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  • S. Erickson posted an update 8 years, 10 months ago

    We are getting there!
    Very Thankful This Thursday! http://wp.me/p3XeDt-tw

    • Shelley, that’s great news! But I do want to make absolutely sure that the smoke has cleared.

      Very confusing, indeed. From what I can tell, the cottage food exemption has been rolled into a massive omnibus bill, HF 1437, which addresses much larger concerns than the cottage food one, so now it’s just along for the ride.

      It appears that after a lot of effort, it was finally passed by the House a few days ago, and now is just starting to go through the Senate. In most states (maybe not MN), the Senate is where this kind of bill would get held up. The Senate has already tabled this bill twice — typically not a good sign.

      Does all of this sound correct? It is really hard to figure out, since the cottage food exemption appears to be copied into many other bills (probably also part of the omnibus bill), and it’s hard to determine which bill is the determining one.

      • Hi David, yes it’s been a little crazy with the whole omnibus bill thing. However, from what my representative told me, the omnibus has passed all of the senate committees and the only thing happening now is adding some wording that was not the same on both the House & Senate bills. He said that it’s passed all of the hurdles and just waiting for the Governors signature to make it a law. So, I hope that’s it. Fingers crossed!

    • Okay, well if you get the opportunity to double check that with your rep, then that would be great. Everything I’m reading suggests that the bill is now moving onto the Senate for consideration. This is the status page I’m looking at: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/bill.php?b=house&f=HF1437&ssn=0&y=2015

      I just don’t want to update the MN page and get everyone’s hopes up, unless I’m positive that this thing will get passed. As the saying goes, it isn’t over until it’s over. Thanks for everything you’re doing to help make this happen.

    • Here’s his answer David. I guess you are right to stall a little bit. Sure wish things were more simple. This is from Rep. Newberger.

      Hi Shelley,

      I spoke with Rep. Hamilton on Friday. They will be

      taking the entire omnibus bill off of the table this

      week and should be voting to pass it before next

      Monday. He said the the House version of the CF Laws

      were not an issue and they should simply be adopted

      into the final Conference Committee bill.

      ( that is where the Senate bill and the House bill get merged into one final bill )

      There is a lot in the omnibus bill. It covers Ag, Mining, and Environmental issues.

      So, the CF language is not controversial. Remember, Dibble wants the CF Law to pass.

      I will keep an eye on this.

    • It never does seem to be simple, does it?

      I can understand that the CF language isn’t controversial (if it were it would probably have stayed in its own bill), and it would likely pass on its own (if considered), but the problem with a mega bill like that is that there are so many things in there, that it increases the chance of conflicted voting and being held up.

      It’s quite ridiculous, really. What I think is happening is that there is a big issue on the table (avian flu), which the reps are leveraging to fulfill their own agenda. So by including CF stuff, Newberger might be more willing to vote in favor of other issues, and so on, and soon there’s a whole bunch of stuff thrown together.

      But the problem is that because of the big issue, if the CF language wasn’t rolled in, it likely would have been ignored this session. So what can you do?

      • I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens next. Rep. Newberger keeps telling me not to worry about it. In reality, I think we’ve done about all we can do at the moment. We’ll just have to be patient. Now Gov. Dayton is holding all of the bills hostage because of his early education and gas tax demands. Uffda! I’ll let you know what I hear when I hear it. Thanks again for all of your help.