2016 Legislative Session

Mar 22, 2016 9:54:47 AM

The 2016 legislative session started with a bang on March 8th. Conflict emerged immediately with the Senate Majority Leader clashing with House Republicans over the issue of extending workers’ compensation for the Iron Range. With a session that was shortened to accommodate reconstruction of the Capitol building, a great deal of work will have to be packed into three short months. Work will be intense with only short breaks for Easter and Passover. 

The bulk of the session will focus on three major priorities: the Governor’s supplemental budget, the bonding and taxes. It remains to be seen whether there will be meaningful legislation for transportation improvements contained in those bills or as a stand-alone bill - some believe that transportation could well be the fourth major priority of the 2016 session.

Of course, during the session there will be other important bills introduced and deliberated upon, some rejected, some approved. For most of those bills their immediate fate may be determined by whether they will survive the session's first committee deadline, April 1st.

Importantly for MMA, among those bills that have already been introduced and need to be acted on is the approval of the State employees' contracts. Many of you will recall last October the Joint House Senate Committee voted on a party line on approval of the contracts that had already been agreed to by the Dayton Administration and the various public employees unions, which resulted in a tied vote. Because a majority was needed to approve or reject, to remain in effect, the contracts now require an act of the legislature this session. While hearing on that bill will commence this week, the contracts approval may likely be resolved as part of the negotiations of the three major priority bills. The most intense portion of those negotiations will take place between the third committee deadline April 21st and the conclusion of the 2016 session around May 23rd.

During that time frame the session action will revolve around negotiations between the Governor and the legislative leadership of both parties largely on the three major priorities; however, other issue such as the contract approval may well become part of those discussions. We can expect that as the final negotiations proceed, the media will be focused on the ongoing trips of legislative leaders traveling up Summit Avenue to the Governor’s Mansion. Those negotiations will likely be tense, and will determine many policy matters. Failure to complete them could lead to a special legislative session. Happily, at this time conventional wisdom is that negotiations will be successfully completed and there will be no special session necessary - we will see. 

Our hope is that at the conclusion of this session in May, the State employee contracts will be approved, the State's supplemental operating and bonding budgets will be finalized and no special session will be required. The stage will then be set for a lively campaign season in which all 201 members of the Senate and House stand for election. 

Topics: Bargaining/Legislative Updates, MMA News

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