E Relating to the organization, operation and financing of state government, appropriating money for the legislative and executive branches ARTICLE 1 APPROPRIATIONS Appropriating money to the legislature, to the governor and lieutenant governor, to the state auditor and treasurer, to the attorney general, to the secretary of state, to the campaign finance and public disclosure, investment and capitol area architectural and planning boards, to the office of administrative hearings, to the office of strategic and long range planning for continuation of the generic environmental impact statement (GEIS) on animal agriculture and for grants to regional development commissions and to support subregional comprehensive planning by the N.M. I-35W corridor coalition, to the commissioner of administration for operations management, for the office of technology to study the unemployment insurance technology initiative project, to fund technology analyst positions, the small agency infrastructure project, CriMNet system planning, ongoing costs of the North Star II project and the Minnesota computers for schools program, for the intertechnologies group for the 911 emergency telephone system, for facilities management including pursuing litigation to recover costs associated with indoor air quality issues at the Luverne veterans home, for the office of the state archaeologist, for the developmental disabilities council, for the STAR program, for a grant to the Longville city hall district to complete construction of the ambulance building, for the state employees band and for public television and radio grants, to the commissioner of finance for state financial management and for information and management services, to the commissioner of employee relations for employee insurance and for human resources management, to the commissioner of revenue for tax system and accounts receivable management, to the adjutant general (military affairs) for training facilities management, for general support, for enlistment incentives and for emergency services, to the commissioner of veterans affairs, to the veterans of foreign wars, to the military order of the purple heart, to the disabled American veterans, to the gambling control and government innovation and cooperation boards, to the racing commission, to the board of arts for operations and services, for the grants program and for regional arts councils, to the Minnesota humanities commission, to the commissioner of finance for the payment of tort claims, to the Minnesota state retirement system (MSRS) for the legislators, constitutional officers and judges retirement plans, to the Minneapolis employees retirement fund (MERF), to the commissioner of revenue for police and fire amortization aid, from the lottery prize fund to the commissioner of human services for a grant to reconstruct project turnabout in Granite Falls, to the amateur sports commission for matching grants for after school enrichment programs and for grants to the range recreation civic center for bleacher purchase and for operation of a shooting sports program and for general contingent accounts; setting the salary percentages for certain constitutional officers, compensation council recommendations for legislators and constitutional officers not to take effect; creating the legislative work group on television coverage to make recommendations to the legislature for consolidation of legislative television services; requiring the legislative coordinating commission (LCC) to investigate and report to the legislature on the consolidation of public information services; authorizing legislative appointing authorities to work with DOER to place legislative staff on temporary assignments in state agencies; approving fee increases proposed for the office of administrative hearings by the governor; requiring the office of strategic and long range planning to prepare urban rivers sustainable development draft guidelines; requiring the appointment of a joint legislative task force to study the allocation of spaces in the state office building parking ramp and report to the legislature by a certain date; requiring the commissioner of administration and the CAAPB to investigate the possibility of locating a bookshop or gift shop in the capitol and report to the legislature by a certain date; requiring the management analysis division of the department of administration to report a plan to the legislature for operation of the amateur sports commission without a state subsidy and to conduct a study on the feasibility of collecting fees for services of the state archaeologist; authorizing the use of a certain prior appropriation to the commissioner of administration for construction of a new Guthrie theater for predesign; requiring the department of revenue to report to the legislature by certain dates on certain performance indicators and the humanities commission to develop a plan for the selection of a Minnesota poet laureate ARTICLE 2 STATE GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS Imposing a deadline for submission of budget requests from the governor to the legislature; authorizing the governor to submit revised requests for allotment of additional federal money received after approval of the original budget request, authorizing submittal by the commissioner of finance in nonurgency cases; clarifying the succession of members of the legislative commission on pensions and retirement (LCPR); requesting the legislative audit commission (LAC) to direct the legislative auditor in response to suggestions from legislators of evaluation topics to estimate the scope of and the time required to complete the proposed evaluation for evaluation decision purposes, requiring notice to the requesting legislator; providing for legislative auditor access to state agency data under certain requester access refusal conditions; requiring fiscal notes to include the assumptions used in determining the cost estimates; establishing the legislative commission on metropolitan government to oversee the operating and capital budgets and work and capital improvement programs of the metropolitan council; requiring the director of the office of strategic and long range planning to provide staff, office space and administrative support for the commission on the economic status of women; modifying the authority of the state treasurer to accept gifts on behalf of the state; clarifying the authority of state or local government unit employees to receive daily compensation for service on boards or