At a glance: Details of the budget bills
Final agreements on several budget bills are being made public. As work on the remaining bills continues, details will be added when they are announced.
Last updated at 8:25 p.m. July 20.
PENSIONS
• State will take over city pension funds for retired Minneapolis police officers and firefighters - something city leaders have long lobbied for.
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• Both the members of each fund and the Minneapolis city council need to approve the terms of the agreement.
HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
• Total funding: $11.4 billion
• How it compares to current spending: Increase of $1 billion
• How it compares to projected demand: About $1 billion less
• Provider reimbursements: Cut 1-3 percent.
• State Medicaid: HMOs that manage the state's program will see cuts of 13 percent.
• Health-care provider tax: The 2 percent tax on non-Medicaid proceeds phased out by 2019.
• Uninsured patients: Likely to decrease in number as state enrolls them in expanding federal Medicaid program.
• Nursing homes: Mixed picture. No rate cut, and a few rural homes received a small increase in reimbursements. But the bill scratches rebasing agreement designed to help nursing home reimbursements catch up to the actual cost of care beginning 2013.
• Programs for disabled: At least $170 million dollars in cuts to waiver and home care programs, including a pay cut for personal care attendant services provided by non-legally responsible relatives - a 20 percent cut for some.
• Children: 2.5 percent cut in payments to childcare providers. Cut of 17 percent to Children and Community Services Act grants, which help abused and neglected children.
K-12 EDUCATION
• Total funding: $13.6 billion
• Delayed payments: State will defer 40 percent of its payments to K-12 districts until the next fiscal year. This was one of the controversial funding mechanisms that Gov. Dayton and the GOP used to balance the budget and come to a framework agreement. The state will delay only 25 percent of charter schools' payments.
• Per-pupil spending: Increased $50 each year of the biennium. The increase is to compensate schools for the expense of borrowing money to make up for the delayed state payments.
• Integration aid. $127 million for the biennium. 2013 is last year for the money, which is meant to increase opportunities for interaction between students of different races, and to help close the achievement gap in inner-city schools. A task force will decide what to do with the money normally allotted.
• Teacher evaluations and tenure: Requires annual evaluations for all teachers beginning in 2014. Evaluations will take student performance into large account.
• Special ed funding: $1.8 billion for special programs, which include special-ed. That's $48 million less than allotted in the conference committee bill, and $288 million less than had been allotted in the biennium's base increase.
• Rural schools: Districts with fewer than 1,000 students - not including charter schools - are eligible for additional "small schools" revenue.
• Early graduation: Creates a $7,500 scholarship for students who graduate early.
BONDING
• Total bonding: $497.6 million (adjusted for cancellations and changes to previous laws).
• University of Minnesota: Twin Cities campus: new physics and nanotechnology building: $51.3 million.
• MnSCU: St. Cloud State University: integrated science and engineering lab: $42.3 million.
• Natural Resources: $17 million to repair Soudan mine's elevator shaft and to renovate St. Croix State Park.
• Flood mitigation in the Red River and Minnesota River valleys, possibly others as well: $50 million.
• Lake Vermillion state park development: $8 million.
• Coon Rapids dam renovation: $16 million.
• Minnesota Zoo: $4 million
• Transportation: total $55.9 million. This includes $33 million for local bridge replacement and repair, $3 million for railroad crossing warnings, and $2.5 million for Greater MN transit.
TAX
• Total General Fund (Gross): $2.87 billion
• How it compares to current fund: 4.9 percent less
• Tobacco bonds: Included in bill. These allow the state to borrow against future tobacco payments. They are the controversial GOP-backed item that was a cornerstone of the framework agreement.
• Local Government Aid: Restored to 2010 levels for largest cities. Similar to Senate bill but less than governor's proposal. The House had pushed to remove funding for Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth. But LGA for all three remains at 2010 levels.
• Renters' credits: Will be reduced in future budget years. The credit for property taxes: 19 percent for FY2012, permanently reduced to 17 percent beginning FY2013.
• Property tax: Expands the homeowner property tax refund program. Increases the maximum refund from $2,410 to $2,460. Expands the income range at which the maximum applies. Decreases copayment percentage for most participants.
