Panel pushes omnibus jobs and energy bill to Ways and Means

The omnibus jobs and energy bill got a quick massage Tuesday from the House Job Growth and Energy Affordability Policy and Finance Committee, which adopted nine amendments.

The committee then approved HF2209, as amended, on a 13-9 roll-call, party-line vote, sending it to the House Ways and Means Committee. Rep. Pat Garofalo (R-Farmington), committee chair, is the sponsor. The companion, SF1938, sponsored by Sen. Jeremy Miller (R-Winona), awaits action on the Senate Floor.

Rep. Pat Garofalo

The $380 million bill includes budget and policy items for several agencies, including the Department of Employment and Economic Development, Commerce Department, Department of Labor and Industry and the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board. The bill’s provisions were explained during a walk-through last week and were variously praised and pummeled during public testimony on Monday.

In a hearing that lasted a little over an hour Tuesday, the committee first adopted Garofalo’s delete-all amendment, putting the omnibus bill language into HF2209. The panel then adopted nine further amendments, including one offered by Garofalo to tweak effective dates.

An amendment offered by Rep. Dave Baker (R-Willmar) removed language that would have changed how local governments regulate small wireless facilities. Another, offered by Rep. Sandy Layman (R-Cohasset), removed a provision that would have changed the legal definition of an insurance adjuster.

Other changes the committee adopted would:

• put caps on the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency’s expenditures for administrative costs and on the agency’s number of full-time equivalent employees;
• make lead abatement measures a priority of housing rehabilitation loans for 11 months;
• allow deferred loans in addition to grants to be made throughout the Workforce Housing Development Program;
• prohibit telecommunications companies and internet service providers from collecting data on customers’ use of their services without customers’ written approval;
• require savings for retirement to be included in the state’s calculation of cost of living; and
• change proposed signage on gas pumps to list state and federal taxes separately.

Garofalo called the committee’s action “a first step.” DFLers said provisions such as the proposed caps on agency administration expenditures meant Gov. Mark Dayton would stop the bill in its tracks with a veto. “This is a poke in the eye to the governor,” said Rep. Tim Mahoney (DFL-St. Paul).