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Legislative Session number- 85

Bill Name: SF1997

3E Relating to the organization, operation and financing of state government,
appropriating money for general legislative and administrative expenses of state
government

ARTICLE 1 - STATE GOVERNMENT APPROPRIATIONS

Providing a summary of
appropriations; appropriating money to the legislature for the senate, house of
representatives and the legislative coordinating commission (LCC) for the office
of the revisor of statutes, the legislative reference library, the office of
legislative auditor and a capitol building and capitol campus facilitated
planning process, to the governor and lieutenant governor, state auditor,
attorney general and secretary of state, to the campaign finance and public
disclosure board, to the investment board, to the office of enterprise
technology for an electronic licensing system, small agency technology
infrastructure projects, an electronic documents study and report and for grants
to counties participating in the development of the integrated financial system,
to the office of administrative hearings, to the commissioner of administration
for state facilities services for a state real property portfolio management web
enabled computer system, onetime department of public safety relocation
expenses, state and community services for the land management information
center, administrative management services for the office of grants management,
a targeted group business disparity study, the council on developmental
disabilities, the sustainable growth working group, a Washington county capital
improvements detailed grant and public broadcasting grants to noncommercial
television stations and Minnesota public radio, to the capital area
architectural and planning (CAAPB) board for decennial expenses, to the
commissioner of finance for state financial management for Northwest airlines
and city of Duluth bankruptcy counsel costs and information and management
services for the Minnesota accounting and procurement systems (MAPS), to the
commissioner of employee relations (DOER) for the center for health care
purchasing improvement and for a Minnesota state colleges and universities
(MnSCU) employee and state employee group insurance program (SEGIP) personal
health records electronic portfolio system, to the commissioner of revenue for
tax system management and accounts receivable management for an integrated tax
software package purchase and development and taxpayer assistance nonprofit
organizations grants, to the gambling control board, to the racing commission,
to the state lottery board, to the Minnesota state retirement system (MSRS), to
the Minneapolis employees retirement fund (MERF), to the teachers retirement
association (TRA), to the St. Paul teachers retirement fund, to the amateur
sports commission for an additional event development position, to the black
Minnesotans, Chicano-Latino affairs, Asian-Pacific Minnesotans and Indian
affairs councils for Becker county burial site acquisition and for a fund
transfer to the office of higher education for a Dakota/Ojibwe language
revitalization project grant and for general contingent accounts; requiring the
governor to reduce the number of deputy commissioners, assistant commissioners
and certain managerial positions; providing a balance carry forward to the next
fiscal year

