Governor's Summer Bill Takes Another Step.  After passing out of the House Education Finance Committee yesterday, HF 1064--the Governor's "Summer" Bill--cleared another hurdle early this evening when it was passed by the House Ways and Means Committee on a bipartisan vote of 21-7.   The bill contains over $100 million in revenue aimed at providing a partial make-up of lost revenue due to smaller than anticipated enrollments, expanded summer school, early college for 2021 high school graduates, expanded mental health supports for students, and increased early childhood programs to prepare students for kindergarten.  While it has never been stated outwardly as a goal, it is believed that the House would like to pass this bill well before the end of session--hopefully no later than mid-April--to allow districts to implement their planned summer programs.  In my conversations, most districts have the planning process underway, but it is unclear how much revenue may come forth and in what form the revenue will come.  It's an understatement to say that the last two years have been extremely disruptive to the learning process and districts want to get recovery efforts underway and hopefully get everything set for the hoped-for "normal" opening of schools in September.  HF 1064 is expected to pass the House, but it faces an uncertain fate in the Senate, where the companion bill was heard in committee but no action was taken.

Senate Targets Released.  The Senate Majority Caucus released their budget targets for the 2021 session yesterday.  Their total budget comes in $500 million below the Governor Walz' budget recommendations, but one has to remember that the Governor does have tax increases and the Senate majority is seeking to provide tax changes that would exempt PPP loans and enhanced unemployment benefits from state income taxes.  It's difficult to discern the actual increases in some state budget areas because they are used biennium-over-biennium figures in their presentation, but the net increase for E-12 education appears to be in the neighborhood of $150 million.  We have yet to see the House budget targets to complete the three points of the target triangle, but those figures will likely be closer to the Governor's which will set up an interesting end of session.  With all of the Federal money flowing into the state from the various COVID responses, there will be sufficient revenue to meet most needs (and probably a lot of wants) for the immediate future, but trying to balance one-time revenues with on-going commitments is always a challenge even in the best and most predictable times.  Expect a roller coaster from now until the regular session curtain comes down on May 17.

Here is a link to the MPR story on the Republican budget targets:

Minnesota Senate Republicans counter Walz budget proposal