The next week at the legislature will bring more attention to governor’s budget and education issues. Here are three of the week’s highlights: The Senate Tax committee will review Tuesday the Governor’s tax proposal. The House Education Finance committee will review Wednesday the Education Finance Reform Work Group recommendations. MREA will present on Thursday to the House Education Finance committee … Read More
6 Ways the Governor's Budget Affects E-12
The Governor’s proposed budget that was released on Tuesday would have a series of effects on Greater Minnesota schools. Here’s a look at six ways it could impact you: Basic Formula Governor Dayton promised during his campaign to increase the basic formula allowance in each year he’s in office. He accomplished that with ‘50&50’ on the formula in his first … Read More
MREA Shares Financial Requests with Senate E-12
MREA lobbyists Sam Walseth and Vernae Hasbargen on Thursday shared major financial requests of the legislature this session and their reaction to the governor’s budget with the Senate E-12 Budget Division. They gave kudos to the Governor for putting new state revenue on the table and made these three key requests: Do more than the down payment the Governor is … Read More
Governor Releases Budget
Governor Dayton released Tuesday his budget plan and as expected he’s proposing a significant expansion of the sales tax and an upper income tax increase in order to generate revenue to balance the budget, invest in education and give homeowners a property tax rebate. In an attempt to make it cost neutral to the average consumer, he’s proposing to lower … Read More
Governor Budget Plan Unveiled Tuesday
The legislature will reconvene on Tuesday and receive Governor Dayton’s much anticipated budget plans for 2014-15. The Governor’s staff and his agency heads have been very tight lipped about what the overall plan will entail. We’ve been hearing for months about tax reform and the Governor’s goal of raising revenue on the highest income earners. Will he follow through on those promises? … Read More
PAYMENT SHIFT: Politics, Reality & First Bill
The school payment shift was a hotly contested issue in the last campaign cycle with House DFLers pounding on Republicans for their decision to utilize a large shift to help balance the current budget. Memories must be short as both parties have use payment shifts to balance previous budgets when they were in charge. In fact, payment shifts can be a … Read More
House Education Finance Committee Sets Goals
All of the education committees have met for the first time and they scratched the surface of the committee jurisdictions as the second week of the 2013 session ended. The Senate E-12 Budget Division heard from Dr. Tom Melcher from the MDE about the Education Finance Reform recommendations. The House Education Finance committee set the table for their upcoming hearings … Read More
SESSION BEGINS: Week 1 Down; 18 To Go
The first week of the 2013 session has come and gone and as promised, it was a slow and ceremonial start. The pace will pick up some next week as committee chairs hold hearings so members can get to know each other on their newly appointed committees. Several committees also are holding hearings to conduct overviews of their jurisdictional subject matter. Mostly, … Read More
Who’s Behind the Minnesota Education Bill
Minnesota’s 88th legislature will be sworn in Tuesday at noon in what is traditionally ceremonial day with family at the Capitol. Major spending and policy decisions await the new legislature, but the first few weeks of session will start out slow. But soon the omnibus education bill will take center stage. The Senate E-12 Budget Division is responsible for producing the … Read More
Legislative Session Kicks Off: Players to Know
Politics is driven by personality as much as policy, if not more. This session a new cast of characters will take over the four major leadership roles within the legislature. Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk, a union carpenter from Cook, will lead a newly invigorated Senate DFL majority. Sen. Bakk has 39 members of the 67-member body, several of them newly elected … Read More