advisory councils or committees; recodifying the provision providing for appointing authority employee salary recommendations; requiring finance department preparation of a separate technology budget book and proposed performance measures for change items in budget proposals requesting new or increased funding; creating the statewide systems account in the special revenue fund for deposit of payments for statewide systems services provided to state agencies, specifying billing procedures, sunset; regulating the deposit and distribution of proceeds from litigation or settlements; eliminating a certain published notice requirement of the commissioner of administration relating to lost or abandoned property found on state lands; modifying certain state building code provisions, providing for local government unit designation rather than appointment of building officials, requiring and providing for commissioner establishment of a code administration oversight committee and a graduated schedule of administrative actions and penalties for building code violations, requiring the imposed surcharge to equal administrative costs; modifying certain state procurement provisions, regulating organizational conflicts of interest, requiring commissioner approval and cost benefit analysis of department of transportation (DOT) contracts under certain conditions, exempting work orders from certain signature requirements, limiting barter arrangements, increasing certain contract limits under the solicitation process, expanding federal contract prepayment authority to all state agencies, authorizing district cooling agreements; requiring and providing for the commissioner of administration to prepare an inventory of technology owned or leased by state agencies; eliminating certain standards and guidelines recommendation requirements of the office of technology; requiring and providing for approval of certain state agency technology projects for appropriations purposes; requiring use of a common web page format for electronic government services; establishing a temporary technology enterprise fund and board to fund certain technology projects; requiring commissioner of employee relations (DOER) annual reports to the governor and legislature on executive branch employee salaries and benefits for long range planning and state workforce costs computation purposes and administration of the state employee combined charities campaign; eliminating certain state agency professional and technical services contracts reporting requirements; transferring the responsibility for payment of premiums required for coverage by the workers compensation reinsurance association from the state treasurer to the commissioner of employee relations; creating Northern Technology Initiative, Inc. as a public corporation and providing for governance by a board of directors; providing for Minnesota state colleges and universities board of trustees contracts with chancellors, vice chancellors or presidents containing terms and conditions of employment; clarifying the public employment mediation services petition service requirement, the composition of the state militia and the qualification requirements of the adjutant general; temporarily increasing the tuition and textbook reimbursement grant for members of the national guard, requiring an adjutant general report to the legislature by a certain date on the impact; authorizing adjutant general reconveyance of unused armory sites under certain conditions and clarifying certain payments authority; increasing the veterans educational benefit; authorizing and providing for amateur sports commission matching grants to local government units for the development of soccer fields; providing for allocation of fees charged by the commissioner of revenue under the revenue recapture setoff collection procedure; eliminating certain filing fee requirements of nonprofit corporations; modifying the validity period for lawful gambling organization premises permits and providing for second year issuance; increasing the county recorder filing fee surcharge to fund the legislative task force on electronic real estate recording; setting the monthly 911 emergency telephone service customer access line fee; requiring annual budgets of the metropolitan council to list expenditures for professional, technical and consultant services; reducing the marriage license application fee for participation in a certain number of hours of premarital education and requiring county retention of a certain amount of the reduced fee; modifying the contractors bond requirement; defining must for statutory interpretation purposes, requiring the revisor of statutes to report to the legislature by a certain date on a proposal to change the word shall to must in the statutes; extending the expiration date of the provision providing for state employee voluntary unpaid leaves of absence; requiring the settlement division of the office of administrative hearings to maintain an office in either Hennepin or Ramsey county; eliminating the requirement for progress reports by the commissioner of administration on the small agency infrastructure project; requiring and providing for the legislative auditor to prepare an accounting of Hiawatha avenue light rail transit (LRT) costs for submission to the legislature; delaying bleacher safety compliance requirements for the bleachers used for the defeat of Jesse James days in Northfield; requiring the commissioner of employee relations to convene a work group to examine the practices and progress of the local government pay equity act and report to the legislature by a certain date; requiring the office of strategic and long range planning to develop criteria for proper location of state agencies for decentralization purposes; ratifying the compensation plans approved by the legislative coordinating commission (LCC) on certain dates for administrators of MnSCU, for the heads of certain state agencies and for government engineers; specifying certain renumbering instructions to the revisor of statutes; transferring the office of citizenship and volunteer services from the department of administration to the office of the governor; repealing the requirement for the office of technology to coordinate the design, establishment, implementation and maintenance of the business license information system, arts organizations grants, public employer uniform collective bargaining agreement settlement document requirements and the authority of the commissioner of finance to issue