The Minnesota Senate has approved several of its Omnibus Budget bills already.
Yesterday we passed the Higher Education Budget bill (SF 1989 Sen. Pappas), and the Agriculture and Veterans budget bill (SF 1925 Sen Vickerman).
The Higher Ed bill spends less than the Governor recommended, and included the controversial “Dream Act” language. This provision would all illegal aliens (undocumented aliens) to attend Minnesota public colleges and universities for in-state tuition rates, rather than non-resident tuition rates, if they attended a Mn. high school for at least 3 years and graduated from a Mn. high school.
The Governor, and most Republicans oppose the provision. I am a co-author. We heard from the university systems that the proposal has no fiscal cost. The State can absorb these additional students at marginal cost which is less than resident tuition rates.
The Senate Republican offered an amendment which would have limited tuition increases at all public colleges to inflation plus 1 percent. Surprisingly, it failed by 3 votes. This surprised me, given all of the concern about tuition increases during the past 4 years.
Today, the Senate passes the Omnibus Transportation Budget bill (SF 1986 Sen. Murphy). It includes at least 6 increases in taxes, totaling up to $1.5 Billion in new taxes. The Governor has also made clear that he will veto any gas tax increase. This bill includes up to 18.5 cents/gallon of gas tax increase.
Tomorrow the Senate will debate and vote on the Omnibus State Government bill (SF 1997 Sen. Betzold). This bill is possible veto material too. It includes 2 controversial provisions:
1. Mandatory language to include “domestic partner” health insurance benefits in all state employee contracts, if the benefits are offered to spouses. This is clearly a move toward recognition of same sex marriage.
2. Elimination of all assistant commissioner positions and about half of the deputy commissioner positions appointed by the Governor.
I don’t believe that Gov. Pawlenty will allow either of these to pass either.
We did pass one bill unanimously. It was the Omnibus Public Safety and Corrections Budget Bill (SF 1992 Sen. Higgens). I am a co-author of this bill. It funds our public safety and prison systems at about $25 million less than the Governor requested, but does not include a “poison pill” provision.
The Senate will pass all of its tax and budget bills before Easter break. The bills will probably change a lot before they get to the Governor’s desk.
I suspect that April and May will be interesting. The table is being set for a major controntation between the DFL controlled legislature and the Republican Governor.