By Rep. Paul Anderson
Gov. Mark Dayton appears to be doubling down on his top priorities for this legislative session, namely an increase in the gas tax, an expansion of pre-kindergarten in our schools, and some form of buffer legislation.
The first two were his main initiatives during his State of the State message delivered to a joint session of the Legislature last week, while the buffer requirement was among several others mentioned that he wants completed during this session. There is general agreement that more funding is needed for transportation, but the disagreement comes from House Republicans who say they can come up with a spending plan that earmarks $7 billion to roads and bridges without raising the gas tax. Dayton’s plan would place a sales tax on the wholesale price of fuel, with approximately 16 cents being the additional base cost of the tax at today's prices, in addition to annual adjustments based on the cost of fuel.
On the education front, the governor calls for additional funding, but the majority would be used to implement a new pre-kindergarten program statewide. It would be voluntary, but schools could lose other sources of funding if they decided not to go with pre-K. It reminds me of the all-day, every day kindergarten program that Minnesota just finished implementing, in that it started out with partial funding and then was ramped up to full funding for those students just entering school.
Moving the enrollment ladder down to 4-year-olds is good … for those who need it. We should be targeting this early initiative to those students who truly need it. But to roll it out statewide adds considerably to the cost and gives schools a whole new set of problems to solve. Namely, do they have enough space to house these additional students? What about transportation of these youngsters and having enough staff, including certified teachers by the year 2020, to operate these additional classes? And how will this affect our traditional family daycare businesses if they lose their 4-year-olds to the public schools?
Nearly all school officials I visit with say the increase in their general education funding is not adequate under legislative proposals they have seen so far. State aid per student needs to increase enough to at least cover their basic costs from inflation. They would rather see schools receive a larger increase in the formula per student and then be allowed to put those funds to the best uses as they see fit.
Another bill making its way through the committee process has to do with how those who own agricultural land are taxed for school capital projects. Under current law, all ag land is subject to a levy when capital building projects are financed. If this piece of legislation were to become law, state aid would cover one-half of those costs formerly assigned to ag land. The estimated price tag for this change to both current and future capital referendums is around $48 million annually.
Governor Dayton’s buffer proposal, first offered as a 50-foot, one-size-fits-all plan, has not moved in the House. It was given an introductory hearing in the Environment Committee, but was not passed. The governor has softened his stance somewhat and has also offered some level of compensation to landowners who would be affected, but nothing has been agreed to. It seems to me that this issue is too important to rush through, and should instead be sent to the Drainage Working Group for further study and a recommendation.
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