Hello MCCA Board & Associates,

After 140 days, the 2023 legislature has completed their work. Wednesday, Governor Walz signed into law the remaining budget bills, putting into effect a new $72 billion budget. The new biennial budget officially begins on July 1st, 2023. Here is a summary of MCCA issues.

Broadband: Signed into law. The legislature approved $100M for the Border to Border Broadband Grant Program (FY24-FY25). The split is $55M in the first year, and $35M in the second. $40M is for the low density program ($20M each year), which allows for an up to 75% match. The cap for a project is changed from $5M to $10M.

Next Generation 911: Did not pass. The Governor's budget had funding for the Department of Public Safety’s Emergency Communication Networks (ECN) division for distribution to eligible Public Safety Answer Points (PSAP), as well as updates to Minnesota Statute to move Minnesota closer to the next generation of the 911 system. The funding will be included in the Omnibus Judiciary & Public Safety final bill, but the policy language was not. This is good news for the industry, since this language was unworkable. Here is a copy of the letter we sent during session as part of our work to get this language removed, which was successful. We will be working with DPS and other stakeholders to get this language right over the summer, and have a bill ready for the 2024 session.

Excavation: Did not pass. This session, the Office of Pipeline Safety pushed legislation that would add excavation reporting requirements on communications companies. Here are a couple of letters from earlier this session, explaining our positions and work on this topic. (Hornstein letter -- Kraft letter). We were successful in defeating this legislation this year, but we do expect stakeholder meetings to take place over the interim on this topic --and all of the related excavation issues that we (and excavators) have raised.

988 Suicide Hotline Funding: Signed into law. Communication with 988 from a Minnesota area code are answered by a Minnesota 988 Lifeline center. The 988 Lifeline will be supported through a monthly telecommunication fee on all wired, wireless, prepaid wireless, and Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) lines in Minnesota of up to 25 cents per line. This amount will be set by the Commissioner/PUC.

Sales Tax Exemption: Did not pass. The sales tax clarification for fiber and conduit was included in the Senate tax bill, but did not survive conference committee.

Digital Fair Repair: Passed. Our amendment to ensure cable equipment is exempt from digital fair repair legislation was included in the final legislation.

Other legislation:

• Paid Family Leave: Described as the most expansive in the nation, paid family leave was signed into law today. The final agreement requires 20 weeks (12 of medical or family/bonding and 8 of the other). This is government administered, and includes a payroll tax on businesses and employees. This begins 1/1/2026.
• Sick & Safe time: This requires that employers provide 1 hour for every 30 hours worked of fully paid time off for illness and other reasons. This is in addition to the Paid Family Leave program, so these can be stacked on top of each other. This passed into law, and will take effect in January, 2024.
• Non-competes: A total ban on noncompete agreements entered into or after 7/1/23 was included in final legislation. The final version clarifies that the limitations do not apply to nondisclosure agreements, trade secret/confidentiality agreements, non solicitation agreements, or anti-poaching agreements
• Privacy: This legislation did not receive a hearing or advance this session.
• Net neutrality: This legislation also did not receive a hearing or advance this session.
• Cannabis: Recreational adult use of marijuana was legalized, and takes effect this summer. The new law has restrictions in it and guidelines for employer drug testing.
• Deep fake sexual images: This legislation bans the production and dissemination of deep fake images. Note: This bill was amended to include legislation on "age appropriate design" -- targeted online protections for kids, however this portion was removed at the end of session.

Please let me know if you would like me to provide any the exact bill language, or have questions on any of these items (or others not mentioned). We are still working on our final spreadsheet of all bills tracked (with clickable links) and will make sure to send that out to companies when complete.

The 2024 session begins February 12th, 2024 at noon. In looking at the over 3,300 bills introduced this session, we will have plenty of work to do in 2024.

Anna