Yesterday afternoon Governor Mark Dayton announced he’d accept the offer from Republican House leadership, $525 million in new spending for K-12 education. The amount also includes funding to expand PreK for lower income families.
The Governor originally sought $418 million in K-12 funding plus an additional $1 billion over four years for taxpayer-funded PreK for all Minnesota 4-year-olds. He dropped the plan and accepted the Republican plan to spend more on existing PreK programs, some of which Republicans helped to establish in 2011.
When looked at as an increase over actual spending, the new number represents a $535 million increase over the last biennium and an 11% increase over the last four years.
Sources: https://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/comm/docs/058c607a-198c-4e7a-ad85-95f90bfc842f.pdf
https://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/fiscal/files/k1215app.pdf
The $525 million number was the same number Dayton was willing to accept on the last night of session, but Republicans wouldn’t go up past $425 million that night, which lead to the Governor’s veto.
The special session is anticipated to begin late this week. Legacy funding and bonding bills are expected to pass as well as the two other bills that Dayton vetoed– the job & energy bill as well as the agriculture & environment bill.