Walz signs 3 bills into law

Gov. Tim Walz on Thursday signed three bills into law.

The laws include human services provisions, changes to the Vehicle Title and Registration System and an extension for environmental funding.

The bills signed were:

• HF 11, which contains human services provisions including various provisions relating to child care, custody, support, foster care, disability services, community supports, civil commitment, maltreatment of minors, child protection, and child support.
• HF65, which makes small but necessary conforming changes pertaining to replacement license plates for VTRS, the new vehicle registration system. It also authorizes the Department of Public Safety to add a gold star indicator to the front of Minnesota Enhanced Driver’s Licenses (EDL) to ensure Minnesotans who carry an EDL will not encounter confusion or difficulty in proving their EDL is REAL ID compliant.
• HF37, which extends the availability of Environmental and Natural Resources Trust Fund (ENRTF) funding awarded to various environmental projects across the state. Without this change in law, fund recipients would have needed to return roughly $7.1M, which need additional time due to COVID-19, and projects would have not been completed. The bill also includes a pilot project to examine ATV access to wildlife management areas, and temporary changes to the way the solid waste management tax is assessed during the peacetime emergency so waste haulers are not unfairly taxed.

Lawmakers remain in a special session, although Senate leaders have said they plan to adjourn on Friday.