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Section 2: 2019 Session Laws of Interest
<br /> The following are summaries of bills passed and signed their communities. In this case, the bill became the vehi-
<br /> into law that should be of interest to municipal utili- cle for$40 million worth of grant money for the`Border
<br /> ties. The list is in alphabetical order by subject matter, to Border'broadband grants helping rural Minnesota
<br /> and provides the session(both regular and special)law have access to true high-speed internet. The bill provides
<br /> chapter number, chief authors, original bill numbers, a that in each of the state fiscal years 2020 and 2021, $20
<br /> short summary of the amendment to identified existing million($40 million in the biennium)will be available
<br /> statutes, or a summary of the new section of law being for broadband grants. The bill's appropriations also
<br /> created, and the relevant effective date(s). include $250,000 each year for the Broadband Develop-
<br /> ment Office.
<br /> Bonding/Capitol Investment
<br /> Regular Session Laws, Chapter 2 While $40 million is a lot of money and represents the
<br /> HF 80—Rep. Murphy(DFL-Hermantown) largest single appropriation to the Border to Border
<br /> SF 1836—Sen. Senjem (R-Rochester) program, it is still well below the $70 million requested
<br /> Effective: March 6, 2019 by the Rural Broadband Consortium, to which MMUA
<br /> 2019 Regular Session Laws Chapter 2 corrects a problem belongs, and which reflects the estimated level of needed
<br /> with the 2018 authorization of bonds to pay for grants funding to stay current with grant requests. During the
<br /> issued by the Public Facilities Authority(PFA)to local regular session, HF 7—Rep. Ecklund(DFL-Interna-
<br /> governments for water and wastewater projects.The tional Falls) and SF 9—Sen. Koran(R-North Branch)
<br /> 2018 Legislature authorized the issuance of appropria- sought full funding at$35 million in each fiscal year of
<br /> tion bonds, which must be backed by a specific identified the 2020-2021 biennium, or $70 million in total.
<br /> source of revenue available to pay off the bonds. The
<br /> 2018 Legislature voted to use funds constitutionally In addition, because last year's funding for broadband
<br /> dedicated to water issues.A lawsuit was immediately was in the vetoed omnibus prime bill, this year's funding
<br /> filed challenging the use of the identified funds as bond should be divided by 3, or about $13.3 million per year,
<br /> payments are not specifically part of the itemized lawful an amount closer to the average level of annual funding
<br /> uses of the funds. Because of the lawsuit, the State's the fund has received. Still, the $40 million threshold is
<br /> bond attorneys were unable to issue an unqualified opin- a good place from which to begin seeking future funding.
<br /> ion on the legality to issue the bonds. Thus, the PFA did MMUA will continue to assist in seeking funding for this
<br /> not receive the $59 million for local government grants important program, including the possibility of seeking
<br /> in 2018. 2019 Session Laws Chapter 2, article 1, section some one-time money from the State's surplus to get
<br /> 6 authorizes $59 million in general obligation bonds for closer to the $70 million identified need.
<br /> PFA grants, while article 1, section 9 repeals the 2018
<br /> authorization for appropriation bonds. Energy Policy
<br /> Special Session Laws, Chapter 7
<br /> Unfortunately, a second bonding bill dealing with the HF 2—Rep. Mahoney(DFL-St. Paul)
<br /> funding necessary for 2019 failed to move anywhere. SF 2—Sen. Pratt (R-Prior Lake)
<br /> Some legislators point to the $59 million in Chapter 2 as Effective Date: Assorted
<br /> adequate funding for the year, ignoring the fact that this i. Article 11, section 2, amends Minn. Stat.
<br /> provision simply made the PFA and local governments §216B.16 by adding a subd. 7e -Public (investor-owned)
<br /> whole with the pledged 2018 funding amount. The year electric utilities may submit proposals to the MPUC and
<br /> 2020, as the second non-budget year of the biennium, recover from rates the costs for conducting energy stor-
<br /> will be a traditional bonding year, but there are no guar- age pilot projects. Proposals must include:
<br /> antees of a bill getting out of both chambers and signed • storage technology to be utilized;
<br /> into law. If there is a bonding bill, MMUA will support • energy storage capacity; output duration at capacity;
<br /> funding for the PFA's grants to local governments, and • proposed location;
<br /> any other purpose beneficial to municipal utilities. • purchase and installation costs;
<br /> • how the project will interact with existing distributed
<br /> Broadband generation resources on the utility's grid; and
<br /> First Special Session Laws, Chapter 1,Article 7 • goals the project proposes to achieve, which may
<br /> HF 7—Rep. Poppe (DFL-Austin) include controlling frequency or voltage, mitigating
<br /> SF 1—Sen.Westrom(R-Elbow Lake) transmission congestion, providing emergency power
<br /> Effective date July 1, 2019 supplies during outages, reducing curtailment of
<br /> Chapter 1 of the 2019 First Special Session Laws is the existing renewable energy generators, and reducing
<br /> Agriculture, Rural Development and Housing peak power costs.
<br /> Omnibus Bill.As such, it may not immediately appear Effective:May 31, 2019
<br /> to be a piece of legislation of interest to MMUA or its
<br /> members. It is, however, an example of why any bill ii. Article 11, section 3 Amends Minn. Stat.
<br /> could bring harm or benefits to municipal utilities and §216B.1642, subd. 2, by requiring any owner of a so-
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