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li <br /> eveord. old • , <br /> 7 <br /> 4 , ____ , <br /> ii, <br /> ifilal <br /> 1 , <br /> -4 <br /> . allot <br /> Vol. 15, No. 11 May 24, 2016 <br /> Rail Crossing Fees Bill Passes House and Senate <br /> The railroad crossing fees legislation advanced this year by MMUA, MREA, and the <br /> Minnesota Telecom Alliance passed off the floor of both the House and Senate on the last day <br /> of the 2016 Legislative Session. As finalized, SF 877 establishes a one-time $1,250 fee for <br /> utilities crossing railroad right-of-way and a 35-day timeframe for railroads to approve or <br /> deny a utilities' application before a project can move forward. <br /> Despite intense lobbying efforts from the regional railroads to create carve outs to allow them <br /> to continue to collect annual fees for crossings, utility stakeholders cemented the preferred <br /> one-time-only fee requirement and were able to pass clean bills with nearly unanimous <br /> support (126-1 in the House and 65-0 in the Senate). <br /> The Governor's office has indicated that Dayton will sign the bill into law this week. A big <br /> thank you to all of the MMUA members who reached out to their legislators and asked them <br /> to support this bill! <br /> Legislators Direct DER to Improve CIP for Municipals <br /> MMUA promoted legislation this year to make the Conservation Improvement Program more <br /> workable for municipal gas and electric utilities. In a contentious election-year session with <br /> House and Senate energy committee chairs with differing priorities, the effort resulted in <br /> significant advancement of the problem issues identified by MMUA members. Agreement <br /> was reached between the DER and those leaders that CIP will better recognize municipal <br /> utility infrastructure projects. Staff will confirm details of that agreement in the near <br /> future. In addition, leading legislators are in the process of directing DER to enter <br /> discussions with MMUA and the Center for Energy and the Environment to make <br /> administrative changes or develop a legislative proposal to make CIP goals more adaptive to <br /> individual municipal utilities. More to come from MMUA on these developing <br /> advancements. <br /> Special Session TBD <br /> In what can only be described as procedural and political chaos, the 2016 Session ended <br /> without the passage of a bonding bill. In the last hour of the session, the House quickly <br /> unveiled and passed a $990 million bonding package. When the Senate received the bonding <br /> bill, it added an amendment related to Southwest LRT funding. Rather than accept the bill <br /> with the Senate amendment in the final five minutes of session, the House adjourned for the <br /> year. <br /> 320 <br />