Education gets a boost under Pawlenty’s budget proposal

01/22/2007

The governor’s fiscal plan calls for no new taxes, $281 million in tax cuts and more than $1 billion in new education spending.


By Patricia Lopez,
Star Tribune
Last update: January 22, 2007 – 11:39 AM


Flush with a projected surplus for the first time since taking office, Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Monday proposed a $34.4 billion two-year state budget that would spend the vast bulk of new money on education.

The plan calls for no new taxes and $1.7 billion in state borrowing for road projects. It also would boost local police forces and State Patrol numbers, help for the homeless and water quality as well as increased preparedness for pandemic flu.

Pawlenty would devote nearly half of the projected $2.2 billion surplus to K-12 and higher education. The next biggest spending item is tax relief: $281 million over two years.

In K-12, Pawlenty would:

• Boost school budgets by 2 percent per year. Performance bonuses, part of his reform initiatives, could double the increases.

• Reinvigorate Minnesota high schools, starting with $75 million aimed at focusing on "rigor, relevance and results."

• Devote $29 million to preschool education, targeted to at-risk children.

Universities and colleges would get funding for research, classroom technology and performance bonuses.

Pawlenty also would spend chunks on improved mental health service, performance incentives for long-term providers and $18 million to begin a wholesale conversion to electronic medical records.

Veterans would get an expansive $41.9 million in new benefits over four years, including exemption from state income tax on military pay and military pensions.

Another $40 million would go to development of alternative energy, including biofuels, solar collectors, plug-in hybrid vehicles and ethanol fuel stations.

Despite early talk of bipartisan cooperation, clear differences are already emerging.

The Republican governor has centered his budget on an effort to remake Minnesota high schools, which he calls "obsolete." The DFL-led Legislature wants education resources directed to all-day kingergarten and subsidized preschool.

On health care, Pawlenty has offered a complex plan to separate MinnesotaCare into two classes and create a nonprofit, fee-fueled agency to oversee the sale of all individual insurance policies in the state.

DFLers have said they prefer to focus on expanding coverage to as many of the state's 80,000 uninsured children as possible, along with other reforms.

There also is emerging debate over the amount of surplus available. Although the official forecasted amount is $2.17 billion, that does not count inflation, which would have cut that amount by nearly half. The remaining $1 billion is mostly one-time money that would not cover ongoing expenditures.

Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller, DFL-Minneapolis, contends that once the state meets basic obligations, the available amount for ongoing expenses is closer to $32 million.