judgment bonds for settlement of the Cambridge state bank lawsuit ARTICLE 3 VARIOUS ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS Clarifying a certain legislators retirement contributions refund provision; requiring and providing for annual calculation of the total fair market value of the Minnesota postretirement investment fund; classifying and restricting disclosure of certain beneficiary and survivor data under the first class city teachers retirement fund associations; clarifying the coverage of Minnesota state colleges and universities (MnSCU) employees under the Minnesota state retirement system or TRA and removing the exclusion of elective state officers from MSRS; providing for psychological and chiropractic examinations for MSRS permanent disability benefits eligibility purposes, modifying a certain contribution refund requirement, certain state fire marshal division disability benefits eligibility qualification requirements, the age for cessation of disability benefits and a certain provision providing for the continuation of disability benefits upon resumption of employment under the correctional employees retirement plan and the definition of average monthly salary and certain disability benefits eligibility requirements under the state troopers retirement plan; extending the time limit for remittance of amounts due the TRA after employer receipt of a payroll warrant; modifying the definition of salary and certain reporting, remittance and refund requirements and providing for the acceptance of certain rollover payments under the first class city TRAs; providing service credit eligibility for certain members of the Duluth TRA receiving temporary workers compensation benefits; providing for public pension plans lump sum postretirement payment conversions and transfer of required reserves to the Minnesota postretirement investment fund; including first class city TRAs under a certain investment business recipient disclosure requirement; modifying the definition of allowable service under the judges retirement fund; delaying the effective date of certain prior public employees retirement association (PERA) local government correctional service retirement plan modifications; repealing the exception to certain actuarial valuation requirements for the Duluth TRA ARTICLE 4 OPEN MEETING REQUIREMENT FOR LOCAL PUBLIC PENSION PLANS Expanding requirements under the open meeting law to governing bodies or committees of statewide and local public pension plans ARTICLE 5 POLICE STATE AID AMENDMENTS Qualifying American Indian tribal governments with tribal police departments exercising certain arrest powers for police state aid ARTICLE 6 GENERALIZED SERVICE CREDIT PURCHASES Expanding eligibility under the teachers retirement associations for the purchase of service credit for out of state teaching service to service with federally recognized American Indian tribes or in another country and for teaching service in private or parochial schools to service in developmental achievement centers; authorizing and providing for the purchase of TRA service credit for prior university of Minnesota teaching service and by certain Minnesota state college and university individual retirement account plan (IRAP) members, authorizing the use of supplemental retirement funds to purchase the service credit or to repay certain refunds; extending the expiration date of the general prior service credit purchase payment amount determination procedure and providing for the purchase of service credit for periods of parental or family leave; defining allowable service credit under the Minneapolis police relief association; specifying the expiration dates for certain provisions ARTICLE 7 POSTRETIREMENT HEALTH CARE INSURANCE COVERAGE Requiring and providing for the Minnesota state retirement system to establish postretirement health care savings plans to cover postretirement health care costs, providing for contributions and for reimbursement for health related expenses; requiring MSRS to establish a participant advisory committee for the plans; expanding the exceptions to the restriction on government entity contributions to supplemental pension or deferred compensation plans for contributions to the health care expense plans and to the laborers national industrial pension fund for public employees covered by collective bargaining agreements providing for coverage by the fund, limit ARTICLE 8 STATE PATROL RETIREMENT PLAN MEMBERSHIP EXPANSION Expanding state patrol retirement fund membership eligibility to licensed peace officers employed by the fugitive apprehension unit of the office of special investigations of the department of corrections and providing for the distribution of certain employee and employer contributions ARTICLE 9 PRIVATIZED PUBLIC EMPLOYEE DISABILITY COVERAGE Providing for the continuation of disability benefits under the Minnesota state retirement system (MSRS) for certain terminated university of Minnesota hospital or clinic employees and under the public employees retirement association (PERA) for certain terminated employees of privatized public medical facilities or other public employing units ARTICLE 10 PERA GENERAL MEMBERSHIP INCLUSIONS Expanding coverage under the public employees retirement association to full time employees of the Dakota county agricultural society or the Spring Lake Park fire department and excluding from PERA coverage upon election certain trades personnel employed by the city of St. Paul or independent school district 625, St. Paul and certain plumbers employed by the metropolitan airports commission (MAC), providing for member contribution refunds or deferred annuities; authorizing Dakota county to provide financial and accounting services to the metropolitan intercounty association and the county agricultural society ARTICLE 11 REMEDIAL MEASURES FOR THE PERA GENERAL FUNDING DEFICIENCY Modifying and clarifying certain public employees retirement association provisions and providing for optional PERA membership for certain public employees; modifying and clarifying the definition of allowable service and defining certain additional terms; increasing employee and employer contribution rates under the basic and coordinated programs; expanding employer reporting requirements; delaying the date for full funding of the PERA general plan; requiring the executive directors of the Minnesota state retirement system (MSRS), PERA and the teachers retirement association and the executive directors of all the TRAs to jointly prepare administrative