ARTICLE 2 - STATE GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS

Creating and providing for
the Minnesota commission on ethnic heritage and new Americans; clarifying the
length of time executive orders of the governor are valid; establishing the
position of state poet laureate; clarifying provisions relating to secretary of
state fee charging for assumed name; imposing a temporary technology surcharge
on certain filing fees, providing for the surcharge to be deposited in the
uniform commercial code account, sunset provision; authorizing the attorney
general to assist veterans and families on public and private agency services
availability; requiring the state board of investment to file a report with the
legislative reference library on activities and work product; creating and
providing for the Minnesota commission on terrorism and disaster preparedness;
establishing in the department of administration a grants management process,
defining certain terms regarding grants, providing that data created by a
granting agency be classified as nonpublic until the publishing of a request for
proposal, providing for all responses submitted by a grantee to a request for
proposal are private until opened, providing for evaluation data as private
until the completion of the evaluation process, requiring grant recipients to
agree to administrative costs limits, specifying code of ethics applicability,
requiring commissioner conflict of interest and code of ethics policies
development; providing for violations reporting, grant agreements creation and
validity, grant administration and payments, audit, attorney general authority
and Indian (native American) tribes and bands grants; clarifying commissioner
and governor terms of office end simultaneously, requiring confirmation for a
second or subsequent term of the governor; specifying certain deposit
requirements for money received by the capital area architectural and planning
(CAAPB) board for review and planning services; modifying department of finance
budgeting revenue relevant to personal income reporting requirements, providing
department continuing appropriations under certain conditions, modifying
department provisions relating to billing procedures, leases and management
contracts, property sales and state general obligation bond proceeds by
specifying general applicability and requiring grant agreement, specifying bond
proceeds fund grant match requirements, permitting ground lease for state bond
financed property; designating the department of administration as the lead
agency to execute assistive technology act of 1998 responsibilities and
establishing and providing for the Minnesota assistive technology advisory
council; authorizing the commissioner of administration to lease space in the
Elmer L. Andersen and Orville L. Freeman buildings to state agencies and charge
rent on a space occupation basis, requiring money collected to be used to fund
future building repairs and credited to a set aside account, providing an
appropriation to the commissioner for building repairs, requiring account
abolishment and remaining balances transfer upon state building title
acquisition; removing the appropriation limit for art in state buildings;
modifying provisions relating to state procurement, allowing commissioner of
administration rulemaking authority relating to the procurement process,
authorizing the commissioner to require agencies to accept delegated
responsibility for goods and services procurement, exempting low dollar
procurements from accounting system requirement, providing for enterprise
procurements, prohibiting reverse auctions to procure engineering design
services or architectural services; requiring state agencies to consider state
employees on seniority unit layoff lists prior to contracting out previously
eliminated jobs; requiring the commissioner of administration to maintain a
website with a searchable database providing public information on state
contracts and grants, specifying database information requirements; restricting
agency call center contracting; requiring the commissioner of administration to
promote document imaging work in government agencies to be done by persons with
developmental disabilities; requiring the commissioner of administration to
designate veteran majority owned businesses as targeted group businesses for the
purpose of awarding state and metro agency procurement contracts; prohibiting
best and final offer solicitation processes from use in state procurement
building and construction contracts; defining significant individual under state
employment provisions; restricting temporary unclassified positions duration
under department of employee relations (DOER) provisions; adding legislative
employees to the state employee definition; extending the expiration date of the
Mississippi River parkway commission; authorizing the commissioner of revenue to
disclose tax return information to the commissioner of finance to prepare a
revenue forecast; requiring the commissioner of revenue to maintain a toll free
telephone tax payer (taxpayer) assistance line and to provide public notice of
nonprofit organizations grants availability; modifying cooperative associations
and nonprofit corporations registration and dissolution provisions by requiring
calendar year filings, removing secretary of state notification requirements and
requiring cooperatives to file a notice of intent to dissolve, modifying record
secretary of state filing fees under the uniform limited partnership act of
2001, requiring foreign limited partnership name change notification to the
secretary of state, clarifying uniform commercial code account use, authorizing
uniform commercial code records transmission using extensible markup language
(XML) format, requiring uniform commercial code fee deposit; allowing limited
liability companies to be placed in a representative capacity; requiring persons
signing documents to be present for notary officers and notary officers to be
present for signatures; allowing local government units to define dependent for
purposes of employees group benefits; requiring the state auditor to bill the
commissioner of revenue for tax increment financing investment and finance (TIF)
division services; allowing state representation in conciliation court by the
department of administration division of risk management without written
authorization and the electronic real estate recording task force to amend
certain standards set by the task force; increasing marriage license fees and
modifying fee disposition; extending the deadlines for state owned land sales
and the genetic information work group legislative report results; extending an
office of administrative hearings relocation appropriation; prohibiting Ford
building demolition for a time certain; requiring the chief information officer
to study how electronic data, hardware, software and media can be created,
maintained, exchanged and preserved by the state, specifying evaluation
considerations; requiring the Minnesota state colleges and
universities board of
trustees (MnSCU) in collaboration with the commissioner of employee relations to
establish an enterprise wide pilot project to provide consumer owned electronic
personal health records to MnSCU employees and to participants in the state
employees group insurance program; creating a sustainable growth working group
to identify strategies, recommendations and process for implementing state level
coordination of state and local policies, programs and regulations in areas of
housing, transportation, natural resources preservation, capital development,
economic development, sustainability and preservation of the environment;
requiring state executive branch agencies to consider using services provided by
government training services prior to outside vendor contracting; abolishing the
department of employee relations and transferring duties to the commissioner of
finance and certain other duties to the commissioners of administration and
health, authorizing the governor to transfer duties; establishing and providing
for the state budget trends study commission to complete a study on state
demographic trends implications for future state budget conditions; requiring
the commissioner of employee relations (DOER) to study and report to the
legislature by a certain date on the estimated state employee group insurance
program (SEGIP) financial impact of allowing unmarried state employees to
designate one significant individual as an employee dependent; specifying
certain reference replacement instructions to the revisor of statutes regarding
DOER; repealing provisions relating to department of finance budgeting revenues
relative to personal income, department of administration as lead agency for
people with disabilities technology, a barter agreement reporting requirement
and a professional or technical services performance evaluation, a state auditor
requirement to provide the secretary of state with a list of volunteer
firefighter relief associations, failure to appear before a notary for signature
provision and statutory fee and tax definitions

ARTICLE 3 - BEST VALUE
CONTRACTS

Relating to state government, defining best value for purposes of
construction, building, alternation, improvement and repair services; defining
vendor; modifying the acquisition authority relating to construction contracts;
requiring the commissioner of administration to establish procedures for
developing and awarding best value requests for proposals for construction
projects; authorizing the commissioner to develop a training program for best
value procurement for construction projects; adding competitive proposals to the
contract application process; specifying contract award requirements; modifying
the contract awarding process to include the issuing of request for proposal and
best value alternatives for certain contracts; permitting construction authority
contract award to lowest responsible bidder

