2011 BAM Legislative Summary

The full Builders Association of Minnesota (BAM) 2011 Legislative Summary is now available online at www.bamn.org/legislation. In a nutshell, Minnesota Senate Republicans, who hadn’t held a majority in over 30 years, won 16 new seats to take a 37 to 30 majority. The House, which generally flips every few years, saw Republicans win the majority 72 to 62. Democrat Governor Dayton vetoed all but one spending bill and the executive and legislative branches did not come to a budget agreement prior to the constitutional end of the legislative session. That means, at the time of writing, the state of Minnesota’s government is now shutdown. How long it will last; no one knows. The following is a summary of BAM’s top three offensive bills.
Fire Sprinkler Bill
This bill, House File 460, would have prohibited the Legislature or the Department of Labor and Industry from passing a mandate requiring installation of fire sprinklers in new single-family construction.
Introduced by BAM February 10th the bipartisan bill passed the House March 31st 90 to 40, then passed the Senate May 16th 50 to 15. The bill went back to the House to be passed as amended and passed again; this time 97 to 36. On May 25th, Governor Dayton vetoed the bill even though the opposition provided unsubstantiated information. BAM has contacted the Governor’s office to correct the information.
With the kind of bipartisan support the bill received, it was a huge disappointment to receive the governor’s veto. But BAM is NOT giving up. The fire sprinkler requirement has not been through the code process, which was scheduled to begin in July, but that will depend on how long the shut down lasts. Therefore it is not in code yet. Even if the code process does not warrant the desired outcome, an Administrative Law Judge hearing and the 2012 legislative session are our next steps and will be taken if necessary.
Lead Abatement Bill
BAM introduced House File 166 and it was passed and signed into law by the governor February 27th. This bill pushes back the date cities must check the EPA website as a resource for certification of the EPA Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule to August 1, 2011 from February 1, 2011. It also prohibits municipalities from charging a similar certification fee already paid to the federal government for lead certification. This does not give contractors more time for certification.
For more information on the lead rule visit the members-only section http://www.bamn.org/regulation and look under “Non-Code Regulations.”
Variance Bill
This bill, House File 52, was introduced by the League of Minnesota Cities and supported by both BAM and BATC. It allows cities to grant variances again, after the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled on the Krummanacher case last year interpreting the law to mean an undue hardship was needed to be proven in order for a city to grant a variance. Millions of dollars of member projects were held up by the interpretation, and its passage is a big win.
All bills BAM opposed were stopped or did not receive a hearing.
For the complete legislative summary visit www.bamn.org/legislation. If you need your BAM website username and password contact Katherine at katherinen@bamn.org.