Legislative leaders shared their views at Session Priorities: (from left) Senate Majority Leader David Senjem, House Speaker Kurt Zellers, moderator Tom Hauser of KSTP-TV, House Minority Leader Paul Thissen, Senate Minority Leader Tom Bakk. Joe Swedberg (from left), Hormel Foods Corporation, moderated an exchange between Pat Shortridge (center) and Ken Martin during Minnesota Business Day at the Capitol. They are the respective chairs of the state Republican and Democratic parties. Mike Bromelkamp (left), Olsen Thielen & Co., Ltd., and Tom Hesse, Minnesota Chamber vice president of government affairs, testify at the Legislature in support of a bill to convert the sales tax refund program for capital equipment to an up-front exemption. Environmental and energy policies were center stage at this Insiders' Issue breakfast: (from left) Deputy Commissioner Bill Grant, Department of Commerce Energy Division; Commissioner Paul Aasen, Pollution Control Agency; Senator John Carlson, R-Bemidji; Senator Julie Rosen, R-Fairmont. Leadership Minnesota participants received a private audience with Governor Mark Dayton during their wrap-up session for this program year. Leadership Minnesota is exclusive to the Minnesota Chamber and provides insight into the state's changing economy and the issues that will shape its future. An industry panel addressed workforce issues at the recent Grow Minnesota! Partnership Meeting held on February 22nd in Owatonna. Pictured are Beth Dienst, Human Resources Director, Viracon, Inc.-Owatonna., Rodney Gramse, Director of Operations, MRG Tool and Die Corp. -Faribault, and Tim Wenzel, President, Winegar, Inc.-Waseca.


Twitter   LinkedIn   

2011 State Senate Voting Records

Symbol Key:
Voted with the preferred position     Voted against the preferred position
— Did Not Vote      # Was absent       * Committee Vote / Not a Committee Member       ! Not in Office

Bills:
  1. SF 40 - Alternative Teacher Licensure - Final Passage
  2. SF 40 - Alternative Teacher Licensure - Conference Committee Report
  3. HF 1 - Environmental Review and Permitting - Final Passage
  4. HF 8 - Healthy Minnesota Contribution Program - Final Passage
  5. HF 934 - K-12 Finance Omnibus bill - Final Passage
  6. SF 170 - Teacher Basic Skills Tests - Conference Committee Report
  7. SF 1199 - Prevailing Wage Modifications - Jobs and Economic Growth Committee
  8. SF 373 - Statute of Limitations - Final Passage
  9. SF 149 - Class-Action Reform - Final Passage
  10. SF 530 - Prejudgment Interest Rate Reduction - Final Passage
  11. SF 429 - Offer of Settlement - Final Passage
  12. HF 42 - 4th Personal Income Tax Bracket - Marty Amendment
  13. SF 4 - Repeal of the Nuclear Moratorium - Final passage
  14. SF 86 - Repeal of the Virtual Coal Moratorium - Final Passage
  15. SF 1197 - Omnibus Energy Bill
  16. SF 1199 - Prevailing Wage Modifications - Finance Committee
BILLS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Anderson, Ellen (DFL)
MN Senate District 66

