2011 LEGISLATIVE SESSION REPORT

Senator Scott Dibble Representative Frank Hornstein

District 60
115 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard
St. Paul, Minnesota 55155
651-296-4191
sen.scott.dibble@senate.mn
www.senate.mn/senatordibble
District 60B
213 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard
St. Paul, Minnesota 55155
651-296-9281
rep.frank.hornstein@house.mn
www.house.mn/60B

June, 2011

Dear neighbor,

On Monday, May 23, we concluded the 2011 legislative session, the time of adjournment mandated by
our state’s constitution.  But as you no doubt know, the legislature, led by the Republican majority party,
was not successful in passing a balanced and fair budget agreement for the coming two years.

Our state continues to have a historic $5 billion budget deficit stemming from the Great Recession,
massive tax cuts for the wealthiest, and disinvestment by Governor Pawlenty in core public services
creating additional job loss and stymied economic growth. The state’s fiscal year ends June 30. Absent
agreement and a balanced budget, state services deemed “non-essential” by the courts will cease on July
1.

Governor Dayton repeatedly asked legislative leaders to develop a three-pronged budget approach: cuts
to state spending, reform and alignment of essential public services, and additional revenue, raised fairly,
to support vital investments that help create jobs and put us on the path to economic recovery. He
offered a budget that achieved these outcomes and twice, he made significant concessions to Republican
demands. At the writing of this newsletter, Gov. Dayton has cut his original proposal for new revenue in
half and increased his spending cuts by more than $1 billion.  He has now met the Republicans
halfway.

The Republican legislative leadership refused to negotiate and offered literally no movement of their own.
Cloaked in campaign rhetoric, they told Minnesotans they proposed an all-cuts budget to solve the $5
billion deficit, but even that wasn’t true.

Instead, the GOP budget plan:

 Shifted expenses to the local level, causing at least a $1 billion statewide property tax increase
 Claimed savings from “reforms” that non-partisan fiscal analyses do not support and, therefore,
cannot count toward the $5 billion deficit
 Delayed payments to schools (again)
 Raided money from special funds (a one-time band-aid)
In addition, their plan causes 140,000 Minnesotans to lose their healthcare, $250 million is slashed from
services to the elderly and disabled, hospitals lose $900 million, $56.5 million is cut from special
education, and higher education is decimated by the biggest cuts in history (fully one-fifth of the
University of Minnesota’s budget disappears). General fund support for transit is reduced by 85%,
dismantling any way people have to get to jobs, school, and medical appointments.

At least 30,000 people would lose their jobs directly from these cuts, mostly in the private health care
industry. Untold thousands more will lose their jobs from the secondary effects of this budget.
Minnesota’s halting economic recovery would be reversed.
Both of us voted against all of the devastating budget bills proposed by GOP lawmakers. Below are some
of the reasons we found their proposal unacceptable:

Education: Early Childhood – 12th grade

 Significantly cuts funding for Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth schools
 Caps funding for special education with no mandate relief
 Does not contain early childhood initiatives supported on a bipartisan basis
 Eliminates teachers’ right to strike

Education: Higher Education

 Gives the University of Minnesota and Minnesota State Colleges and Universities the largest cut in
state history
 Returns higher education funding to 1998 levels, though schools are serving tens of thousands
more students
 Creates tuition caps, forcing schools to cut programs and services to students in order to meet
budget constraints
 $5.1 million cut and $3.3 million tuition cap gap create an $8.4 million revenue gap at MCTC

Health and Human Services

 Adds more than 140,000 Minnesotans to the rolls of the uninsured

 Repeals cost-saving bipartisan reforms passed in 2008
 Half of $1.65 billion “savings” is unsubstantiated

Taxes

 Eliminates Local Government Aid (LGA) to Minneapolis – funding that supports public safety,
roads, snow plows – causing a dramatic property tax increase citywide.
 Reduces the Renters’ Refund by hundreds of dollars each year for every renter.

Public Safety

 Drastically cuts funding for victims of child sex abuse, services for battered women, services for
sexual assault victims, community crime prevention, and gang and drug task forces
 Transfers funds from Fire Safety Account
 Continues the underfunding of Minnesota’s courts
  Requires counties to pay for last 60 days of prison terms – another attempt to pass costs onto
the local level, causing property tax increases.
 Severely limits the Department of Human Rights’ ability to carry out its duties by slashing the
agency’s budget 65%.

Transportation

 Cuts $109 million from metro area transit

 Eliminates all appropriations for commuter and passenger rail activity from the General Fund
 Prohibits MN Department of Transportation from spending on intercity passenger rail

Jobs and Economic Development

 Cuts spending by 58%, compared to current spending

 Takes local property tax money from Iron Range long-range economic development fund
 Cuts training resources to laid-off workers, capital and consulting for businesses looking to
expand and incentives for companies looking to startup in Minnesota

Environment and Energy

 Dept. of Natural Resources service reduction at upwards of 19 state parks, including

“mothballing” up to seven
 Rolls back protections to water and natural resources
 Transfers constitutionally dedicated money from state lottery funds to backfill cuts in other areas
of the budget

State Government

 Destroys collective bargaining agreements by imposing a salary freeze on state workers

(something most public employees already have accepted, but through appropriate collective
bargaining processes)
 Cuts the state workforce by 15% across the board, including snow-plow operators, Veterans
Home nurses, prison guards and other essential employees.
 Imposes up to $8,000 a year in new health insurance costs on public employees, making
insurance unaffordable for many families. 

Governor Dayton vetoed all of the bills listed above, mostly because the bills did not balance the state
budget, and because the draconian cuts included in the legislation would cause more long-term harm to
the state.

So, what did the Republicans pass this year? They spent hours and hours debating and passing a
constitutional amendment to bar marriage for same sex families. Not one family is helped, and many are
seriously harmed by this divisive, distracting effort. They spent hours debating and passing a bill that
would loosen the state’s gun laws significantly. They passed an election bill, A Voter ID voter suppression
scheme designed to disenfranchise voters – particularly senior citizens and college students – across the
state, and they spent hours passing politically-charged abortion bills that do nothing to help women or
their children.   
At the time of this writing, the Governor continues to reach out to Republicans to refocus on the budget
and begin talking about ways to compromise. Though the regular session of the legislature is over, our
work continues.  Hopefully, we will soon be in a special session before state government is forced to shut
down on July 1 for lack of action in setting the budget, raising the necessary revenue and appropriating
the resources needed to keep our state moving forward.  We will continue to oppose public funding for a
new Vikings stadium and the use of gambling revenues to solve the state's budget deficit.  In addition to
addressing the budget, we will be advocating that the legislature pass pension reform for the city of
Minneapolis which would result in significant property tax reductions.

Please continue to stay in touch with us, and everyone you know, on your views, priorities, ideas, hopes
and aspirations for our state.  The stakes could not be higher at this moment in our history.

Sincerely,

State Senator Scott Dibble

State Representative Frank Hornstein