Salary Hold, Deficiency Spending Agreement Passed

"This is the famous, or infamous, deficiency bill," stated Senate Finance Chair Richard Cohen, DFL-St. Paul, as he presented the conference committee report to SF 174 Thursday, February 26. The measure appropriates more than $14 million dollars in emergency funding, including $2 million dollars for Ebola response; $1.35 million dollars for the Minnesota Zoo; and $10.4 million dollars for the Minnesota Security Hospital.

The controversy in the Senate began when Governor Mark Dayton granted salary increases to his cabinet without legislative consideration, which is in his legal prevue to do so. In early February, the Senate approved an amendment to the original legislation that would delay those salary increases until July 1. The final conference committee report temporarily suspends the raises, allows for the governor to appropriate the salary increase on July 1, 2015, but requires legislative approval in the future. The governor's action was the issue that spurred more than an hour of debate on the Senate floor, despite Senator Cohen's efforts to remind members of the true intent of the bill.