Legislative Update

This week a number of the major budget bills have been rolled out. Earlier in the week I reported on the House K-12 education funding bill. Since then, the Senate E-12 education funding bill, the Senate Tax bill, and the House and Senate Higher Education bills have been released. Here are the highlights:

Senate E-12 Education Funding bill: The bill was released this morning. It makes no changes to any library appropriations. The main feature of the bill is an increase in funding of $35 per pupil for schools. This funding is generated by repealing the permanent fund subtraction, thereby keeping the revenues generated by school trust lands in the K-12 education budget. Although this funding increase is smaller than the $51 per pupil included in the House K-12 bill, the Senate funding increase is ongoing, while the House increase is for FY 09 only. The bill cuts the Department of Education's operating budget by slightly more than the 4% reduction recommended by the Governor.

Senate Tax Bill: The bill increases Local Government Aid for cities by $70 million and increases County Program Aid by $40 million. Both LGA and CPA would be indexed to inflation in subsequent years. The bill does not include levy limits.

Senate Higher Education Funding Bill: The bill makes no changes to the appropriations for Minitex or MnLINK. It reduces general operating funds for the University of Minnesota by $15.5 million and for MnSCU by $6.5 million.

House Higher Education Funding Bill: The bill makes no changes to the appropriations for Minitex or MnLINK. It reduces general operating funds for the University of Minnesota by $6.2 million and for MnSCU by $6.2 million.

As is often done in the even-numbered year session, the funding bills for specific areas of the budget will be merged into one omnibus supplemental budget bill. That bill is likely to be taken up on the floor of both bodies next week.