Senate's Funding Plan for State Agencies Advances

State officials and representatives of Governor Mark Dayton's administration called upon members of the Senate Committee on State Government Finance to raise the level proposed by Senate Republicans for funding state agencies in the coming biennium . State Auditor Rebecca Otto, Minnesota Management and Budget Commissioner Myron Frans, Administration Commissioner Matt Massman and Revenue Commissioner Cynthia Bauerly appeared before the committee Tuesday, March 21, to urge changes to SF 605, the omnibus state government finance bill authored by committee chair Senator Mary Kiffmeyer, R-Big Lake.

According to Senate fiscal numbers, the Senate proposal is about $143.5 million dollars below Governor Dayton's recommendations. MMB Commissioner Myron Frans said the Senate's level of funding would reduce state agency budgets by 5 to 7.5 percent. "Governor Dayton has made it clear that he will not accept arbitrary, across-the-board reductions in agency spending," he said.

Last week, Senate Republicans released their budget targets, which showed a $30 million dollar reduction in state agency spending as compared to the base level of funding for FY 2018-2019. The state agency reduction is identified as part of the Senate Republican goal of offering $900 million dollars in tax relief while spending about $741.5 million dollars of the $1.65 billion dollar budget surplus for other areas of the state budget, including transportation.

The bill was referred to Finance on a 6-4 party-line vote.