New laws affect you on Monday

08/01/2005

Conrad Defiebre,
Star Tribune
July 31, 2005

In the 30-plus years that Aug. 1 has been a red-letter day for Minnesota’s statute books, changes in state law have rarely had a bigger effect on ordinary people in a single day than they will Monday.

Smokers will pay more, those who drink and drive will face a tougher legal standard, and minimum wage workers will get their first pay raise in eight years.

There will be increased penalties for crimes ranging from sexual assault to identity theft, a fetal-pain provision in abortion law, new freedom to fly the flag and a ban on police ticket-writing quotas.

Do-nothing Legislature? Hardly.

“These state laws will affect a lot of Minnesotans,” said Steven Schier, professor of political science at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn. “No other level of government has this direct effect on the daily lives of citizens.”

All of the big changes came courtesy of a 201-member Legislature nearly evenly divided between DFLers and Republicans, but that didn’t surprise Schier.

When the two parties wield equal power, he said, “The competitive juices flow and each sees a chance to make an impact on policy. They get active.”

Of course, not everyone is overjoyed by this flurry of lawmaking. But some whose oxen are being gored are making the best of it.

Case in point: East Side Beverage Co., an Arden Hills beer wholesaler, is helping state officials promote awareness of the new 0.08 percent blood-alcohol standard for drunken driving by distributing coasters and posters to bars and liquor stores bearing the message “Legal Limit is 0.08—Don’t Blow It.”

“We’re kind of getting the word out,” said Brian Aune of East Side. “It’s part of our effort to promote safe drinking.”

Meanwhile, the state has budgeted $312,000 for the awareness campaign, most of it for planned advertising on TV, radio and billboards on truck sides, in skyways and at urinal stalls in bars.

Other state officials are working to implement other new laws. For example, the Department of Labor and Industry is distributing free workplace posters announcing the new wage floor of $6.15 an hour ($5.25 for some small businesses) and gearing up for possible complaints from workers who don’t receive the bump in pay.

And the Department of Revenue will inventory about 10,000 tobacco retailers on Monday to assess a floor-stocks sales tax estimated to total more than $21 million. That will be done because, as part of the legislation imposing a 75-cents-a-pack “health impact fee” on cigarettes at the wholesale level, collection of sales taxes on tobacco will be shifted from retailers to distributors.

Last state to 0.08

Minnesota will be the last state in the union to adopt the 0.08 drunken driving standard, which has been pushed for years by the federal government with offers of extra highway funding and, finally, the threat of severe cuts in that aid.

Opposition by liquor interests helped hold up the passage, and in all the state forfeited $18 million in bonus highway funding for delaying the 0.08 measure. Only with tens of millions in base funding cuts looming did the Legislature act. But proponents of the change say its human and financial cost-savings are even more important.

Kathryn Swanson, traffic safety director in the Department of Public Safety, said 70 highway fatalities and related costs of $70 million would have been avoided had Minnesota adopted 0.08 five years ago. Neighboring states where 0.08 already is the law have seen decreases in alcohol-related accidents.

Last year, 34,413 people were arrested for drunken driving on Minnesota roads. That number is projected to increase by 1,550, thanks to the 0.08 measure, although police are not expected to step up traffic stops to investigate suspected impaired driving.

When state officials last counted, in 2004, there were 49,000 workers at or below the minimum wage of $5.15 an hour in Minnesota, or 2 percent of the workforce. Another 79,000 were paid less than the $6.15-an-hour minimum that takes effect Monday.

What’s the effect?

While predictions of job losses and business failures usually weigh heavily in any policy debate over raising the minimum wage, few economists foresee much damage from this increase, the first in Minnesota since 1997.

“Because it hasn’t been increased in so long, it probably won’t have much of an impact,” said John Peloquin, a staff economist at the state Department of Finance. “In isolated cases, jobs or hours might be cut, but in general, the market keeps raising the minimum wage for most people.”

Bigger effects are predicted, however, from the new state tobacco charge that will push the average price for a pack of cigarettes to more than $4, and some of them are positive.

“There will absolutely be fewer kids starting to smoke, which translates to incredible lifetime health-care savings,” said Jeanne Weigum of the Association for Nonsmokers-Minnesota. “We know that the tax has its big impact on young people.”

According to Dr. Marc Manley, tobacco reduction director for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, 55,000 fewer teenagers will start smoking because of the extra cost and 26,000 adults will quit. That projects to 24,000 fewer tobacco-related deaths, “and all these people will live longer lives,” he added.

Try telling that, though, to the smoker facing this lineup of government taxes and fees on a pack of cigarettes: 75 cents for the “health fee,” 48 cents in state tax, 39 cents in federal tax, 25.5 cents in sales tax (5 cents higher than before, thanks to the tax on the impact fee). The average base price of $2.30 a pack also has been inflated by tobacco companies’ lawsuit settlements with state governments.

Aficionados of cigars, pipes and smokeless tobacco won’t be spared the extra bite, either. A new 35 percent fee on those products will double the state’s take from the current 35 percent excise tax.