Dear Neighbor,
This year’s budget has my major focus this week. As Chair of the Ways and Means Committee, it is my job to propose the broad outlines of a budget each year for the state, which the various finance committees then complete in detail. We then review their work in the Ways and Means Committee. While our state is funded through June 30, 2019 due to the two-year budget we passed last year, we often assemble supplemental budget bills in even years to conduct any alterations that may be necessary.
This year’s supplemental budget looks to build on the historic accomplishments of the 2017 session. The 2018 House proposal dedicates the largest portion of the $329 million budget surplus toward simplifying Minnesota’s tax code, conforming to some of the recently passed federal tax bill, and providing additional tax relief to the middle class. The second-largest proposed investment is $101 million more for road and bridge construction. We are also doing some other spending initiatives to deal with school safety, opioid abuse, vulnerable adults and the disabled, and rural broadband. In addition, we are proposing to put $75 million into the state's budget reserve so we have additional funds in our rainy day fund in the event of an economic slowdown.
The budget resolution I authored passed the Ways and Means Committee last night by a bipartisan vote of 18-6. I was particularly pleased that three of the nine Democrats as well as all Republicans on the committee voted for it. Often these are very partisan votes, so to get 1/3 of the DFL to vote for it shows it’s a balanced and reasonable budget.
I was also busy this week with hearings on other bills I am authoring:
1) I had a hearing on a bill I authored (HF4342) that would provide $650,000 in funding to help retrain dislocated employees at Electrolux. The money would come from the dislocated worker fund, a fund which employers pay into for training dislocated workers. This bill will help ensure that those being laid off by Electrolux have as much time as possible to get training for a new job. By getting an early start now we can hopefully have employees trained to start new good jobs when the plant closes at the end of 2019.
2) I had a hearing on a bill I authored (HF4272) that would address the special education cross subsidy issue, and provide additional funding to school districts that have particularly large special education costs. St. Cloud District 742 is one of those districts, and they would get an additional $1.1 million under this bill. St. Cloud School Board member Bruce Hentges testified in support of the bill. Special ed is a very complex area, and there are some significant funding inequities that have developed over time across the state, which this bill helps address. But we also need to figure out ways to slow the growth in the cost of special ed while having good quality. Another bill I am co-authoring would set up a working group to address this after session.
3) I had another hearing, this time in the Transportation Finance Committee, on my bill (HF1722) to open negotiations with BNSF Railway to extend the Northstar Corridor to St. Cloud.
4) I had a hearing on a bill I have authored (HF2112) that would reprioritize bond funds we get from the federal government so that we can build more affordable housing in the state. This bill if passed should result in several thousand more affordable housing units being built.
The various finance committees will be working hard over the weekend and next week to put together their funding bills, which in most cases need to pass out of their committee to Ways and Means by Friday, April 20.
Look for more news soon as we make our way through the final five full weeks of the 2018 session. As always, your input is welcome.
Sincerely,
Jim