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!
Bakk, Thomas (DFL)
MN Senate District 6		 * *
Benson, Michelle (R)
MN Senate District 49		 * *
Berglin, Linda (DFL)
MN Senate District 61		 *
Bonoff, Terri (DFL)
MN Senate District 43		 — *
Brown, David (R)
MN Senate District 16		 * *
Carlson, John (R)
MN Senate District 4		 * *
Chamberlain, Roger (R)
MN Senate District 53		 * *
Cohen, Richard (DFL)
MN Senate District 64		 *
Dahms, Gary (R)
MN Senate District 21		 * *
Daley, Theodore (R)
MN Senate District 38		 * *
DeKruif, Al (R)
MN Senate District 25		 *
Dibble, D. Scott (DFL)
MN Senate District 60		 * *
Fischbach, Michelle (R)
MN Senate District 14		 — * *
Gazelka, Paul (R)
MN Senate District 12		 * *
Gerlach, Chris (R)
MN Senate District 37		 * *
Gimse, Joe (R)
MN Senate District 13		 — * *
Goodwin, Barb (DFL)
MN Senate District 50		 — * —
Hall, Dan (R)
MN Senate District 40		 — * — *
Hann, David (R)
MN Senate District 42		 * — *
Harrington, John (DFL)
MN Senate District 67		 * — *
Higgins, Linda (DFL)
MN Senate District 58		 — *
Hoffman, Gretchen (R)
MN Senate District 10		 * *
Howe, John (R)
MN Senate District 28		 *
Ingebrigtsen, Bill (R)
MN Senate District 11		 *
Jungbauer, Michael (R)
MN Senate District 48		 * — — *
Kelash, Kenneth (DFL)
MN Senate District 63		 *
Koch, Amy (R)
MN Senate District 19		 * *
Kruse, Benjamin (R)
MN Senate District 47		 * *
Kubly, Gary (DFL)
MN Senate District 20		 — — * *
Langseth, Keith (DFL)
MN Senate District 9		 — *
Latz, Ron (DFL)
MN Senate District 44		 * *
Lillie, Ted (R)
MN Senate District 56		 *
Limmer, Warren (R)
MN Senate District 32		 * *
Lourey, Tony (DFL)
MN Senate District 8		 * *
Magnus, Doug (R)
MN Senate District 22		 — *
Marty, John (DFL)
MN Senate District 54		 * *
McGuire, MaryJo (DFL)
MN Senate District 66

!

!

!

 * —

!

 *
Metzen, James (DFL)
MN Senate District 39		 — *
Michel, Geoff (R)
MN Senate District 41		 *
Miller, Jeremy (R)
MN Senate District 31		 *
Nelson, Carla (R)
MN Senate District 30		 *
Newman, Scott (R)
MN Senate District 18		 *
Nienow, Sean (R)
MN Senate District 17		 *
Olson, Gen (R)
MN Senate District 33		 — *
Ortman, Julianne (R)
MN Senate District 34		 * *
Pappas, Sandra (DFL)
MN Senate District 65		 — * *
Parry, Mike (R)
MN Senate District 26		 — *
Pederson, John (R)
MN Senate District 15		 *
Pogemiller, Lawrence (DFL)
MN Senate District 59		 * *
Reinert, Roger (DFL)
MN Senate District 7		 * — *
Rest, Ann (DFL)
MN Senate District 45		 — — * *
Robling, Claire (R)
MN Senate District 35		 *
Rosen, Julie (R)
MN Senate District 24		 * *
Saxhaug, Tom (DFL)
MN Senate District 3		 — * — *
Scheid, Linda (DFL)
MN Senate District 46		 # # # # * # # — # *
Senjem, David (R)
MN Senate District 29		 * *
Sheran, Kathy (DFL)
MN Senate District 23		 * *
Sieben, Katie (DFL)
MN Senate District 57		 * — *
Skoe, Rod (DFL)
MN Senate District 2		 * *
Sparks, Dan (DFL)
MN Senate District 27		 — * *
Stumpf, LeRoy (DFL)
MN Senate District 1		 — — * *
Thompson, Dave (R)
MN Senate District 36		 * *
Tomassoni, David (DFL)
MN Senate District 5		 — — — — *
Torres Ray, Patricia (DFL)
MN Senate District 62		 — — — *
Vandeveer, Ray (R)
MN Senate District 52		 * *
Wiger, Charles (DFL)
MN Senate District 55		 — — * — *
Wolf, Pam (R)
MN Senate District 51		 — * *

