Under threat of veto, conferees poised to agree on omnibus ed. finance bill

Conferees for the omnibus education finance bill indicated their willingness early Saturday morning to adopt a conference committee report on HF844*/SF811 before the end of the legislative day, despite a developing disagreement House and Senate majority leaders now have with Gov. Mark Dayton over an E-12 spending target and whether a voluntary, universal prekindergarten program will be part of the final bill.

“We are very optimistic we will have an agreement within 12 hours,” said Sen. Chuck Wiger (DFL-Maplewood), who co-chairs the conference committee with Rep. Jenifer Loon (R-Eden Prairie).

On Friday, House Speaker Kurt Daudt (R-Crown) and Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk (DFL-Cook) announced they had reached an agreement on an E-12 budget target that would increase spending by $400 million over the 2016-17 biennium. That’s more spending than both original targets passed on the House (nearly $57 million) and Senate ($365 million) floors late last month and an amount that could fund at least a 1.5 percent increase to the per pupil funding formula each year of the biennium.

Dayton responded to that announcement by publicly issuing his counteroffer late Friday which includes a proposed $550 million in additional spending for education, $173 million of which he wants dedicated to a voluntary, half-day preschool program in the public schools. He also threatened to veto any E-12 appropriations that come under that dollar amount and do not include his preschool plan. His original budget proposal included a $695 million increase for education spending and a full-day public preschool program. Both the House and Senate version included increased support for existing early childhood learning programs, but left out any funding for creation of a universal public preschool program.

“I met them halfway at $550 million and we’ll see what they will do with that,” Dayton said at a Saturday morning press conference. “If they are going to force a special session it’s their doing, not mine.”

Although Senate DFL leaders and House Republicans are hopeful conferees can finalize an agreement on their joint target, House DFL leaders are voicing their support for Dayton’s position.

Despite the education spending impasse, conferees met late Friday to adopt provisions of the omnibus education finance bill that featured same and similar language in hopes they could get elements of the bill ready as soon as possible for revisor’s staff as time winds down on the session. They reconvened Saturday morning to adopt non-controversial provisions and language and have recessed until the call of the chair.

Loon and Wiger remained optimistic they would work out the remaining differences over the course of Saturday to reach an agreement that reflects the joint target given to them by Daudt and Bakk.