Final Week of Session
The most aggressive legislative cycle in modern Minnesota history is coming to a close. With enough legislative days to be in session today, Wednesday, and then Friday-Sunday, the legislature can pass bills until midnight on Sunday the 19th. As always, about 90% of the work is piling up to the final days. Conference committees on supplemental budget bills began work last Friday and some went through the weekend.
Sen. Nicole Mitchell’s felony burglary charge continues to cloud the Senate’s operations. An ethics hearing took place last week, but her attorney refused to allow her to testify as she is facing criminal proceedings in Becker County. Many suspect she’ll be asked to resign in the wake of session, but in the meantime the DFL majority is using her vote to keep many bills moving forward.
Depending on how partisan the supplemental budget bills and other policy bills are coming back from conference committee could determine the fate of the Bonding bill, which needs GOP support in order to pass. Lastly, supporters of sports betting legislation that has languished for several years are hopeful that the legislature is finally ready to move a deal forward to the Governor’s desk.
Education Policy Conference Committee wraps
Library materials and books collections will need to be reviewed by professional librarians in public schools and public libraries, and elected boards won’t be allowed to prohibit or ‘ban’ certain materials based solely on their content. That is if the Education Policy bill that wrapped up in conference committee last week passes both the House and Senate, which we fully expect it to. The Governor has called for this provision and he’ll sign it into law.
SF 3567 Conference Committee Report – 93rd Legislature (2023 – 2024) (mn.gov)
Education Supplemental Budget Conference Committee is underway
Last Friday saw House and Senate conference committee members walk through the similarities and differences between their respective proposals for spending $43 million next fiscal year on education. There’s a lot of agreement that $31 million of that target will go toward teacher stipends for the time they put into the new literacy training program in their district. The conference committee will hopefully come through with repurposing a $36 million pot of funds that will go directly into district budgets at $40/pupil to support activities relating to literacy incentive aid.
A number of other smaller, but important items, like a reserve for student support personnel aid, expanding student support personnel aid for cooperative transportation costs, and more, are in the mix. We’re told that leadership would like the Education supplemental budget bill wrapped up by Tuesday night, giving them time to put it all together and bring it up for a vote on Friday or Saturday morning.
