Stopgap funding bill that for now settles salary kerfuffle goes to the governor

A way to plug a financial hole for several state agencies this fiscal year was re-passed by the House 108-20 Thursday.

Sponsored by Rep. Jim Knoblach (R-St. Cloud) and Sen. Richard Cohen (DFL-St. Paul), HF264/ SF174* is now on its way to the governor. It was passed 35-29 by the Senate earlier in the day.

Through the process, the $15.45 million deficiency bill became mired in debate when lawmakers used it as a vehicle to act out their frustrations over Gov. Mark Dayton’s move to increase salaries of state agency heads.

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.

Knoblach said at a Wednesday conference committee 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. The House language docks a combined $40,000 from three agencies requesting stop-gap funding proposed in the bill.

Under the bill, the governor would be required to seek legislative approval for future agency head pay raises, effective July 2, 2015. Effective the day after enactment, the 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.

Deficiency spending

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.