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Headlines : Minnesota
Budget triage ahead for state GOP
Republicans will learn this week how deep in debt their party is - and who their leaders will be. Successors for both former GOP chairman Tony Sutton and former Majority Leader Amy Koch are to be chosen this week.
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Headlines : Minnesota
Hired Guns Scrub MN Budget
Consulting firms have promised to find tens of millions of dollars in savings as Governor Dayton and the legislature look to continue to trim costs.
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Headlines : Minnesota
Short on cash, school districts will borrow to meet expenses
The state budget that passed this summer following the state government shutdown included delaying 40 percent of payments to schools until the next fiscal year, forcing many school district to borrow money.
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Headlines : Minnesota
Good news: Minnesota, expecting worst, gets estimate of $876 million budget surplus
Minnesota budget officials estimated a surprise $876 million surplus for the rest of the state's two-year budget, but the forecast projected a deficit of $1.3 billion for fiscal years 2014-15.
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Headlines : Minnesota
State may face new big deficit
Forecast could show gap of up to $1 billion, forcing a bruising budget battle.
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Gov. Mark Dayton
130 State Capitol
75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard
St. Paul, MN 55155
Phone: (651) 296-3391
Fax: (651) 296-2089
http://www.governor.state.mn.us/
Steve Sviggum, Commissioner
Minnesota Management and Budget
658 Cedar Street
400 Centennial Building
St. Paul, MN 55155
Phone (651) 296-5900
Fax (651) 296-8685
www.mmb.state.mn.us
2012 Legislative Calendar: Regular Session convenes January 24, adjourns May 21.
Legislative Budget Leaders:
Rep. Greg Davids (R), Chair, House Taxes Committee, rep.greg.davids@house.mn (651) 296-7881
Rep. Mary Liz Holberg (R), Chair, House Ways and Means Committee, rep.maryliz.holberg@house.mn (651) 296-6926
Sen. Claire Robling (R), Chair, Senate Finance Committee, sen.claire.robling@senate.mn (651) 296-4123
Sen. Julianne E. Ortman (R), Chair, Senate Taxes Committee, sen.julianne.ortman@senate.mn (651) 296-5640
For information on the legislators elected on November 2, 2010, please see the Ballotpedia Minnesota page.
Minnesota is required to pass a "balanced budget." Section 16A.11, Subdivision 2 of the State law requires the governor to present the biennial budget summary, setting forth the "balanced relation between the total proposed expenditures and the total anticipated income". Section 16A.156 provides the governor and relevant commissioner(s) must reduce expenditures if probable receipts for the general fund will be less than anticipated. Minnesota law forbids the carrying over of a deficit from one year to the next. Such requirements did not prevent the State from reporting budget deficits (negative net transactions) for two of the three years inspected.
The State maintains 28 individual funds, two of which are reported as major: the General Fund and Federal Fund. The only funds budgeted are the General Fund and non-major Special Revenue Funds. This is also evident from the State's annual reports that there are significant differences between actual and budgeted figures. [from the Institute for Truth in Accounting]
Find the state's bond ratings here.
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Pensions :
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HEADLINES: Minnesota, Oregon, Texas, California
Pensions Wrestle With Return Rates
Some lawmakers and pension officials are pushing to abandon the roughly 8% annual-return assumption set by many public-employee funds, saying the rate is unrealistically high given upheaval in markets around the world and the preceding financial crisis.
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HEADLINES: Minnesota
Households Obligated to Pay Another $2,000 to Make Public Pensions Whole
Two scholars say that Minnsotans may have to pay another $2,000 per household in taxes, just to make good on promises made to public pensions.
- View All Minnesota articles
Revenue :
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HEADLINES: Minnesota
Top earners cool to paying more
Minnesotans making more than $1 million a year say the plan would hurt the state's economy.
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HEADLINES: Minnesota
Divide widens; vetoes loom
Dayton says he is committed to passing tax increase; GOP readies for near-certain vetoes.
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Solutions: Minnesota
The very serious reasons for replacing MinnesotaCare with subsidies for private health insurance
Replacing MinnesotaCare with a state subsidy for individually owned private health plans is one of the key parts of the effort to redesign how the state provides health care to the poor. This can save $100 million on childless adults and up to $600 million if everyone is included.
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Solutions: Minnesota
New Budget Tools for a Balanced Minnesota
To keep the state budget in balance over the long term, Minnesota must better manage the spending side of the ledger. Over the past 40 years, total state expenditures from all funds increased at double-digit rates in all but four biennia. To control spending, Minnesota must adopt bold new budget tools and processes.
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Solutions: Minnesota
Public Pensions in Minnesota
Are Minnesota taxpayers being exposed to significant risks from pension liabilities? Or is Minnesota successfully avoiding the problems other state and local governments are struggling with? What are the current and long-term costs of our public pension decision-making? Are there reforms we can pursue to improve both the financial health of the public pension system and the accountability of pension decision-making to state taxpayers? These are the questions addressed in this report.
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Solutions: Minnesota, Virginia
States Buying Smarter: Lessons learned from Minnesota and Virginia
States spend nearly $200 billion annually purchasing goods and services-paying for everything from building roads and bridges to buying desks and computers. Conservative estimates suggest that reform of government procurement practices could save 5 to 10 percent of that total spending.
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Solutions: Minnesota
Preparing For an Even More Demanding Future: American Experiment's 2010-11 Budget Recommendations
Lawmakers' top priority for this session is erasing the $4.6 billion shortfall forecast for the 2010-11 biennium. In doing so, they must also work to create permanent solutions that not only erase the present shortfall but also avert future shortfalls. Due to certain demographic realities-led by the swelling numbers of baby boomers entering retirement-government spending is projected to outpace tax revenues for the next 25 years. Under these trends, business as usual cannot continue. Consequently, big changes to state programs and possibly the tax code will be necessary.
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BLOG : Minnesota
MN Pension Commission Update: Interim Hearings Take on "Big Issues" in Preparation for the 2012 Session
We would all like to live well in our Golden Years, but should the taxpayer be on the hook for 85% of the highest (five) earning years, without regard to how much employees contributed, the financial status of the fund or the fact that retirees (should) have lower expenses than the plans currently assume?
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BLOG : Minnesota
Minnesota Pension Problems Featured in Wall Street Journal
Governments are slowly coming to grips with the problems created by running their pension systems with pie-in-the-sky investment returns. Unfortunately, most still haven't.
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Minnesota, Oregon, Texas, California
Pensions Wrestle With Return Rates
Some lawmakers and pension officials are pushing to abandon the roughly 8% annual-return assumption set by many public-employee funds, saying the rate is unrealistically high given upheaval in markets around the world and the preceding financial crisis.
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Minnesota
Households Obligated to Pay Another $2,000 to Make Public Pensions Whole
Two scholars say that Minnsotans may have to pay another $2,000 per household in taxes, just to make good on promises made to public pensions.
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Minnesota
Lawsuit Against 2010 Pension Legislation Soundly Dismissed
The court dismissed a lawsuit challenging pension reform legislation that state lawmakers passed at the end of the 2010 legislative session.
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