Agreement on deficiency/salary bill expected on House Floor Thursday

A conference committee late Wednesday approved a report that began its legislative journey as one to provide stop-gap funding for several state agencies but ended up as an opportunity for legislators to act on their frustrations over Gov. Mark Dayton’s move to increase salaries of state agency heads.

Expected to be on the House and Senate floors Thursday, HF264/SF174* would require the governor to seek legislative approval for future agency head pay raises, effective July 2, 2015. Until July 1, 2015, salaries would be frozen at the 2014 level.

However, on July 1, 2015, only — the start of the new fiscal year — the governor could act on the raises without legislative consent.

Two years ago, the DFL-controlled Legislature changed state law so that the governor could pay commissioners up to 133 percent of his salary. Previous law capped the limit at 95 percent for most and 85 percent for a few.

Additionally, the bill would provide the following stop-gap funding:

• $10.68 million to the Department of Human Services for the Minnesota Food Assistance Program ($246,000) and the Minnesota Security Hospital in St. Peter ($10.44 million);
• $2.89 million to the Department of Health for costs of statewide Ebola activities and for grants to certain hospitals for Ebola-related expenditures;
• $1.35 million for Minnesota Zoo operations: and
• $568,000 to the natural resources for law enforcement. 

House language prevailed throughout most of the bill, including what Sen. Richard Cohen (DFL-St. Paul), the Senate sponsor, termed a “Shakespearean pound of flesh.” He was referring to a provision from the House that would dock a combined $40,000 from three agencies requesting stop-gap funding proposed in the bill.

Rep. Jim Knoblach (R-St. Cloud), the House sponsor, said the proposed budget cut, while minor, sends a signal that the House wasn’t happy about the early January timing of the more than $800,000 in salary increases — ranging from $22,407 to $35,475 — and the lack of communication between the governor and legislators on the matter. The Legislature was not made aware of the pay increase until early February.

Rep. Jim Knoblach

“Without the salary increases, they would have needed a little less” to fill the Fiscal Year 2015 funding gap addressed in the deficiency bill, Knoblach said.

But the salary language in the House bill showcased lawmakers’ dismay not so much over the salaries themselves but how the agency raises occurred.

The last time the commissioners had a pay increase was 12 years ago. Rep. Lyndon Carlson, Sr. (DFL-Crystal) said that when the bumps are given, it results in “sticker shock.”

“The lesson is that you have to make the adjustments periodically,” he said.

Rep. Denny McNamara (R-Hastings) criticized the governor for not talking to the legislative leadership about his intentions. “Now I gotta deal with this issue; it put us in a tough spot.”