Bills:
  1. SF 40 - Alternative Teacher Licensure - Final Passage - This bill establishes an alternative pathway for licensing teachers. Licensing is governed by local school boards and the State Board of Teaching.
  2. SF 40 - Alternative Teacher Licensure - Conference Committee Report - This bill establishes an alternative pathway for licensing teachers. Licensing is governed by local school boards and the State Board of Teaching.
  3. HF 1 - Environmental Review and Permitting - Final Passage - This bill streamlined the environmental review and permitting process. The legislation included a 150-day goal for the Pollution Control Agency and the Department of Natural Resources to issue permits. The bill also allowed a project proposer to prepare a preliminary draft environmental impact statement and eliminated the District Court review of environmental review decisions, making the repeal process the same as for environmental permits.
  4. HF 8 - Healthy Minnesota Contribution Program - Final Passage - This bill would create the Healthy Minnesota Contribution Program, which changes MinnesotaCare from a defined benefit to a defined contribution program for a portion of the population it serves.
  5. HF 934 - K-12 Finance Omnibus bill - Final Passage - This bill had extensive fiscal and policy reforms, including: Teacher effectiveness rather than seniority will be the primary factor for determining layoffs, ending the practice of last in, first out policies; teacher performance will be reviewed annually with 50 percent of the evaluation based on student academic growth; professional development will be aimed at improving student outcomes; teacher contracts will be renewed every five years rather than being a continuing contract. Schools would be rated A-F based on student achievement; report cards would be generated and made public. School boards would have the option of limiting teacher contract settlements to the percent increase that districts receive in state funding.
  6. SF 170 - Teacher Basic Skills Tests - Conference Committee Report - This bill requires teachers to pass their basic skills tests prior to entering a classroom. In addition, starting in 2014, teacher applicants to schools of education will be required to pass the basic skills test prior to entering the program.
  7. SF 1199 - Prevailing Wage Modifications - Jobs and Economic Growth Committee - This bill would change the prevailing wage calculation from the mean wage to the mode. The mode tends to be a more costly way for taxpayers to finance state-funded construction projects and does not reflect all of the wages surveyed. The mean, or average, wage is a fairer calculation. The overtime threshold would change to solely over 40 hours in a week. Existing law triggers overtime if employees work either over eight hours per day or 40 hours per week.
  8. SF 373 - Statute of Limitations - Final Passage - This bill reduces Minnesotas 6 year statute of limitations to four years.
  9. SF 149 - Class-Action Reform - Final Passage - This bill requires that, if a party asks, that the appeal of class certification takes place before any other aspect of the litigation proceeds. The bill also requires plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit to prove they were actually harmed by the conduct of the defendant, and they must prove they have suffered a real out-of-pocket loss.
  10. SF 530 - Prejudgment Interest Rate Reduction - Final Passage - This amendment changed the prejudgment interest rate provision in the house version of the bill to the senate language - a variable rate based on U.S. Treasury bills with a floor of 4 percent.
  11. SF 429 - Offer of Settlement - Final Passage - This bill provides that if a settlement offer is rejected, and the plaintiff ends up recovering less than the offer, attorney fees do not occur between the time the offer was rejected and the end of the litigation.
  12. HF 42 - 4th Personal Income Tax Bracket - Marty Amendment - This amendment would have implemented a fourth personal income tax bracket at 10.95 percent beginning at taxable incomes of $150,000 for married joint filers and $85,000 for single filers. This was Governor Daytons original fourth bracket proposal.
  13. SF 4 - Repeal of the Nuclear Moratorium - Final passage - This bill would have repealed the moratorium which prevents the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission from even considering applications for new nuclear energy facilities.
  14. SF 86 - Repeal of the Virtual Coal Moratorium - Final Passage - This bill would have repealed the virtual coal moratorium, which prevents the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission from allowing utilities to build or import additional coal power into Minnesota. Exceptions exist in statute, but they are costly, ambiguous and burdensome.
  15. SF 1197 - Omnibus Energy Bill - The initial version of the Senate omnibus energy bill included two measures important to the business community. The first item would have required the Public Utilities Commission to use cost as the primary consideration when determining revenue allocation among classes in a rate case. The second item would have required utilities to report the rate impacts of complying with the 2007 Renewable Energy Standard.
  16. SF 1199 - Prevailing Wage Modifications - Finance Committee - This bill would change the prevailing wage calculation from the mean wage to the mode. The mode tends to be a more costly way for taxpayers to finance state-funded construction projects and does not reflect all of the wages surveyed. The mean, or average, wage is a fairer calculation. The overtime threshold would change to solely over 40 hours in a week. Existing law triggers overtime if employees work either over eight hours per day or 40 hours per week.

Privacy & Security|Contact Us|Send Feedback

400 Robert Street North | Suite 1500 | St. Paul, Minnesota 55101
© Copyright 2010 Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. All Rights Reserved.

This website is developed and owned by the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. Any use or reprinting is strictly prohibited without prior consent of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce.