DLI tells committee it will phase out specialty Class B electrical installer license and correct fee schedules

Nicole Lisonbee, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, testified on April 14 that the DLI provisions in the governor's supplemental budget are largely technical and intended to align statute with current practice.

Lisonbee said Section 1 would phase out the Class B installer license used for center-pivot irrigation electrical work; there are only 19 active Class B licenses statewide and the proposal would not affect existing licensees. "This change only eliminates the issuance of new class b installer licenses so that current licensees will continue performing the same scope of work as under the current law," she said.

She also described a small permit-fee adjustment that lowers the electrical inspection threshold so a 14-circuit job pays $3 less than under last year's schedule, and a correction to a swimming-pool inspection fee to match the $55 minimum DLI already charges under its authority (326B.037, subd. 2). "The minimum fee for an on-site electrical inspection was updated from 35 to $55 last year," she said, and the bill corrects cross-references to fee schedules for work performed without a permit.

DLI legislative director Josiah Moore later explained that related building-code language updates replace references to "inspections" with broader terms such as "persons" and "code enforcement" to reflect the range of municipal work under delegation agreements; that change, he said, is intended to be non-substantive in practice and plan review was removed after a technical advisory group's recommendation.

Next steps: the committee amended and laid over the relevant house files for further action later in the week. Members asked clarifying questions but raised no substantive objections to the technical changes.