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State Representative Paul Anderson
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-4317
For more information contact: House GOP Communications 651-296-5520
GUEST COLUMN
Budget agreement reached, session adjourns
Neighbor-
By State Rep. Paul Anderson
Following two all-night sessions, the House of Representatives finally adjourned at mid-morning on Monday, May 17. A last-minute budget compromise was agreed to late Sunday night but there wasn’t enough time to get the measure passed by the midnight deadline. So the governor called a special session that got underway at 12:01 a.m. Retiring House Chaplin Dennis Johnson offered this prayer as the extra session got underway, saying “Where man thinks there is a period, God has inserted a comma.”
Minnesota’s entry into a federal Medical Assistance (MA) early expansion program was the last stumbling block to an agreement. As part of health care reform legislation passed in Washington earlier this year, Minnesota was one of ten states eligible for this early-entry. The federal government would pay half the cost, with the state paying the other half. By the year 2014, the feds would pick up 90 percent of the bill.
Democratic leadership in the Legislature was pushing for immediate entry into the program, while the Governor wouldn’t agree to that. A last-minute agreement gives Minnesota’s new governor the option of enrolling when he or she takes office next January. It’s expected this will become a major campaign issue as we get closer to the November election.
The additional cost – along with approximately 100,000 new enrollees in the early-entry program – are the main reasons Gov. Pawlenty opposed the idea. To get the federal matching funds, Minnesota would have to spend approximately $1.43 billion dollars over the next three years. Because current requirements pertaining to the disabled, along with asset limits, would be waived, it’s expected approximately 20,000 able-bodied adults would be eligible for the new MA expansion. In addition, the 39,000 currently on GAMC would be enrolled, as well as 43,000 presently in MinnesotaCare.
The final bill that was passed – all 280-some pages – is remarkable in light of the challenge presented by the Supreme Court’s rejection of the Gov.’s unallotment. Coming so late in the session, with about two weeks remaining, the ruling added nearly $3 billion to the deficit. Nearly all of Gov. Pawlenty’s cuts were enacted and put into statute, the largest of which was the school aid shift. There is now a mechanism in place to pay back our schools, although another 3 percent has been added to the shift.
The positive aspects of the bill balance the budget without raising state taxes. There are also no cuts to nursing homes and hospitals. If additional Medicaid funding comes from Washington, it wasn’t penciled in as part of the budget-balancing process; it will instead go directly to the bottom line of the budget.
The biggest drawback to the bill is that most of the cuts made are not permanent. They are one-time reductions and will blink back on in the next biennium. Because of that, the red ink for the 2012-13 budget cycle is deep and the deficit stands at $5.6 billion. By far, the largest item making up the deficit is the school shift, which will be two billion dollars. It is scheduled to be paid back next biennium.
I’ll cover more key pieces of legislation passed during the session in future columns. Thanks for the honor of representing you in St. Paul.
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Rep. Anderson encourages constituents to contact his office with input regarding any state legislative issue. He can be reached on the web at www.house.mn/13A and via email at rep.paul.anderson@house.mn. To contact Anderson by phone, call (651) 296-4317. Mail can be sent to Rep. Paul Anderson, 239 State Office Building, 100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., St. Paul, Minnesota 55155.
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