Greetings from Moorhead,
It has been a while since I last sent out a legislative update. I hope everyone had a great summer, and now that the campaign is over, I figured this would be a good time to get folks up to speed on what is happening with the Legislature.
As we all know, the 2014 elections gave the GOP control of the House of Representatives for the 2015-16 biennium. With control of the House, the GOP elected Kurt Daudt to continue leading their caucus as Speaker of the House and chose Joyce Peppin as their Majority Leader. Speaker-designate Daudt also announced the new House committee structure and committee chairs. A complete list of the new House committees and chairs can be found here: http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/sessiondaily/SDView.aspx?StoryID=5322.
The DFL caucus voted Paul Thissen as Minority Leader. I feel that Thissen did an excellent job leading the House through policy decisions and negotiations with the Governor and Senate over the last two years. Despite GOP remarks that Greater Minnesota did not receive fair consideration last session, we can look to E-12 funding and progress to close the funding gap between metropolitan and Greater Minnesota schools, the Capital Investment bills that favored Greater Minnesota 44% to 31% (with the remaining dollars going to the Capitol restoration), transportation and the Corridors of Commerce projects that favored Greater Minnesota in terms of the number of projects and overall funding, and the 2013 Energy bill that exempted municipal and cooperative energy providers as proof of the DFL’s commitment to Greater Minnesota (not to mention funding for our Border City programs and dollars to complete Moorhead’s flood mitigation projects). Speaker Thissen deserves credit for much of this progress as demonstrated through his understanding of the needs in Greater Minnesota.
Aside from the change in the majority party and new committee structure, the biggest news out of the Legislature was released Thursday with the budget forecast. Two budget forecasts are released each year (in November/early December and in February/early March). The November forecast is a preliminary snapshot of the state’s fiscal standing before the legislative session begins, while the February forecast is what the Legislature uses to craft the state’s budget for the next biennium. The budget forecast released on Thursday projected a surplus for Minnesota of $1.037 billion for the next biennium. This projected surplus is largely a result of higher than expected revenue collections and lower than expected spending. The lower than expected spending was primarily in the Health and Human Services (HHS) budget, which is good news as the HHS budget has been the fastest growing sector of state expenditures. The lower than expected HHS spending is evidence that health care costs in Minnesota slowed over the last two years.
Another factor that led to the surplus is the projected balance that will be left over after the 2014-15 biennium. This balance is projected to be $556 million – of which $183 million will go into the state’s budget reserve as directed by a law passed in 2014 mandating a third of any biennial surplus go the reserve account. This will leave a projected balance from the 2014-15 biennium of $373 million. For more information on the budget forecast, please visit http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/sessiondaily/SDView.aspx?StoryID=5324.
My hope for this surplus is to direct it at transportation/infrastructure, education (specifically continuing to close the funding disparity between schools in the metro and Greater Minnesota) and getting a firm handle on the future needs of senior and long-term care. Despite the slowdown in spending for HHS over the last two years, we need to address senior and long-term care in a very deliberate and concerted manner as demands will only increase with our aging baby boom population.
I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season. Take time to enjoy friends, family and good food. I know I will before the session begins. Although I am excited to back down to St. Paul, I am also excited to share this special time of year with those close to me.
Thank You for the Opportunity to Serve,
Ben