ARTICLE 4 - ELECTIONS

Clarifying
voter residency violations; modifying certain signature requirements on
registration applications for individuals unable to write; allowing secretary of
state website voter registration for persons with state drivers licenses,
identification cards or learner permits; prohibiting compensatory award or
deprivation based on voter registration application quotas; facilitating same
day voter registration by updating certain election day registration proof of
residence requirements; removing a secretary of state requirement to provide
election judges with forms for voters signing proof of residence oaths, removing
certain requirements for oath records and residential facility list preparation
requirements and requiring residential facility employees to prove employment
with current identification cards; modifying voter registration paper form
requirements; adding military identification card numbers and passport numbers
to restricted data provisions; providing voter registration procedures for
persons moving within the state or moving out of state; providing for an
automatic voter registration for drivers license, permit and identification (ID)
card applicants, specifying secretary of state and commissioner of public safety
requirements; specifying certain testing and certification requirements by the
secretary of state, specifying registration application effective date under
certain conditions; modifying secretary of state voting history record tracking
requirement and counting rejected absentee and mail ballots for registration
purposes; simplifying the process of voting by absentee ballot; expanding
eligibility and certain ballot delivery requirements; providing for delivery of
absentee ballots to an agent of certain persons and return of ballots by an
agent; providing for ongoing delivery of absentee ballots on request without
application under certain conditions; modifying return envelope design
provisions; requiring electronic ballot marker availability in polling places;
expanding time for agent delivery of absentee ballots; modifying mail opening
and absentee ballot board and duties provisions; modifying provisions relating
to United States citizens permanently residing outside the United States;
modifying required information for ballot application; expanding the
identification numbers accepted for recording ballot applications; modifying
certain voter application challenging procedure; providing for ballots to be
sent electronically upon voter request; modifying identification information
request on the back of the ballot return envelope; authorizing county auditors
to mail replacement ballots under certain conditions; providing for the
transmission of ballots electronically, specifying ballot return procedures;
providing for the rejection of transmitted ballots under certain conditions;
authorizing the use of the state write in absentee ballot; authorizing county
auditors to establish absentee ballot boards for absentee ballots, specifying
duties of board; modifying certain duties of election judges relating to
checking voter eligibility and recording ballots; modifying provisions for the
recording of accepted and rejected ballots; providing for ballot counting in the
case of a voter voting more than once; providing for a separate record of absent
voters to be generated by the statewide registration system; authorizing the
secretary of state to use emergency powers in the event of a national or local
emergency; requiring affidavits and petitions for state offices to be filed with
the secretary of state or with the county auditor of residence; modifying
certain absent candidates affidavit of candidacy filing requirements; modifying
certain write in candidate requirements; allowing circulation of candidate
petitions; modifying the distance for the location of polling places from
precinct boundaries; providing for the appointment of election judges not
affiliated with a major political party, making appointments from furnished
lists optional, requiring a certain number of election judges to be affiliated
with different political parties; establishing a voter complaint and resolution
process; modifying the mail balloting procedures; modifying the mail balloting
procedures; requiring challengers to take an oath to abide by laws and rules
governing challengers; providing for party balance requirements to not apply to
town elections under certain conditions; providing for the cancellation of
special elections by municipalities; expanding certain municipal
filing
requirements for write in candidates; providing for cancellation of
special elections by school boards; requiring the school district clerk to
provide written notice to the county auditor and the commissioner of education
of special election cancellations; modifying certain requirements relating to
voting systems for individuals with disabilities; designating the county auditor
as the postelection review official and allowing municipal clerk designation;
modifying certain postelection additional review requirements; modifying certain
campaign financial information reporting requirements; prescribing misdemeanor
penalty for candidate failure to file a certification; exempting affidavits of
candidacy from the uniform electronic transaction act regulation; making
optional the immediate filling of office vacancies for county commissioners and
extending the time period for elections; allowing other vacancies within the
office of county commissioners to be filled by board appointment at a regular or
special meeting, specifying appointment requirements, requiring vacancy
elections to be for unexpired terms; regulating city charter petition signature;
specifying certain write in candidate written request requirements for a
hospital district office; repealing certain provisions relating to help America
vote act complaints provision, record of attempted registrations election judge
requirements, school elections use of voter registration systems, county board
general eligibility requirements experimental procedures and absentee ballot
boards absentee voter list, permanent illness or disability ballot application
and municipal clerk county auditor absentee voting procedures duties
administration

ARTICLE 5 - ELECTIONS CLARIFICATIONS

Relating to elections;
clarifying certain procedures and terminology; modifying soil and water
conservation district ballot content requirements; changing registration card to
registration application; modifying county auditor change of registration
provisions; modifying absentee ballot provisions; modifying proof of eligibility
for candidates for judicial office, county attorney and county sheriff;
modifying school district clerk ballot preparation provisions; modifying school
district combined polling places provisions; modifying certain duties of the
commissioner of public safety relating to verifying social security number voter
information
(Ch. 56, 2007 - VETO)