Week of May 20, 2007

Greetings. Expect some more detail here soon on some of the bills passed (and not passed) on Sunday, May 20 and Monday, May 21. We were on the floor for several straight days and we were also very burned out. After the session was completed, I had to "unplug" for a couple of days, get some sleep, and spend some time with my family, who really hadn't seen me much for two weeks.

On Sunday, May 20, we handled several bills, including

• SF1196/HF1205: manufactured home relocation costs
• HF122: omnibus jobs, workforce and housing bill
• HF1063: omnibus higher education policy and finance bill
• SF1131/HF1021: omnibus game and fish bill
• SF145: energy policy bill

On Monday, May 21, we tackled the last major finance bills.

E-12 bill (HF2245) highlights: Under this E-12 bill, our local school districts would receive the following amounts.

Centennial School District

• FY08: $8,629 per pupil (3.5% more than the Governor's proposal and 5.1% over current base funding)
• FY09: $8,795 per pupil (3.2% more than the Governor's proposal and 1.5% over current base funding)

Total increase in funding over the two-year period: 6.6%

Mounds View School District

• FY08: $10,506 per pupil (2.2% less than the Governor's proposal but 4.5% over current base funding)
• FY09: $10,753 per pupil (11.0% more than the Governor's proposal and 1.2% over current base funding)

Total increase in funding over the two-year period: 5.7%

White Bear School District

• FY08: $9,103 per pupil (13.7% more than the Governor's proposal and 4.9% over base funding)
• FY09: $9,004 per pupil (3.3% more than the Governor's proposal and 1.2% over base funding)

Total increase in funding over the two-year period: 6.1%

I voted for this budget, and it passed. Much is going to be made that our bill has less on the education formula (2% in FY08 and 1% in FY09) than the Governor's proposal. This is misleading. Our budget makes a significant payment to special education purposes so that school districts can use formula dollars that they currently use for special education and use it for other purposes, like teachers, energy costs, etc.

You may also hear that the legislature gave schools "four-and-four" in 2005, or four percent each year on the formula for two years. This is also misleading. The increases relied on a signficant amount of property tax levies in order for school districts to get the money. One Centennial parent advocate tells me that Centennial is getting more money in this budget than the 2005 budget since we do not have any strings attached.

Early childhood: This was also included in this budget (although some of the early childhood budget is in the health and human services budget. Our budget restores cuts to ECFE, Head Start, School Readiness, and Adult Basic Education. We would have liked to do more in this area, since it saves us money later.

More on the other bills soon!