Government

House passes omnibus K-12 education budget

By Sarah Lemagie, Session Weekly/Session Daily

Rep. Paul Marquart talks with House Majority Leader Erin Murphy during debate on the omnibus education finance bill April 23. (Photo by Paul Battaglia)

The House has passed a funding plan for Minnesota schools that features full state funding for voluntary all-day kindergarten.

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Higher education budget bills focus on making college affordable

By Caitlin Biegler, Minnesota Budget Bites

By 2018, Minnesota’s employers are expected to require one of the most highly educated workforces in the nation, with 70 percent of jobs needing some education beyond high school. The House and Senate help prepare us to meet those needs by investing in higher education in their omnibus higher education bills.

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Minnesota Budget Bites

Local government aid and the three-legged stool, part two

By Jeff Van Wychen, Minnesota 2020

As noted in part one of this post, funding for the city Local Government Aid (LGA) program has been cut dramatically since 2002. As a result, the property tax leg of the Minnesota’s three-legged revenue stool has grown—that is to say, Minnesota’s dependence on the property tax for funding public services has increased. To reverse this trend, Governor Dayton’s tax proposal and the House and Senate omnibus tax bills each contain an $80 million (19 percent) increase in the LGA appropriation in 2014 to restore a portion of prior year cuts.

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Minnesota 2020

Omnibus health and human services finance bill passes House with several bipartisan amendments

By Susan Hegarty, Session Weekly/Session Daily

Rep. Tom Huntley, chair of the House Health and Human Services Finance Committee, speaks to the media in the House gallery April 22 to give a preview of the omnibus health and human services finance bill. (Photo by Andrew VonBank)

Health care workers who have experienced reduced pay and benefits in recent years because of state deficits could receive 2-3 percent pay increases.

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University of Minnesota creates new program to allay sequester cuts

By Rebecca Harrington, The Minnesota Daily

The dust has settled after sweeping budget cuts known as the sequester went into effect last month, and federal agencies have responded with how they’re going to implement them.

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Additional money OK’d for sex offender treatment, school safety center

By Mike Cook, Session Weekly/Session Daily

Rep. Michael Beard, left, and Rep. Michael Paymar discuss an amendment to the omnibus public safety finance and policy bill during debate April 19. (Photo by Paul Battaglia)

A conference committee will likely be needed to merge a pair of omnibus public safety finance and policy bills into one.

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Government efficiency sought in omnibus state government bill

By Liz Stoever, Session Weekly/Session Daily

Rep. Mary Murphy works with her committee administrator, Nancy Conley, during debate on the omnibus state government and veterans affairs funding bill April 20. (Photo by Paul Battaglia)

Legislators turned their attention to the efficiency of state government Saturday before passing the omnibus state government bill 73-56.

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Jody Hauer: Review of special education reveals difficult cost-control issues

By Staff, Civic Caucus

Summary: As of 2011, nearly 112,000 students in Minnesota were receiving special education, 13.6 percent of all students in grades K-12, according to Jody Hauer, principal evaluator for the Office of the Legislative Auditor. Hauer, project manager for the Auditor's March 2013 evaluation of special education, points out that special education revenues in 2011 amounted to $1.8 billion. She discusses the four main lines of inquiry of the evaluation: funding; state and federal legal requirements for special education; legal compliance monitoring and enforcement; and characteristics of the students receiving special education. She reports that the per student costs for providing services to children in 13 different disability categories vary widely by category, from $2,583 to $47,252. Hauer also points out the rise in special education costs and the impact of that increase on local school districts. She also discusses major disincentives for school districts to implement cost-control measures for special education and recommends ways of adding cost-control incentives.

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Health care proposals go under the knife, move to the House floor

By Susan Hegarty, Session Weekly/Session Daily

At first blush, HF1233 appears to be Gov. Mark Dayton’s budget proposals for the Health and Human Services departments. Perhaps that’s because the House Health and Human Services Finance Division used the governor’s plan as a starting block.

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Omnibus judiciary bill passed by House, off to Senate

By Mike Cook, Session Weekly/Session Daily

With a goal of keeping the court system strong, while increasing access to justice for all, the omnibus judiciary finance and policy bill received a favorable House vote.

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