Negotiations between the DFL Governor Tim Walz, DFL Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman and Republican Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka broke down on Tuesday without setting the spending targets for each area of government. No plans were made to meet again until they share a boat on Saturday for the fishing opener. The Governor brought an offer to reduce his total budget by an unspecified $200 million but stipulated that his gas tax and extension of the healthcare provider tax remain. The House reduced their budget by an unspecified $664 million to match the Governor's offer if the Senate meets them halfway by adding $332 million in additional spending. The Senate countered without an increase in spending but offered to add $200 million more for education by cutting health and human services. Read more.

 

The education conference committee met all week to compare House and Senate budget and policy items. There is not much they can accomplish without a spending target. In reality, the two sides politely bickered. The DFL House criticized the Senate for their low budget target that would cause devastating cuts in schools across the state. Senator Carla Nelson (R-Rochester), a co-chair of the conference committee, repeatedly pointed out that the Senate budget does not increase taxes, leadership will boost the education budget target in the end, and education funding from the state has outpaced inflation. To combat that last claim, Rep. Jim Davnie (DFL-Minneapolis), the other co-chair of the conference committee, distributed SEE's graph showing the erosion of the basic formula. When adjusted for inflation, the state spent over S1,400 per pupil more on the students in the classroom in the early 1990s than it does for our students today. Then, the committee got bogged down in conversation that misses the point. Co-chair Nelson reminded the committee of a chart that she previously distributed to the committee members that shows when all education funding, not just the basic formula is included, the state funding exceeded inflation, and she suggested all education funding all that funding should be put on the basic formula. Co-Chair Davnie and the other DFL committee members seemed to downplay the importance of the basic formula and started defending the categorical and other funding streams that, in many cases, benefits the urban centers more than rural and metro districts. By this time, my blood pressure is off the charts. Let's take a more in-depth look at this.