The recently released July Revenue and Economic Update gave us somewhat good news about the state’s economic and budget landscape. The quarterly report from Minnesota Management and Budget (MMB) showed that state revenues for the past fiscal year have come in slightly above expectations. It also reports that the national economy is expected to grow this year, but then that growth will taper off over the next few years. Some of the top takeaways from the Update include: 1. State revenues are coming in above projections. A preliminary look at the state’s revenues for FY 2019, which ended on June ..read more

The final E-12 education and higher education budgets for FY 2020-21 make important strides toward ensuring that more students across the state can get the education they need to succeed in today’s economy. But unfortunately, the final deal failed to incorporate proposals aimed at dismantling barriers faced particularly by Minnesota’s black, brown, and indigenous students. E-12 education In the FY 2020-21 budget, policymakers allocated $556 million in net additional funding to E-12 education. The largest piece is a 2.0 percent annual increase in funding for school districts through the basic s ..read more

As part of the final budget agreement, Minnesota’s policymakers decided to take money out of the state’s rainy day fund. This was an irresponsible budgeting choice that could hurt struggling Minnesotans during the next recession. After years of sound fiscal policy, the state’s budget reserve is at nearly $2.1 billion, and is just shy of the 5 percent of general fund revenues that Minnesota Management and Budget currently recommends. A robust budget reserve is a critical part of adequately preparing for the next economic downturn. In the same way a family saves to withstand an unexpected seriou ..read more

The 2019 tax bill agreed to by Governor Tim Walz and the Minnesota Legislature in the recently completed special legislative session includes both important hits and worrisome misses. The tax bill determines how much the state raises to fund education, health care, and other essential public services, and how we share the responsibility for funding those services. Both of these issues were high priorities this year. The state needed to update the tax code in response to 2017 federal tax changes – a process called “tax conformity.” We argued that Minnesota policymakers should not replicate the ..read more

The 649-page Health and Human Services budget bill contains multitudes. Overall, the final agreement for the FY 2020-21 budget reached by Governor Tim Walz and the Minnesota Legislature takes essential steps to protect affordable health care and makes some progress toward a broader prosperity that all Minnesotans can share. However, it stops short of making major investments to improve the lives of Minnesotans, and it includes some questionable fiscal mechanisms that undermine sustainable funding for services Minnesotans count on to thrive. Affordable health care Importantly, the final budget ..read more

On Sunday evening after weeks of negotiations, legislative leaders and Governor Tim Walz announced a global budget deal. This deal is a compromise in many ways between their original proposals. While there are many details of the final budget to be worked out, we hope that the final budget will build shared prosperity for Minnesotans, regardless of who they are or where they live. Here’s what has been reported so far. Global Budget Agreement (General Fund net changes) FY 2020-21 FY 2022-23 E-12 Education $540 million $716 million Higher Education $150 million $150 million Public Safety $125 mi ..read more

The negotiations to reach a budget deal this session have at times been characterized as a debate between raising taxes or not raising taxes. But in fact, all the plans on the table raise revenues. The real differences are in how much revenues they raise and whether those revenues are spent on building a prosperous future for all Minnesotans. Budget decisions are being made in the context of a projected state budget surplus that does not continue beyond the next two years, a state economy in which prosperity does not reach all communities and parts of the state, and against the backdrop of a 2 ..read more

The Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) rolled out powerful new web-based tools chock-full of data about health care. The dashboards are user-friendly and provide visuals like maps and charts, as well as an option to download the raw data. Now everyone can find their inner health care wonk. The Investments in Health Care dashboard helps illustrate the economic impact of Medicaid and MinnesotaCare, including number of claims, total payments in dollars, number of health care providers, and average payment per provider. The Who Medicaid and MinnesotaCare Serve dashboard includes county-l ..read more

At this point in the legislative session, there’s a lot of attention to the negotiations about budget numbers. Those are important, but we can’t lose sight of what the decisions at the Capitol are really about. And that’s how we, through our public investments, build a state where all Minnesotans – regardless of who they are or where they live – can get ahead and provide bright futures for their children. Our friends with the Kids Can’t Wait coalition have been hearing from our Minnesota neighbors about the importance of child care assistance. We’ve heard from moms for whom child care assistan ..read more

Minnesota’s health care provider tax raises nearly $680 million annually for affordable health care and investments in healthy communities across the state. This essential funding source will expire at the end of this year unless policymakers take action during this legislative session. The urgency is real: without an extension of this vital funding, the state’s Health Care Access Fund will quickly run out of money – threatening the future of essential health care services in Minnesota. The provider tax is a major funding source for health care initiatives that reach more than one million Minn ..read more