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007‘e eevered _detect •Akk <br /> r <br /> /MN r , <br /> I J4 <br /> Vol. 15, No. 8 April 29, 2016 <br /> Omnibus Bills Passed Out of House and Senate <br /> This week,the Legislature's attention was focused on passing each body's respective omnibus <br /> supplemental budget bills. <br /> The House of Representative had assembled three separate omnibus bills: 1) education and <br /> higher education, 2) state government and health care, and 3) environment, agriculture, <br /> economic development, and energy. The third bill, H.F. 3931, authored by Rep. Pat Garofalo <br /> (R-Farmington) contained the appropriations and policy provisions related to energy and <br /> broadband that have been detailed in previous versions of The Capitol Letter. When this bill <br /> was debated on the House floor, no amendments related to broadband or energy were <br /> adopted. <br /> On Thursday, the Senate passed its single omnibus supplemental budget bill that contained <br /> appropriations for every area of state government (but very little policy). The bill had no <br /> areas of concern for MMUA going into the floor debate, and no harmful amendments were <br /> offered. <br /> Now that each body has finished passing its supplemental budget bills, work will begin to <br /> compare the bills and assemble conference committees to work out the differences (of which <br /> there are many). Given that the House has three bills and the Senate only one, this will <br /> likely be a complicated process. <br /> Senate Vote Planned on Regulatory Certainty Bill <br /> The MPCA and bill author Sen. John Marty (DFL-Roseville) have notified MMUA that the <br /> "regulatory certainty" bill will be debated on the Senate floor next Monday, May 2. As <br /> explained in previous editions of The Capitol Letter, S.F. 3272 would allow the MPCA to <br /> provide municipal wastewater treatment facilities with "regulatory certainty" if they <br /> voluntarily install biological nutrient removal systems to remove nitrogen in addition to <br /> complying with the new phosphorus standard. This means the MPCA would agree not to <br /> increase the systems' phosphorus or nitrogen limits for the useful life of the equipment (up <br /> to 20 years). <br /> If the option for"regulatory certainty"would be helpful as your city considers upgrades to its <br /> wastewater treatment facilities, please contact your State Senator and ask them to support <br /> the bill! <br /> 222 <br />