consolidation and implementation reports respectively to the legislature by certain dates; requiring a certain report prepared by the consulting actuary retained by the legislative commission on pensions and retirement (LCPR) to include the results of a certain PERA general plan financing study ARTICLE 12 MINNESOTA STATE COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES SYSTEM RETIREMENT PROVISIONS Modifying eligibility for membership in the teachers retirement association for persons on a leave of absence to serve as employees or officers of labor organizations; providing for the transfer of certain funds from TRA to the Minnesota state colleges and universities (MnSCU) individual retirement account plan (IRAP) for certain participants ARTICLE 13 CLOSED CHARTER SCHOOL RETIREMENT CONTRIBUTIONS Requiring the legislative commission on pensions and retirement (LCPR) to study and recommend to the legislature by a certain date the appropriate mechanism for recovering unpaid member and employer retirement plan contributions from charter schools ceasing operations ARTICLE 14 LOCAL POLICE AND PAID FIRE PENSION PLANS Providing for the election of board members of the Minneapolis police relief association and for bylaw amendment referenda by mail-in ballot; providing an ad hoc postretirement adjustment for members of the Eveleth police and fire trust fund ARTICLE 15 MINNEAPOLIS FIREFIGHTERS RELIEF ASSOCIATION BENEFIT PLAN CODIFICATION AND REVISION Codifying, reorganizing and clarifying laws governing the Minneapolis firefighters relief association relating to creation of the association, the governing board, association funds and accounts, defined benefits, investment related postretirement adjustments, actuarial valuations, member contribution refunds and payments exempt from process; specifying the effect of the legislation on workers compensation and on accrued benefits and benefits payable; providing for the right of the association to reduce pensions and benefits; specifying certain reporting requirements of the finance director of the city of Minneapolis and certain books and accounts examination requirements of the state auditor; providing for the city normal cost contribution adjustment, for suspension of normal cost contributions and for amortization of unfunded obligations; repealing the local laws governing the association ARTICLE 16 VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER RELIEF ASSOCIATION PROVISIONS Requiring a certificate of insurance for volunteer firefighters relief associations hiring of consultants ARTICLE 17 ONE PERSON OR SMALL GROUP SERVICE CREDIT PURCHASES Authorizing and providing for the purchase of service credit in the teachers retirement association (TRA) by certain former employees of independent school district 11, Anoka-Hennepin and of the Hutchinson public schools, in the public employees retirement association (PERA) by certain former employees of independent school district 624, White Bear Lake and of Lac qui Parle county, by certain current employees of the Minneapolis park board and the Minneapolis employees retirement fund (MERF) and by a certain former member of the St. Paul city council, in the Minneapolis teachers retirement fund association by a certain current special education teacher at the Webster open school and in the public employees police and fire plan by a certain former police officer in the city of Brainerd and by a certain former part time constable in White Bear township ARTICLE 18 ELECTIONS Modifying certain elections provisions; modifying the provision providing for the qualification of political parties for the income tax checkoff, requiring the secretary of state to notify each political party, the commissioner of revenue and the state campaign finance and public disclosure board by a certain date of the parties qualifying for inclusion on the income tax form and property tax refund return; modifying the distribution from the general account of the state elections campaign fund and changing the certification date and requiring a repayment agreement with the board for distribution to candidates after the primary election; requiring soil and water conservation district supervisors to reside in the district; modifying the definitions of major and minor political party; specifying certain petition requirements for ballot questions; providing an affirmative defense to the charge of voting in the wrong precinct; expanding the provisions limiting local government or public meetings on precinct caucus or election days to special taxing districts; modifying certain provisions regulating absentee voting, authorizing applications for automatic receipt of ballot applications, providing for the preparation of unofficial ballots for use under certain conditions, authorizing the printing of directions for casting absentee ballots on the ballot envelope and implementing certain federal requirements for overseas voting; exempting candidates for president or vice president and presidential elector from certain affidavit of candidacy and nominating petition requirements and specifying certain write-in request requirements of candidates for president and governor; authorizing the signing of affidavits of candidacy in the presence of individuals authorized to administer oaths; changing the term chair of the election board to head election judge; requiring head election judges to serve for the entire election day or to designate a replacement; authorizing the secretary of state to develop voting instructions in languages other than English for posting in polling places; creating a voting equipment grant account for commissioner of administration grants to local government units to purchase precinct based optical scan ballot tabulation equipment, specifying certain application procedures and evaluation and approval requirements; modifying the provisions regulating automatic, optional or required recounts; modifying certain ballot preparation instructions approval requirements; requiring and providing for example primary and general election ballots; eliminating the filing requirement for town general elections conducted in March; requiring the secretary of state to license touch sensitive direct recording electronic voting systems for experimental use at an election before approval for general use, authorizing the imposition of restrictions; regulating the charging of fees for candidate participation in public parades; clarifying the provision providing for the appointment of town officers to fill vacancies (ja)