Accessibility menu
State Representative Pat Garofalo
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-1069
For more information contact: House GOP Communications 651-296-5520
NEWS RELEASE
Rep. Garofalo Announces Passage of Bill to Pay Back the K-12 School Shift
St. Paul – A bill to begin repaying the K-12 school funding shift has passed through the Legislature and sent to Governor Dayton for his signature. The plan uses part of the state’s current cash balances of over $1 billion to pay back all of the additional education shift passed as part of the budget agreement with Governor Dayton last year - $430 million. The bill also makes the first repayment of the $2 billion education shift left over from previous Legislatures.
Rep. Pat Garofalo (R-Farmington), the chief author of the bill, said that using cash balances to pay off Minnesota’s debt to school districts is the responsible thing to do.
“Our responsible conservative budgeting last year has helped bring our state out of the gutter, and now is the time to start cleaning up the mess,” Rep. Garofalo said. “Prudent financial management says when you have cash on hand, the first thing you do is pay off your debts.”
The idea for this bill came after the Minnesota Management and Budget’s February Forecast which showed a $1.2 billion total budget surplus for the current biennium. Current state statute dictated that this money first be sent to the state’s cash balance accounts. After the cash balance accounts were filled, $318 million of the leftover surplus funds were allocated to repaying the shift. This bill would take an additional $430 million from the cash balance funds to fully pay off the leftover $400 million of last year’s shift and begin repayment of the near $2 billion of K-12 school shift leftover from previous Legislatures.
“My hope is that we can come together with the governor in a bi-partisan way and take this important first step toward repaying our schools and putting our children first,” Rep. Garofalo said.
###
News Items
- GAROFALO PREPARES FOR NEW TERM - (Posted: Jan 9 2013 3:00PM)
- Rep. Garofalo Announces Passage of Bill to Pay Back the K-12 School Shift - (Posted: 2012-04-03 00:00:00)
- HOARD CASH OR PAY OFF DEBT? - (Posted: 2012-04-05 00:00:00)
- Archived News Items
- Subscribe to RSS News Feeds
- Read more about RSS.