Omnibus Transportation/Labor/Housing Finance Bill (HF 5242)
For the record, I think it is terrible that we combine so many large omnibus bills from different committees into an even larger “super-bus” bill.
The Transportation portion of this “supplemental budget bill” spends just over $85 million – most of it is from the Trunk Highway Fund which does NOT increase the deficit, and $2 million comes from the General Fund.
The Labor portion increases costs and regulations. The most concerning provisions in this section are significant changes to the classification of independent contractors for construction workers. It raises the current 9-pt. test to a new 14-pt. test and significantly raises the fines for misclassification. While willful misclassification of workers is illegal and absolutely should be punished, we should not make it more complicated to determine if a worker is an independent contractor or an employee.
The Housing portion reallocates funds from earlier housing appropriations to improve housing stability and affordability. It also authorizes the issuance of $50 million in additional Housing Infrastructure Bond (HIBs) and increases the agency bonding cap from $5 billion to $7 billion. It also creates new public corporations for rental assistance that could make housing assistance more complicated. Another concerning part of the Housing portion is that it requires landlords to accept tenants using public assistance.
I offered two amendments to this bill that would help our district:
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A43 would have taken $40 million the state has given Hennepin County for the Blue Line Light Rail Extension and give it to North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale to draw down federal funds to stabilize this safety net hospital in our community.
- You can watch my presentation of this amendment HERE.
Hennepin County has two “safety net” hospitals that serve primarily Medicare and Medicaid patients – Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) and North Memorial-Robbinsdale. Both of these hospitals are under significant financial stress because the government reimbursement rates for Medicaid and Medicare do not cover the costs of care and they do not have enough private payor patients to cross-subsize the cost of operating these hospitals. These two hospitals have nearly identical safety net populations and government payor mixes.
Hennepin County Medical Center is a government hospital and gets federal and county funding for uncompensated care – yet they are still in dire financial straits, due to the high concentration of patients on Medicare and Medicaid.
North Memorial-Robbinsdale is a non-profit hospital with nearly an identical patient mix and similarly high levels of under- or uncompensated care. In 2023, Hennepin County (the county government, not HCMC) made a two-year contract with North Memorial to pay $24 million in 2023 and 2024 to help offset the cost of uncompensated care.
Unfortunately, the County abruptly ended the contract with North Memorial-Robbinsdale in January, 2024, leaving a $24 million hole in their budget. My amendment would require the County to redirect $40 million the state has already given them for the Blue Line Extension and instead give it to North Memorial to fill the gap AND to enable them to participate in the federal Directed Payments Program, which will draw down federal funds to help offset uncompensated care.
As I’ve expressed many times before, we should not be putting good money after bad to expand the metro’s Light Rail system, when SW Light Rail is nearly $1 billion over budget, 10 years behind schedule, and still not done. We don’t have the staff to safely staff the currently Light Rail lines in operation and SW Light Rail isn’t even operational yet. Rather than having that $40 million sitting in an account for a potential future Light Rail project, we should use it NOW to stabilize one of our safety net hospitals and leverage additional federal money. Unfortunately, my amendment was defeated along mostly party-line vote, 64 in favor and 67 against. I was glad that one DFL member supported it. I will keep trying to find solutions to stabilize both HCMC and North Memorial-Robbinsdale and ensure we can take advantage of the federal funds that are available.
We should not be leaving money on the table when our safety net hospitals are struggling to stay open. People from throughout our district rely on the high-level of care that North Memorial-Robbinsdale provides in our community.
The second amendment is the A48.
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A48 Amendment would fix a hole in state law and help ensure that drivers who cause fatal crashes due to excess speed have their licenses automatically revoked. Current law only requires a driver’s license be suspended if a fatal crash involves driving under the influence of alcohol or another substance.
My amendment would require DPS/DVS to suspend the license when a peace officer certifies that there is probable cause to believe that the person committed Criminal Vehicular Homicide (CVH) or Criminal Vehicular Operation (CVO), even if there is no impairment.
This issue was brought to my attention by a family in our district whose Grandmother was killed by a driver who was not impaired by was driving in excess of 95 mph in a 45 mph just seconds before the crash that killed her. You can read more about their tragic case here.
I have been working with the family, the Dept. of Public Safety and our professional staff on this issue for several months. I know it doesn’t seem complicated, but because it involves many different sections of statute, it actually is. Unfortunately, because we didn’t get the agreed-upon language back from the Revisor before the Committee deadlines, I was not able to get the bill heard in Committee, which is why I offered it as an amendment to the larger Transportation bill.
In final discussions with the Majority Chair of the Public Safety and Transportation Committees, they agreed with the idea, but wanted to have a full hearing on it and go through the proper process, which I respect.
Chair Moller agreed to give the bill a full hearing early in session next year and also coauthored the bill to signal her support. After discussing the importance of this issue on the floor, I withdrew the amendment so it can go through the proper process next year.
Although I am disappointed we couldn’t get it over the finish line this year, good legislation often takes many years, and I want to make sure we get this right. The victim’s family is supportive of this approach and we look forward to getting a bill with strong bipartisan support next session! You can watch my floor remarks here.
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