By State Rep. Paul Anderson
The new legislative session begins this week with the swearing-in ceremony set for noon on Tuesday, Jan. 8. It’s been roughly 40 years since one political party has controlled both houses of the Legislature, in addition to the governor’s office. That’s the case this biennium with the DFL having majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, in addition to Gov. Dayton’s two years remaining in his term.
When I first came to St. Paul four years ago, I was part of the Republican minority. What was different then was Tim Pawlenty in the governor’s office and the balancing threat of a veto over any legislation passed. Now, for the most part, that veto possibility has been greatly lessened with one party having control of the agenda.
One concern I have entering the new session is the large number of committee chairs from the metro area. In particular, the agricultural finance budget will now be put together in a committee chaired by a Minneapolis legislator. A group of mostly rural members has sent a letter to House leadership, urging them to remove ag finance from the Environment and Natural Resources Committee and place it back with the Agricultural Policy Committee, where it’s been for many years. I will be serving on both of these committees and would surely appreciate if leadership puts the responsibility of forming the budget for the Dept. of Agriculture back where it belongs. That way both policy and finance can work together for the betterment of rural Minnesota.
Our state is in relatively good shape heading into the new biennium, at least in comparison to the budget situation just two years ago when Republicans took control of the Legislature. At that time, the budget deficit was forecast to be more than $5 billion with cash reserves also nearly depleted. As we start work this year, there is still a deficit facing us but it’s much smaller. The figure is $1.1 billion for the 2014-15 biennium, which is still large, but a major difference now is that our cash flow account and rainy day fund are both fully replenished. The amount in those two accounts is around $960 million, which nearly cancels out the deficit.
In addition, we’ve also made good progress in paying back the education shift to our schools. Two years ago, the shift stood at 70-30 and was widened even further, to 60-40, as part of the government shutdown settlement. Today, after paying back nearly $1.5 billion, the shift percentage stands at approximately 83-17. Our schools began receiving the latest payback in December, which should allow them to repay loans they had taken out earlier to maintain cash flow.
There are calls from many areas for increased funding. It’s unclear if or when legislation that would increase revenue (taxes) will be taken up. It’s important to realize that even without increased taxes, revenue coming in to the state is forecast to increase in the coming two years. The problem is that, under current law, expenditures are expected to increase even more, hence the projected deficit.
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