I Haven't been Asleep for Quite Twenty Years.  But I guess one could say I have been asleep for twenty blogging years.  February has been an extremely busy month at the Legislature and it will be a while before things calm down.  The deadlines have been set and the first policy committee deadline is set for Friday, March 15.  That means that the next two weeks will feature extended night meetings in a lot of committees.  Things will likely transpire differently between the two houses of the Legislature as it appears that the committees that combine policy and funding in the Senate may only observe the funding bill deadline of April 12.  All this remains to be seen.

One of the things that has contributed to the hubbub is that most of the policy measures that were part of the vetoed omnibus supplemental appropriations and policy bill for 2018 have been re-introduced again in 2019.  When folks talk about the vast number of bills that have been introduced this year when compared to other years, the effect of last year's veto are rarely mentioned.

In the Meantime.  The Equal(ization) has landed!  A number of equalization bills have been introduced.  In the House, Representative John Huot is carrying HF 1143, a bill that would increase the equalizing factors in the first and second tiers of referendum revenue and deliver about $50 million per year in property tax relief to low property wealth school districts.  Representative Brad Tabke is carrying HF 1142, a bill that would simplify the debt service equalization program by creating a single tier of equalization and then setting the equalization rate at the highest level in current law.  As in the case of the referendum equalization, the total cost of the bill is approximately $50 million per year.  Both bills were heard at an House Education Finance Division meeting in Windom on Friday, March 22, and after the hearing were referred back to the House Ways and Means Committee.  From there, they will be referred to the House Tax Committee.  Representative Paul Marquart who chairs the House Tax Committee has pledged to carry any property tax relief related to education in the tax bill.  That's not to say that there will be an increase in any of the equalization programs or the Ag Bond Credit, but if there is, it will not be pitted against increases in education funding programs.

The Senate also has two equalization bills that it will consider.  They are not companions to the House measures, but do deliver considerable levels of property tax relief.  SF 670 was introduced by Senator Roger Chamberlain and delivers around $30 million of property tax relief by providing relief in each of the three tiers of the referendum levy.  Senator Chamberlain is taking a different approach than what has generally been advocated in the past and the distribution of the relief is a bit different than if the bill were to simply adjust the equalizing factors upward, it is still substantial relief.  Senator Carla Nelson has introduced SF 1237, a bill that would deliver approximately $30 million in referendum equalization and $30 million in debt service equalization.  The approach in Senator Nelson's bill is similar to that found in HF 1142 and 1143, although scaled back somewhat.  Both SF 679 and SF 1237 will be heard in the Senate Education Finance and Policy Committee this coming Wednesday (March 6), at 3 PM, in Room 1100 of the Minnesota Senate Building.