The first bill deadline has come and gone at for the 2013 legislative session. The first deadline required individual policy bills to clear all relevant policy committees in one body or the other in order to remain viable as a stand-alone bill through session. The second bill deadline, which is this Friday, requires those same bills to clear their policy … Read More
Governor Changes Budget Course
Last Friday Governor Dayton announced he would no longer push a plan to expand the state’s sales tax to business services which raised $2 billion for his budget plan. The proposal that came to be known as “B2B” or the business-to-business sales tax faced found little to no support in the House of Representatives. The Senate remained more silent on … Read More
EAR Gains Bi-Partisan Support
Sen. Rod Skoe continued his efforts to get all school districts at least $300/pupil on local property taxes. SF 576, also known as Education Advancement Revenue (EAR) was reviewed again in the Senate Tax committee last week. This time around the bill took on some amendments aimed at gaining bi-partisan support. The first amendment was on the EAR levy base … Read More
E-12 Budget Target Pressure
MREA asked members last week to contact their legislators and ask them to support a larger budget target for education than Governor Dayton had proposed in January. In the days to come after Governor Dayton announces his budget changes, DFL leaders in the House will unveil their budget targets for each major spending category (education, health & human services, transportation, … Read More
Four Bills on School Levy Reform Reach Senate Committee
The Senate Tax Committee last week took up several bills that would reform school levies. Seasonal and Recreational Properties SF 386 (Saxhaug) would return seasonal and recreational properties (non-residential homes) back to school district Referendum Market Value (RMV) and take them out of the statewide property tax levy. Pelican Rapids Superintendent Deb Wanek testified in support of the bill. She … Read More
Anti-Bullying Legislation Moves Forward
The proposed anti- bullying law entitled The Safe and Supportive Minnesota Schools Act (HF 826, SF 783) was heard in the House Education Policy Committee on Thursday. The bill as drafted would take effect in 2014-15 and covers requirements for policies, professional development and reporting processes. Policy It directs the Commissioner to establish a model policy and a School Climate … Read More
State Forecast Brings Good News for Schools
The new state economic forecast released on Thursday contains good news. For starters, the projected budget deficit for the next biennium shrunk to $627 million. This is an improvement of $463 million over the $1.1 billion deficit that initially projected in December. The forecast also contains good news for the current biennium. The state is now projected to end the … Read More
School Property Tax Issues Emerge
A coalition of organizations including MREA, SEE and SEIU are pushing the legislature to take on school property tax reform. A number of school property tax issues are emerging and will be reviewed this coming week. The issues include putting Seasonal & Recreational property taxes back into school operating referenda (SF 386), increasing operating referenda and debt service equalization. Education … Read More
MREA Testifies on Budget Target
The Governor’s E-12 budget has been reviewed in the House and Senate. Testimony has been delivered by many organizations including MREA. Most of the organizational testimony was at the 10,000 foot level giving kudos to the Governor’s plan, but requesting additional funds to help with the first fiscal year’s low increase of 1%. MREA offered this funding fact sheet to the … Read More
House & Senate Education Committees Work in Tandem
The coordination of issues and efforts between House and Senate Education committee this year seems unprecedented. In most years, even when one party controls both legislative bodies, we see divergent policy and finance threads emerge very early. That’s not the case so far this year. In fact, the two bodies have held more joint hearings than probably in several previous … Read More