Ewald at the Capitol - January 9, 2009

86th Legislative Session Convenes

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Ewald Government
Relations Team

Feel free to contact any member of our team:

David Ewald
651-290-6276
davide@ewald.com

Valerie Dosland
651-265-7857
valeried@ewald.com

Becca Pryse
651-265-7858
beccap@ewald.com

Bill Amberg
651-203-7251
billa@ewald.com

Eric Ewald
651-290-6266
erice@ewald.com

Nick de Julio
651-290-6286
nickd@ewald.com

John Arlandson
651-203-7252
johna@ewald.com

Key Legislative Contact Info
House Information Office
651-296-2146

Senate Information Office
651-296-0504

State Legislature Website
www.leg.mn

On Tuesday, January 6, the Minnesota State Legislature convened for the beginning of the 86th Legislative session. In the House, the 134 members were sworn into office. House members also voted for Speaker of the House, where Margaret Anderson Kelliher (D-Minneapolis) was nominated and elected to the position on a 86-42 vote. This will be Speaker Kelliher’s second session as Speaker of the House.

Senators started the third year of their four year terms by taking care of housekeeping issues. They re-elected Senator James Metzen (D-South St. Paul) as President of the Senate on a 46-18 vote. Two new members were sworn into office in late 2008 after winning special elections this fall after two Senators retired.

State of the State

On Thursday, January 15 at 12:00 noon, Governor Tim Pawlenty will deliver his State of the State Address from the Minnesota House Chamber. In a press conference earlier this week, Governor Pawlenty told the media that this year’s State of the State would focus more on policy and would highlight key directions for the State of Minnesota. The Governor will not share much detail on his budget proposal during the State of the State. Pawlenty plans to unveil his budget plan on Tuesday, January 27, 2009. He said that he is keeping much of that to himself for now as he and his team continue to assess the State’s economic situation. However, look for an Ewald at the Capitol update next week highlighting key areas of Governor Pawlenty’s State of the State Address.

Shared Services for School Districts Proposed

On January 6, Governor Pawlenty – along with chief authors Sen. Terri Bonoff (D-Minnetonka), Rep. Ryan Winkler (D-St. Louis Park) and other legislators – introduced a bipartisan proposal aimed at reducing costs for schools by requiring school districts and charter schools to combine efforts to reduce costs by pooling purchasing power. Currently, there are 340 school districts and 150 charter schools in the state. They are all entering into individual contracts for information technology, food services, supplies, operations, and transportation. Supporters hope that shared services will allow Minnesota schools to pool limited resources in order to deliver more cost-effective services for each school district and redirect savings to the classroom. Shared services are currently being used in other states, where they have seen savings of 5 percent to 15 percent. The proposal was introduced in the Senate this week.

Election Law Changes

The Senate State and Local Government Operations and Oversight Committee this week held hearings to take testimony from election officials and voting advocates on what worked and what did not work for election judges and staff on Election Day. They held a subsequent hearing on the recount and absentee voting.

Much of the testimony on Wednesday was to inform the committee about how things went on Election Day with poll operations, issues with precinct lines, concerns that arose around poll challengers and changes that election directors would like regarding the hiring election judges. The second meeting which will be held today will focus on post election issues that have been highlighted by the U.S. Senate recount. Look for an update report in next week’s edition of EAC on this meeting.

House and Senate Committee Meetings

It is that time of year again where committee rooms are bubbling with excitement and bills are moving quickly from one committee meeting to the next. Are you looking to try and stay on top of meeting schedules for a certain committee or are you wondering who serves on a certain committee? Here are a few links to help with meeting tracking as you can subscribe to committee meeting email updates:

Senate: http://www.senate.leg.state.mn.us/schedule/subscribe.php?ls=86

House: http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/list/join.asp?listname=houseschedule

Are you looking for more specific committee information? Below are a couple more links that contain specific committee information such as committee members, legislative staff, as well as the committee bill log.

Senate: http://www.senate.leg.state.mn.us/committees/index.php?ls=#header

House: http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/comm/commemlist.asp