Legislative Update #1
November 16, 2004
2005 Legislative Session: The legislature will convene on Tuesday, January 4, 2005. It is a budget year but capital bonding will also be on the agenda, as the legislature did not act on a capital bonding bill last year.
The Minnesota Legislature: Now that the election is over, you can find members of the House of Representatives and the Senate in the 2004 Election Directory of the 2005-06 Minnesota Legislature: http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/hinfo/leginfo/elecdir04.pdf. The Minnesota House of Representatives was up for re-election this year; the Senate was not. Eight committee chairs in the House either retired or were defeated. House leadership must now begin the work of organizing their committees, in terms of membership and structure. The Speaker of the House has the option of retaining the current committee structure, making changes such as having fewer committees, or changing the jurisdiction of committees. Higher Education has been a stand-alone committee in the House. At question is whether it will remain so or be combined with another, such as the K-12 education committee. The former chair of the Higher Education Committee, Rep. Doug Stang did not seek re-election so there will be a new chair and membership of the committee will change. And because of the overall change in the number of Republicans to the number of Democrats in the House, the ratio of Republicans to Democrats will change on every committee, including higher education committee. These decisions for the House of Representatives are expected to be made no later than the end of November. Because the Senate was not up for re-election, few if any changes are likely to be made in their committee membership.
Capital Bonding: The Senate Capital Investment Committee will begin work on a new capital bonding bill. The University will resubmit the 2004 capital request, updated to reflect inflationary costs and with the request for planning funds omitted. The Capital Investment Committee has scheduled hearings: the first is Monday, November 22, 2004 to hear presentations from the Department of Finance; the second is Monday, November 29, 2004 to hear presentations from the University of Minnesota and MnSCU. On November 29, President Bruininks will present the University’s 2004 capital request, as approved by the Board of Regents at their November meeting, to the committee. The Senate leadership’s current plan is to have a bonding bill on the floor of the Senate for consideration in early January.
Until the organization of the House is complete, we won’t know when their Capital Investment Committee will hear the University’s request.
Biennial Budget: President Bruininks met with Governor Pawlenty during the week of November 8 to discuss the University’s biennial budget request and to reaffirm the urgent need for a capital bonding appropriation. The President made an impassioned argument for state investment in the University through its biennial request. The Governor expressed his hope that higher education will not receive any further budget reductions and that there can be new money appropriated to the University.
The University is asking the state for $42 million in new funding each of the next two years. State funds would be used to invest in academic initiatives in the biosciences and initiatives to attract and retain talented faculty, students (grad and undergrad), and staff. A third area of state investment would be support for research and technology infrastructure. The biennial budget request is a partnership proposal to the state. The University will likewise fund $42 million each year, through tuition increases and reallocation, to cover basic operating costs including base compensation increases. For information on the 2006–2007 Biennial Budget Partnership Proposal, go to: http://www.umn.edu/govrel.
The next budget forecast for the state will be the end of November and the predication is that the forecast will remain the same as it is now—a shortfall of at least $400 million. It appears the Governor is still holding to his “no new tax” pledge. Even so, he appears to support the need for state investment in the University.
The University’s biennial budget request will be submitted to the Department of Finance this month. The Governor’s office will assemble the Governor’s budget throughout the month of December and will present it to the legislature no latter than January 25, 2005.
Presentations and Reports: Although session isn’t officially underway, President Bruininks and other University leaders have begun presenting the University’s legislative requests to legislators and others. Last week, President Bruininks presented the University’s biennial budget request to Department of Finance Commissioner Peggy Ingison, her staff, staff from the Governor’s office, and HESO Commissioner Susan Heegaard. The Department of Finance routinely conducts hearings for each of the agencies that are a component of the state’s budget.
Also of interest to the University, the Citizens League Higher Education Study Committee recently released a report on higher education in Minnesota. The report can be found at: http://www.govdocs.com/service/edition.html?document_id=35114&edition_id=73830
Call to Action: Hold the date of January 27, 2005 for the Legislative Briefing. This annual event will give attendees information about the University’s requests and, more importantly, information on how advocates can support the University with their legislators.