By: Charlie Kyte
This audioblog is 8 minutes long. I begin with the nearly averted constitutional crisis. Correction to a previous posting at 2:30 min. PEIP Bill at 3:40 min. School Fund Transfer observation at 5:45 min.
NEAR CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS: The case of Senator Johnson's statements to members of the clergy ended up in the Senate Ethics Committee. Had the ethics committee called members of the Supreme Court to testify, it is uncertain if the Supreme Court Justices would have complied. This would have forced the Attorney General to try to get them to testify. Thus we would have had the Legislative Branch, the Judiciary Branch and the Executive Branch of Government in a deadlock that could have created a huge mess. The four Senators on the ethics committee instead wisely demanded that Senator Johnson apologize publically to the Senate and make a written apology to the group of clergy members. Thus the crisis was averted.
CORRECTION TO A PREVIOUS POSTING: A week ago I improperly took Rep. Davids to task in regard to the Statewide Health Insurance Bill. We had a misunderstanding about the intent an action that was taken to move several health insurance bills for possible committee consideration. We have since met with Rep Davids and have apologized to him for our harsh analysis of his groups actions.
PEIP BILL-A PRETTY GOOD ALTERNATIVE TO A STATEWIDE MANDATORY INSURANCE BILL: This Bill was presented today in the Senate Government Operations Committee. PEIP has always been an option for school districts and the Alexandria Schools uses it. The new proposal ties the PEIP provider network to the provider network of the state employees health plan. Since state employees, including the state college system employees, are all over the state, there would be qualified clinics and hospitals for PEIP insured members to utilize. PEIP would provide another competitive option for health insurance which would be especially effective in Greater Minnesota.
The voluntary PEIP Plan seems to be a viable option to a mandatory statewide plan.
FUND TRANSFERS: The House Ed Finance Committee heard a whole group of fund transfer proposals from school districts. We see this every year and it is time consuming for Superintendents and Business managers, as well as legislators, to come down to make their cases in front of the legislature. It would seem like a good idea to have the legislature authorize the MDE to evaluate these requests and allow the transfers within certain guidelines.
FUNDING BILLS HEARD--ENERGY RELIEF AND TECHNOLOGY: The Senate Ed Finance Committee heard several Bills to provide a bit more money to schools. Several of the Bills proposed one time relief for high energy costs. Another proposed a $25 per student levy for technology purchases. It is unclear as yet about the amount of money the legislature will spend this year, and the amount that will be allocated to K-12 education.
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