Summer
2000
A Letter from the President of MN NOW
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MN NOW 2000 Legislative Wrap-up
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MN NOW 2000 Legislative Wrap-up
By Rachel Callanan
The 2000 Legislative Session proved to be much more of a roller-coaster ride than many had predicted. The session was supposed to be short and sweet since it was a bonding year, not a budget year. Instead, the session went weeks over schedule; the result of an impasse over spending the budget surplus. In the end, after a stalemate lasting several weeks, Sen. Moe, the Senate Majority Leader, proposed a three-way divide of the budget surplus which totaled $525 million. The Senate (with its DFL majority), the House (with a Republican majority), and the Governor (Independence party) were each given $175 million to use as they saw fit. Despite a lot of controversy over this three-way divide, all three agreed to the split. The House Republicans funded tax cuts with their portion; the Senate DFL funded education and other programs; and Governor Ventura's share funded a reduction in motor vehicle license tab fees.
Beyond the budget controversy, many other important issues were decided by the 2000 Legislature. To continue the roller coaster analogy, the lowest point of the session was the passage of the "Woman's Right to Know" bill. This anti-choice restriction on abortion would have created onerous and unjustifiable obstacles to women's right to choose, including a 24-hour waiting period. Despite intense lobbying efforts and a well attended pro-choice rally before the Senate vote, the bill passed in the House and the Senate. Tense days followed as Governor Ventura assessed the bill to determine whether to sign it or veto it. He finally vetoed the bill on the grounds that it allowed too much government interference with a private medical decision. This narrow victory for choice reminds us all that women's right to choose is not secure and that choice should be an important election issue in the November 2000 elections.
A high point in the session came when approximately $216 million of the state's TANF reserve was spent wisely to fund programs and services for low-income families. This spending originated in a proposal from Governor Ventura and despite some wrangling over several controversial issues (such as whether to implement 100% sanctions for MFIP participants who are out of compliance with MFIP requirements) the TANF reserve spending was passed and signed into law. The specifics of this TANF spending and the many twists and turns of other legislation that passed are summarized below.
On a personal note, I am grateful for having had the opportunity, as Legislative Coordinator, to work on behalf on MN NOW on all of these important issues. Because of my new job as Policy Advocate for Minnesota Housing Partnership and because my family would like to see more of me, I decided not to run for Legislative Coordinator this year. Kathy Murphy, Legislative Committee Chair for the 2000 session, was elected to that position at the MN NOW State Conference. I plan to continue working with her and others on the Legislative Committee next year.
Choice issues will be covered in the fall issue of MN NOW Times.
TANF Reserve Spending
The 2000 Legislature wisely spent $216 million of the TANF reserve (unspent money from Minnesota's federal welfare block grant) on a variety of programs to assist Minnesota's low-income families. Some highlights of the TANF reserve spending are summarized below:
• Affordable Housing: $55,589,000 was appropriated for affordable housing, including $30 million for the development of low-income rental housing across the state; $20 million to create a revolving loan fund for Habitat for Humanity (a nonprofit organization that works with volunteers to build housing for low-income families to purchase); and $5,589,000 to delay the implementation of the $100 housing rule for six months (the rule counts $100 of federal housing subsidy as income for families participating in MFIP which reduces their cash assistance by $100 dollars).
• Childcare: $6.415 million was appropriated for basic sliding fee childcare; $8.74 million for transition year childcare; and $9.395 million for social services childcare costs of MFIP participants.
• Employment: $53 million was appropriated for Local Intervention for Family Employment grants for counties to serve hard-to-employ MFIP participants; $500,000 was appropriated for career assistance and training for low-income women with children to enter nontraditional careers in the trades and in manual and technical occupations; and $500,000 went to fund a grant to the Southeast Asian MFIP collaborative to implement an intensive intervention transitional employment and training project for TANF-eligible immigrants and refugees.
• Health: $21 million was transferred to the Commissioner of Health to fund home visiting to families with incomes at or below 200% of federal poverty guidelines.
100% MFIP Sanction
A bill that would have increased sanctions for MFIP participants who were not in compliance with MFIP requirements WAS NOT PASSED! This legislation would have raised the current maximum sanction from 30% to 100% (complete cut-off from MFIP). The conference committee instead compromised by allowing four counties to test alternative approaches to improving MFIP compliance, including case suspension or closure.
Office of Domestic Violence and Sexual Violence Prevention
Passed and signed, this law creates an office with a director within the Department of Public Safety to focus specifically on domestic and sexual violence. The law also creates an interagency task force to coordinate and monitor how these issues are being addressed among the many agencies and programs within the state.
Changed Definition for Harassment Orders
Under this law, the definition of harassment has been changed to allow a single incident that has a "substantial adverse effect" to be the basis for a harassment order. The law formerly required multiple incidents to constitute harassment. The goal of this legislation is to give judges more discretion in the harassment cases they hear so they may throw out frivolous cases.
Domestic Abuse Civil Action
This bill was scaled back and instead of creating a separate civil cause of action for domestic abuse, the law that was enacted only extends the statute of limitations for filing a civil action for domestic abuse. A victory, nonetheless, this law extends the statute of limitations from two years to six; giving domestic abuse survivors a chance to put order back into their lives before filing a lawsuit against their abusers.
Parenting Plan Legislation
This law substantially changes custody law in the state, and despite some improvements during the legislative process, concerns remain about the effects these changes may have on families experiencing domestic violence. The law allows divorcing parents to create a parenting plan agreement, deciding such things as where the child will live or the child's religious training. This will replace custody arrangements and the term "parenting time" will replace non-custodial visitation. Child support is not considered in the parenting plan. Both parents must agree to the parenting plan and a judge must agree to the plan unless she determines it is not in the best interests of the child.
Katie's Law
Named in honor of Katie Poirer, this law stiffens laws regulating sex offenders and provides money to start up new criminal justice information systems.
Expanded Penalties for Pimps
This law makes it a felony to solicit a juvenile (under age 18) into prostitution. Previous law made it a felony if the juvenile were under 16. The law also requires a study into additional training for police officers to address prostitution.
The bias crime bill which allowed enhanced penalties for bias-motivated crimes was not passed into law.
Two healthcare bills we were monitoring this year did not advance in the legislature. The first was a maternity benefits bill that would have provided more insurance coverage for pregnant women. The second was a bill to require insurance coverage for a particular ovarian cancer screening test; this bill also included coverage for healing touch therapy.
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