommodate them, we would encounter opposition from several groups and the legislation would very likely die.

We looked at a potential modification to the bill offered by the ASA that would have eliminated the indemnification limitation but would extended the current laws protections to geotechnical and environmental services, contracts for studies and other work that does not directly lead to construction. This would not achieve the intended result of eliminating the extension of our liability to others (our ultimate goal) with the remaining language.

Ultimately after balancing whether the limited gain we might achieve with the modification to the legislation was worthwhile enough to pursue, we chose to hold back on the legislation this year and pursue passing it intact next year.

Waiver of limits of liability for negligent conduct  creates unlimited liability for all contracts (HF340, SF505)

The Senate version of this bill was withdrawn by its author and the House version of the bill was scheduled for and informational hearing and was later pulled from the agenda. Based on these actions, the bill is dead for the session. ACEC/MN opposed the legislation which makes agreements between parties to release, limit, or waive the liability for negligence void and unenforceable.

Removal of engineering standards for transportation projects (HF518, HF519)

This legislation that would have removed statewide engineering standards for transportation projects is dead for the year. There is no Senate companion bill and the House versions were not heard in committee. The bills would have eliminated the interaction of the the Mn/DOT Commissioner and an advisory committee made up of county commissioners, would allow local units of government to determine their own standards and eliminate the “complete streets” law that was passed last year.

Here are a couple pieces of legislation that did pass that should have a positive effect on our profession:

Streamlining of the Permitting Process (HF1, SF42, Chapter 4)

This bill established permitting efficiency goals for the Department of Natural Resources and the Pollution Control Agency and modified environmental review and permitting provisions. It requires the MPCA to approve or reject applications for permits within 150 days. This was one of the first bills passed at the beginning of the legislative session.

Allow local government to grant variances from city, county and town zoning controls and ordinances (HF52, SF13, Chapter 19)

This bill was introduced and passed into law. It is in response to the June 2010, Minnesota Supreme Court decision (interpreting "undue hardship" in the municipal variance statute), and an earlier decision relating to counties (interpreting the application of "practical difficulties" and "particular hardship" in the county variance statute). In the first case the court held that the city did not have authority to grant the variance if the property owner could put the property to a reasonable use without a variance (part of the "undue hardship" requirement). The court stated that the legislature would have to take action to provide a more flexible variance standard. The legislature acted and in a bi-partisan effort, the bill passed and was signed by the governor.

Provisions of interest in the Omnibus Transportation Finance and Policy bill:

Allowing the Metropolitan Council to transfer funds into operating budget

This would allow the Met Council to take monies in (or due to) the tax base revitalization account, livable communities demonstration account and the local housing incentives account and use them as operating funding.  There is also another provision that allows the Council to transfer funds for public affairs, government affairs, regional systems planning and growth strategy, and local planning assistance.

Construction Manager system established

This provision would create a third system for contracting projects for the state; in addition to design-bid-build and design-build, this would create a system under which MNDOT selects a contractor early in the process of planning, uses that contractor as an advisor and resource in the planning process, and then arranges for that contractor to execute the project.  In hearings, this system was projected to increase the speed of projects, as well as lowering the cost. 

 

Legislative wrap-up from 2010

This legislature went into a one-day special session on Monday to balance the state's budget and has gone home. With elections looming, no one wanted to come back in a few weeks to iron things out, so a compromise was hammered out at the last (or in this case, just after the last) minute. The session was pretty quiet for us compared to some years in the past. Still, we saw several successes. A bonding bill was passed (though significantly reduced in size by the governor), our indemnification initiative received a boost by coming to agreement with the Department of Administration on contract language that will clear the way for our efforts in the next session, and we were able to kill an expansion of the Taxpayers Accountability Act from beyond the borders of Mn/DOT to all state agencies.

Thanks to all the members who helped make this a successful session for us. Numerous members sent grassroots letters on the profession's behalf, many of you met with legislators and a few of you testified at hearings. Our lobbyist kept us well informed of the goings on at the capitol and we were well prepared to address issues as they came up.

There will be many new faces at the legislature next year. All house and senate seats as well as a governor's office are up for election. It will be a very different landscape and our goal now is to start preparing for the next session and strategize on how to increase our effectiveness in the coming years.

Here is a rundown on what transpired this session:

Bonding

Fairly early in the session a nearly $1 billion Bonding Bill (SF2360, HF2700) was passed by the legislature. The governor made $320 million in line item vetoes to bring it down to $680 million. There was a late effort to get a supplemental bonding bill passed, but the legislature ran out of time and it did not pass.

Jobs

An Omnibus Jobs Bill (HF2695) passed in mid session. It allows for tax credits for historic structures rehabilitation, repealed restrictions on development of the Mall of America site, establishes voluntary energy improvement financing programs for local governments, transportation infrastructure loans, qualified green building and sustainable design projects and tax increment financing districts.

Indemnification

We have come to agreement with the Department of Administration (DOA) to proposed changes in indemnification language in state contracts. The new language limits liability to only negligence-based actions and is a big move forward from the current language. We hope to see the new language in state contracts soon. Since DOA was the main opposition to our indemnification legislation (SF56, HF578) we should have a much better chance of passing it next session.

Small Wastewater Systems

We were able to quickly kill a piece of legislation (HF3433, SF3072) that came out in mid-March that would have modified requirements for the design of subsurface sewage treatment systems (SSTS) with flows less than 10,000 gallons per day. A grassroots letter writing effort by our members and members of MSPE was effective enough to get the bill pulled before it even reached a hearing. This is proof that a strong grassroots effort can affect a legislative outcome. Thanks to all the members who contacted their legislators in this effort.

Competition between State Employees and Private Sector

This final piece of legislation was introduced late and lingered until the next to the last day of the session. The "Taxpayers Accountability Act" (SF2874), required a comparison between the costs of private services (which includes consulting engineers) and state employees for contracts over $100,000. If the private service were more costly than the state employees, the state must use the state employees for the service. The legislation also required that no state employees may loose their jobs because of the contract. The legislation was similar to the Taxpayers Transportation Accountability Act that passed last year but would have affected state agencies other than Mn/DOT. Senate Majority Leader Pogemiller was behind the legislation and was pushing it on behalf of the state employee unions. The legislation was ultimately attached to the Senate Omnibus Government Finance Bill. We came close to defeating it's inclusion on the bill, but lost on a 34 to 30 vote. It then went to conference committee on the next to last day of the session were it was finally defeated. On the Senate floor vote and in the conference committee, several legislators that had been contacted by ACEC/MN members through our grassroots efforts, spoke in support of our position (even quoting word for word our alerts). In the end, it was enough to finally defeat the legislation in the conference committee. This is a great example of how effective we can be when we become actively involved in the process.

Transportation

Two policy bills passed this year. One was the 2009 bill (SF1060) and the other was this year's bill (SF2540). Notable provisions of SF2540 include: "Complete Streets" requirements; stipends for short-listed proposers even if the proposal comes in above the maximum price, but is responsive in all other aspects; a requirement that Mn/DOT convene regular meetings with DBE's to evaluate the program and recommend changes; and Mn/DOT is authorized to apply for and use alternative financing available through federal programs for a single pilot project.