On the education front, it appears the House will be moving a very limited amount of revenue around from several budget areas that show a surplus to other areas that only received one-time revenue last year. This is a miniscule amount of revenue. The Senate has yet to unveil any spending bill and if there is any spending from that body, it will likely mirror the House in terms of amount. Even if the economy hadn't fallen as markedly as it has, it was unlikely that there would have been a significant increase in the amount of revenue going out to school districts for next year. There was hope that the increase in school safety revenue enacted last year could have been extended for another year, but beyond that, there wasn't a lot of buzz surrounding increased funding for K-12. The House was looking more at early childhood education and the Senate was zeroing in on tax cuts. While that didn't preclude additional dollars going to K-12, the final pre-pandemic legislation (at least from my vantage) was probably not going to include a significant investment in that area of the budget.
Both the House and Senate are working on policy bills right now. The House has constructed its omnibus policy bill and the Senate has been hearing individual bills that may be incorporated into an omnibus bill. What is more likely happening is now that the House has assembled its bill, the Senate may look at the bills it has heard and informally pre-conferee a bill with the House and fashion a final agreement to send back to the House that would include measures that both bodies have agreed upon. It's not a perfect way of doing business, but I have found the process to be more transparent than I thought possible as the process has morphed from in-person to online. Below is a link to the House omnibus education policy bill. It is hoped that agreement on final policy bills can be reached by the end of this weekend and all next week can be used on the floors of the House and Senate to pass the measures.
HF 163 -- Author's Delete-All (There were amendments added to the bill at Wednesday's hearings, but there isn't a document available yet that shows those changes.)
For those of you who don't know what a delete-all is, it is an amendment that strikes the previous language from the bill and inserts an all-new version of the legislation. Think of the bill number as a vehicle that picks up passengers along its journey through the legislative process. Sometimes, the original language is retained and individual amendments are added as the bill moves along. But when a wide range of new proposals are being added to the bill, the cleanest and most efficient way to incorporate these new initiatives is to start over and insert one comprehensive amendment that addresses everything the bill's author--and also that preferences of other legislators--wants to have in the bill going forward. There may still be language added or subtracted from the bill through the amendment process (as happened in the House Committee on Wednesday), but the bill generally expresses the direction of the committee members that are in the majority.
As is often the case, this isn't the way the process is described in most civics books, but even in years less confusing than this one has been the process usually unfolds in this manner. It's a stay-tuned week. Deb Griffiths has done a great job with her weekly updates describing how things are moving (or not moving) along, so if you haven't subscribed, do so.
State Economic Woes. We are seeing an economic free fall nationally and no state or locality will be immune to the ripple effects of the slowdown caused by the pandemic and subsequent decisions to slow its spread. Minnesota's situation mirrors the situation throughout the country. The state went from a projected surplus to end this biennium of about $1.5 billion to a projected deficit of $2.4 billion. Almost all of the turnaround in the budget forecast comes from a steep drop in the amount of revenue collected by the state through the income and sales taxes. The losses from are projected to be much lower collections of the income and sales taxes varies by about $300 million with the income tax loss being higher. Given the fact that income tax plays a much heavier role in Minnesota's revenue collection system, I was somewhat surprised that the gap wasn't greater, but seeing the lines outside of Home Depot, it's obvious that while people are buying less, they are still buying things. Here is a link to the MMB report. I don't know if we'll get a clear picture anytime soon, but the June budget forecast should provide a more concise description of what has happened and what likely will happen revenue-wise going forward.
MMB May State Revenue Update
Sad News to Report. I received sad news last week when I was told former Prior Lake-Savage Superintendent and SEE Executive Board Member Sue Ann Gruver passed away after a long battle with cancer. Sue Ann was a true educational leader who was also an ardent supporter of educational equity. Her list of accomplishments as a lifelong educator is extremely impressive and her influence will be felt in the many lives she has touched for years and years. I know I speak for the entire SEE membership when I express my deepest condolences to the Gruver family. I cannot say enough how much Sue Ann meant to all of us in the organization.
