House and Senate conferees will have $293 million in General Fund money to spend on a supplemental budget bill that covers the current budget period.
Both the House and Senate last month passed different versions of HF3172 and are currently negotiating the differences in conference committee. The global target was announced in a Thursday night news release by Rep. Lyndon Carlson Sr. (DFL-Crystal) and Sen. Richard Cohen (DFL-St. Paul), who are the co-chairs of the conference committee. The money is available because Minnesota Management & Budget in late February announced a $1.23 billion budget surplus for the period that ends June 30, 2015.
The bill has articles with spending provisions related to the various parts of state government, including K-12 education and health and human services.
The House initially came into conference with a bill that would spend $322 million. The Senate came into conference with a bill that would spend $209 million.
Carlson and Cohen also announced an $883.5 million target for the upcoming 2016-2017 biennium.
Cohen said at Thursday night’s conference committee hearing that the committee has instructions to wrap up the bill by the end of Sunday.