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State Representative Tony Cornish
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-4240
For more information contact: Jason Wenisch 651-296-2317
NEWS RELEASE
CORNISH: LOCAL CLASSROOMS TO BENEFIT FROM BUDGET DEAL
ST. PAUL – State Representative Tony Cornish (R-Good Thunder) said he was pleased agreement had been reached on state spending legislation and that the special session of the Minnesota Legislature had finally concluded. On Wednesday, lawmakers passed the remaining budget bills for K-12 Education, Taxes, Health, and Transportation and adjourned for the year.
“No one was happy to be forced into a special session,” Cornish said. “But in the end, the final agreement is a good one for Greater Minnesota. Our school children will receive one of the largest funding increases we have seen for our schools and we earned much-needed education reforms.”
Cornish said that $800 million in new funding has been established as part of the K-12 agreement. The bill also includes a 4% increase in the per pupil formula during each of the next two years, and $10 million in aid for early childhood programs. The Governor’s teacher pay reform package called QComp was also included in the agreement, which Cornish said adds an additional $78.5 million to the K-12 pot. Cornish said the bill was approved despite House DFL Minority Leader Matt Entenza’s complaints regarding the funding increases.
“Entenza was the first one to fly into Mankato and tell everyone how important he was in the K-12 negotiations, then turns around and says ‘Democrats reluctantly went along’ with the Republicans increase for K-12,” Cornish said. “Sadly, he can’t have it both ways. It would be nice if people just backed off of the rhetoric for a while because people are just sick of hearing it for the past five months.”
Cornish said highlights in the other bills included a 2.26% salary increase in both 2006 and 2007 for nursing home and long-term care employees; $6 million for rural transit projects, and $45 million to Local Government Aid programs.
“This budget setting process has been quite an adventure,” Cornish said. “But the good news is that our rural schools will receive the funding increases they need.”
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