New Minnesota laws in effect on July 1
A plethora of new Minnesota laws, effective today (Wednesday, July 1, 2015), have been passed and handed down from legislators at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul during their regular and special sessions.
Among these new laws are the following:
* Allow organizations that serve senior citizens to be able to offer Bingo more than two times a week. Also, expanded the definition of gambling equipment to include software that supports electronic Bingo games.
* An increase of $101 million in funding to allow two-year colleges to freeze tuition for one year – and then reduce tuition by 1% the following year. The University of Minnesota received $22 million in tuition assistance, but tuition will still go up by 1.5% for resident undergraduates and 7% for students from outside the state.
* Allow for the use of medical marijuana of cannabis as prescribed by physicians.
* Additional $11.4 million to the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to hire more investigators for child pornography and human trafficking, more fingerprint and computer forensic examiners and to make needed equipment upgrades.
* Additional $6.48 million for the State of Minnesota Board of Public Defense due to concerns that public defenders have been hamstrung by high caseloads and increasingly complex court cases. The funds could cover the hiring of about 36 new public defenders. Civil legal services, which represent low-income clients in civil matters like eviction or consumer debt, will also see an additional $879,000 to help victims of domestic violence and prevent improper evictions and foreclosures.
* A funding boost to schools serving the state’s more than 19,000 Native American students, along with four tribal contract schools.
* Eased licensing requirement for some child-care programs, with K-12 non-profit programs becoming eligible for license exemptions. These programs will have to inform parents and/or legal guardians that they are not licensed or supervised by the state, and are not eligible to receive child-care assistance payments.
* Streamlined the process for Minnesota physicians who want to practice telemedicine as the state becomes a member of the interstate medical licensure compact. This will make it easier for these physicians to become licensed to perform surgeries and other medical procedures using remote control technology. Such physicians will be regulated by the states where their patients live.
* Requires foreclosure notices be published in the county where the foreclosure sale will be held. Before, the notice only had to be published in a newspaper of record. If the county doesn’t have such a newspaper, a neighboring county’s paper can carry the notice.
* Allows a 4% annual pay raise for judges and most court staff that includes funding to cover health insurance premium increases.
* Additional $1.35 million on crime victim services, including $300,000 for organizations providing “culturally-specific emergency shelter programming in St. Paul for victims of domestic abuse,” and $500,000 for sex trafficking prevention grants.
* A $250,000 grant to the state Department of Public Safety to combat the recruitment of Minnesota residents by terrorist organizations like Islamic State in Iraq and Levant.
* Ended the state’s Political Contribution Refund Program. Through this program, individuals could contribute up to $50 to state candidates and get that money refunded by the state. (This repeal could ave $8.9 million.)
* Requires drivers for Uber and Lyft (ride-sharing services) to have liability insurance. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage will also be a requirement.
* A $17.23 billion education plan from special session. Spending on K-12 and early learning programs increased by $525 million over the next two fiscal years. The bulk of new spending in the law – $346.31 million – is dedicated to a per-pupil formula increase of 2% in Fiscal Year 2016 and an additional 2% in Fiscal Year 2017 and later. Those additional investments bring per-pupil funding from $5,831 in 2015 to $6,067 by 2017. Another new law includes more than $95 million in additional funding for several existing pre-kindergarten and early learning programs that target children from low-income families.
* Smaller increases for inflation on long-term care insurance policies that attempts to make insurance more affordable. Helping older adults stay in their homes longer often requires help with personal care needs and household chores, but Medicare and health insurance do not cover these types of care. Long-term care insurance does, but it can be expensive. The annual 3% inflation rider on partnership policies will be lowered to no more than 1% per year. Policy providers with a standard of review will no longer be allowed to indiscriminately deny claims for services for which the enrollee otherwise is entitled. This disability income coverage provision applies to policies issued or renewed on or after Jan. 1, 2016.
