State lawmakers hash out higher education budget

[MUSIC PLAYING] EMILY BRIGHT: There's a lot of moving parts in the state legislature with a little over a month left to go in the session. Today, we want to dig into the higher education bill. State lawmakers are expected to hash out the details of that bill in committee this week. The DFL budget has increased that higher ed budget by $650 million. But the chambers of the legislature disagree on how to use that money.

Now, yesterday, the Senate passed its version of the bill, which would make tuition to public colleges and universities free for anyone whose family makes less than $80,000 per year. The House took a different approach with its bill which passed a week ago. DFL Representative Gene Pelowski of Winona is the author of the House bill. And he's here now to talk about what comes next Hi, Representative Pelowski. Thanks for making the time.

GENE PELOWSKI: No, thank you. I appreciate it.

EMILY BRIGHT: Yeah, my pleasure. So you'll be on the conference committee. What do you think of the Senate version of the bill that passed yesterday?

GENE PELOWSKI: The Senate version is an intriguing position. It's never been tried before in Minnesota. And it doesn't exactly address the problem that the house looked at over session. We spent both January and February taking a look at just budgets and budgets down to the campus level.

The committee requested and it received the declining enrollment for the last 10 years of every university and college in the Minn State system, in the University of Minnesota, and also in the private college system. We also requested the tuition increases that were being proposed by the University of Minnesota. And there was no tuition increase being proposed by Minn State. They were actually requesting a tuition freeze.

And we also took a look at what was going on with some of the program and development in the private colleges. The assessment was in our committee to go with the Minn State system, which asked for a tuition freeze. And in the House bill tuition is frozen for the next two years. In the Minn State system, there will be no tuition increase.

We addressed as much as we could at the University of Minnesota. And then we targeted some resources. In the Minn State system by campus, we wanted to see the deficits that were being run by each campus. We took about $75 million of the one-time money that we had been allocated to address the deficits by campus to ensure that program and faculty would continue.

And the overall thrust of this is we are in desperate need of a trained workforce. We have to have program and faculty available. And we have to make higher education affordable and accessible. And the House Higher Education Bill did that.

EMILY BRIGHT: Yeah, absolutely. And you've clearly done all your homework on this. So how wide apart are you between House and Senate? Are there ways that you can come together?

GENE PELOWSKI: We're not apart as far as the target numbers because we have a joint target of $650 million, and then $450 million entails, which gives us about $200 million in one-time money. So the money really isn't the issue. It's how it's being spent. And that will be the crux of the conference committee hearings that we'll be having hopefully as early as next week.

EMILY BRIGHT: OK. And could you just talk to me more about why implement a tuition freeze instead of a free tuition program?

GENE PELOWSKI: A tuition freeze allows us to ensure that the program and faculty that we're going to need to keep these programs going will remain in place. It will also allow students not to have an increase. One of the problems that we've had over the last 10 years-- and the Senate's version is a different way of assessing it-- is we've used the students as banks. We have said that we're not going to put state money in, but we can always increase tuition.

Well, increasing tuition is in my view similar to a tax. And the tax that you put on those students, they pay off for a decade or longer. And it's simply we've exhausted the bank. The bank will no longer afford tuition increases. So the big discussion with the House and Senate will be, do we do a tuition freeze or we do the free college? The free college, remember, is only targeted to certain economic groups. The tuition freeze would allow us to make sure that accessibility and affordability would be across all of it.

EMILY BRIGHT: Yeah, absolutely. The DFL majorities in both chambers want to make college free for Native American students. Can you tell me more about this program and how it would work?

GENE PELOWSKI: Well, it's free of-- what's happened, unfortunately, with the tribal colleges is that we have woefully neglected them. So in the House bill, we actually give them, the three tribal colleges, $1 million base adjustment. This is something totally new.

And we need these trained individuals. And I don't care if they come from a tribal college or any other college. But on the tribal side, we have way underfunded and neglected them. And this is our way of saying, we're going to start putting resources back in.

EMILY BRIGHT: OK. Now, Republicans have raised concerns that state colleges and universities have declining enrollment-- and you've already mentioned this-- and that these bills fail to address that problem. So what is that point that they're raising?

GENE PELOWSKI: I don't think they're correct. It was my committee that requested the declining enrollments for 10 years from 2013 until now of each campus and university in all of our systems. And we did that deliberately because I wanted to understand the trends. I didn't want to see just the cogent part of this. I wanted to see the long-term problem with this.

And the long-term problem is that we have not funded, not invested in higher education. We've made higher education too expensive. As I alluded to, we put it on the backs of the students. And we have to turn that around simply to say that there's declining enrollment. And we should do something else.

We also have another issue here. And that is we desperately need a trained, skilled workforce. We're going to get that out of our two and four-year institutions, whether it's nursing, whether it's teachers, whether it's mechanics, whether it's carpenters. They have to come from those institutions. And we have to make those institutions affordable and accessible. Cutting programs, cutting faculty isn't going to solve the problem.

EMILY BRIGHT: Republican senators have also proposed sending the money that would be spent on free college to the state grants program. What do you think of that idea?

GENE PELOWSKI: We actually do increase in the House bill the state grant program. The Senate has taken a different approach on the state grant program. But the House agrees, at least in part, that some of those resources should be going to the state grant program.

CATHY WURZER: Just switching tacks for a moment. So yesterday, the legislature passed a bill that you authored that allocates $40 million for disaster funding. And so do you expect that money will be used for flooding this year?

GENE PELOWSKI: It might be used for it this week. We're already getting reports of funding in Red River. The Mississippi River is reaching new heights. I just heard when your program was on about the next storm that's coming, which brings us more snow and more rain. We fully anticipate we're going to have some record flooding heights in Southern Minnesota, in the Northern Minnesota. And that doesn't include any storms that might be coming.

This is the first time we've actually put money straight up into this account in several sessions. So this $40 million I anticipate will be used this year for sure. We're hoping it would extend over the next two sessions. But at least we'll have money available when the legislature adjourns.

The governor will not have to call a special session. He can access this account by accessing what's happening in chapter 12 being declared a gubernatorial disaster. This is something we simply have to do. We have people that will be put in harm's way. And it's our responsibility to help them.

EMILY BRIGHT: Yeah. And so you're hoping that that $40 million for disaster funding will last for two years?

GENE PELOWSKI: I'm hoping. But you and I both know the scope of these disasters continue to amaze us in their size and ability to wreak destruction.

EMILY BRIGHT: Yeah, they absolutely have. Well, I want to thank you so much for your time and for speaking with me.

GENE PELOWSKI: No, I appreciate it, too, and anytime. Happy to do it.

EMILY BRIGHT: Thanks. DFL Representative Gene Pelowski represents District 26A from Winona County.