Bryce Haugen
brycevincenthaugen@gmail.com

The five-month 2019 Minnesota legislative session ended with a whimper on May 20, with lawmakers only approving one (higher education) of the 10 budget bills needed to keep government functioning.
So DFL Gov. Tim Walz called the only divided legislature in the nation – Democrats control the House and Republicans run the Senate – back to the Capitol for a special session last Friday to finish the work.
Lawmakers scurried to pass the remaining budget bills in a 21-hour marathon session. The bills included funding for public schools, health and human services, transportation, agriculture, housing, the environment, public safety and economic development. They also approved a tax bill with cuts to income taxes and conformity with the federal law. However, they failed to agree on a $440 million bonding bill, which would have funded public works projects throughout the state.
“I’m very pleased that the special session ended with a complete state budget,” District 4 Rep. Ben Lien (DFL-Moorhead) wrote in an email to constituents. “I don’t appreciate that, once again, we had to go into overtime to finish the job. In three of my four terms, we needed a special session to finish work on the state budget. There are steps we can take to change the overall process, and it will require both legislative bodies and the governor’s office to implement these changes.”
In interviews last week, both Lien and District 4 Sen. Kent Eken (DFL-Twin Valley) said they weren’t surprised at the way the regular session ended.
“All in all, when you consider it’s a divided legislature, things are playing out about as expected. Nobody’s 100 percent happy with what happened, including myself, but we have to compromise to get the job done. I didn’t expect I was going to get everything that I wanted.”
Although with the failed bonding bill, Clay County will have to wait at least another year for funding for a $8.5 million new solid waste facility and there won’t be any planning funds for an proposed 11th Street underpass in Moorhead, the final bills included several things that will be good for District 4, Eken and Lien said.
“We got a lot of good things,” Eken said. “It wasn’t a bad session considering. We were able to bridge the gaps and get some good provisions in there for our area.”
One of the major successes was making Border Cities Enterprise and Development Zone appropriations, which had been made on a biennial basis, a part of the base budget, meaning cities could count on ongoing funding. The Border Cities is used for several purposes, including property tax abatement and offsetting workers compensation costs, that is used to attract or retain businesses. $750,000 in annual funding will be split among Moorhead, Dilworth, East Grand Forks, Breckenridge and Ortonville, with the majority going to Moorhead.
Permanent, rather than biennial, appropriations, “will allow these cities more long-term stability and they can do more long-term planning as far as economic development,” Lien said. “It will be a really good thing for the future development in Moorhead.”
It will, Eken said, make Moorhead more competitive in attracting businesses.
Another positive provision for District 4 was in the Health and Human Service budget bill. It allows non-profit nursing homes in Moorhead and Breckenridge to apply for a rate increase that matches reimbursements in North Dakota (if North Dakota reimbursements are higher, which they currently are).
Lien said he’s been working on the Border Cities and nursing home legislation since he was first elected in 2012 and he’s glad they finally have become law.
Communities throughout District 4 will also benefit from the increase to Local Government Aid and County Program Aid, funds that are funneled directly to municipalities throughout the state. Lawmakers increased both programs by $26 million, bringing them to levels that approach what they were in 2002, before deep cuts to state budgets due to perennial revenue shortfalls.
LGA and CPA “help keep property taxes down and helps us provide services for our cities and counties,” Eken said.
Lien said “programs like these are the lifeblood of Greater Minnesota. It makes sure that regardless of where you live in Minnesota, regardless of your local tax base, your communities can pay for the critical services we all deserve.”
Minnesota State University Moorhead and M State fared pretty well with the higher education bill Walz signed, Eken and Lien said. The bill includes $81.5 million in new appropriations for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system. Lawmakers funded an additional $18.2 million in grants for students.
As a member of the House higher education committee, Lien said he had hoped the legislature would fully fund an across-the-board tuition freeze. Instead, it funded 50 percent of the freeze, capping tuition increases at 3 percent.
“(The bill) helps in holding tuition costs down and ensuring we’re able to provide the high quality education that our students deserve,” Eken said.
Some parts of District 4 still are underserved when it comes to broadband Internet access. The legislature increased funding for “border-to-border” broadband for the next biennium by $40 million.
Although it’s not the $70 million he had hoped for, Eken said, “it’s moving in the right direction.”
Lien said he’s pleased with the result.
“We need to get this service to as many people around the state as possible,” he said. “It’s critical for economic development and community development to keep greater Minnesota a strong place to work and live.”
The legislature increased per student funding for public schools by 2 percent in each of the next two years.
“That’s what we need to do – keep up with inflation,” Lien said, adding that an additional $91 million in special education funding and continuing the voluntary pre-kindergarten program were the right moves.
In addition, lawmakers upped the tax credit for farmers facing property tax increases due to school bonding referendums from 40 to 70 percent.
“It’s going to make it easier to pass referendums for schools,” Eken said. “This will help schools and obviously it helps farmers.”
One of the compromises legislators made was agreeing to shelve a proposal supported by Democrats to increase the gas tax by 20 cents per gallon while at the same time continuing a tax on health care providers which funds health care programs for low and middle income Minnesotans that Republicans had hoped would expire.
Any gas tax increase wouldn’t have affected communities within seven miles of the border because of existing state law. The full increase would have raised $6 billion over ten years to repair Minnesota’s deteriorating roads and bridges.
Although 20 cents is a bit steep, Lien and Eken said, the gas tax should have been increased somewhat because our infrastructure is falling behind.
They are pleased that the provider tax has been made permanent, with the rate dropping from 2 percent to 1.8 percent.
“To remove that would have been devastating for people on Minnesota Care and Medical Assistance,” Eken said. “It would have been a major hit to the budget of $700 million a year.”
Another provision of the tax bill cut the second tier income tax by a quarter percentage point from 7.05 percent to 6.8 percent. It was the first income tax cut in the state in 20 years.
“I don’t have any problem with cutting taxes as long as it’s not taking money away from our more vulnerable,” Eken said.