• High-tech tax breaks: Data storage centers can exempt sales taxes for energy usage, software and computer equipment — a tax break designed to attract large data storage companies to the state.
• Estate tax: Allows the exclusion of qualified small-business properties and farm properties — whose combined value does not exceed $4 million — from calculation of Minnesota estate tax.
• Federal income tax: Will be included in future tax-incidence studies — a major GOP victory. Republicans had said such studies didn't consider the amount of money that wealthy residents were paying in taxes.
• Political Contribution Refund Program: Suspended for two years.
• Counties to fund Maintenance of Efforts at 90 percent of current levels.
JOBS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
• Total state funding: $170 million
• How it compares to conference committee bill: $16 million increase
• How it compares to governor's proposal: $1.5 million less Minnesota Trade Office: Cut of $158,000 instead of the $3.1 million cut proposed in the conference committee bill. The GOP had wanted to eliminate it, but restored funding as part of the framework agreement.
• Minnesota Investment Fund: Cut of $3 million
• Job skills program: $442,000 cut - less than half the cut proposed in conference committee bill. Other cuts to workforce programs for the disabled.
• Business and community development: $376,000 cut, about 18 percent less than in conference committee bill. Also, cuts in aid to entrepreneurs and small business, rural policy and development and similar funds, some of which help small and midsized businesses.
ENVIRONMENT
• Total funding: $238 million.
• How it compares to conference committee bill: $36.5 million more.
• How it compares to governor's proposal: $39 million less.
• Water Quality: Requires a study of water quality laws instead of a two-year moratorium on making any new ones.
• Lake Pepin: Tells pollution control agency to reduce phosphorus levels only in the summer.
• Wild rice sulfate standard: Doesn't toughen standard, which some legislators wanted earlier in the session. Companies are not required to invest in sulfate-reducing equipment to meet state standard for probably another two years. Provides $4 million over biennium for research.
• Aquatic invasive species: Invests $5.5 million over biennium to develop best-management practices at boat landings.
• About $500,000 for bio-monitoring related to perfluorochemicals and mercury in Lake Superior.
• No money for Board of Water and Soil Resources' cost-sharing programs with counties on weed management and vegetation buffers.
JUDICIARY AND PUBLIC SAFETY
• Total state funding: $1.8 billion over next two years.
• How it compares to conference committee bill: $28.8 million more funding.
• How it compares to Dayton's plan: $14.5 million less.
(Note: State is taking money from special accounts - such as police and fire training - to balance budget.)
• Human Rights Department: 5 percent cut.
• Bureau of Criminal Apprehension: $500,000 cut - half the cut in conference committee bill.
• Legal aid / civil legal services: 6.7 percent cut.
• Public defenders: $2.5 million increase - $1 million more than increase in conference committee, but less than 40 percent of governor's proposed increase.
• Higher health insurance copayments for prison inmates.
• "Safe harbor" rule: Classifies youths engaging in prostitution as victims, not criminals.
TRANSPORTATION
• Total funding: $126 million over two years from state's general fund, total of $4.74 billion from all funding sources.
• How it compares to current general-fund spending: $41 million less.
• How it compares to conference report funding: $64 million more.
• How it compares to governor's proposal: $54 million less.
• Note: Cuts are notably less than those proposed by GOP. The additional money appears to come from other funds.
• Metropolitan Council: $52 million cut to transit programs - 40 percent. Less half the cut in conference committee.
• Transit programs: $2.7 million cut -- less than the $7.6 million cut proposed by conference committee.
• Commuter and passenger rail: Continuation of current funding.
• Vehicle and driver services: $350,000 increase in total funding.
• State Patrol: Minor general fund cut, but collection of total funds from other sources yields $1.2 million total increase.
• Department of Public Safety: Minor increase in state money, but decline in funds from other sources means $1.5 million total cut.
• Transit service: Maintained at current levels without a fare increase. A Met Council spokeswoman said the agency will help fill the gap using new Counties Transit Improvement board funding, a reduction in funding to Suburban Transit Providers and Metro Transit administrative reductions (but not layoffs).
HIGHER EDUCATION
• Total funding: $2.6 billion.
• How it compares to current spending: 8.8 percent cut.
• How it compares to conference committee bill: More generous then the 10.9 percent cut in the conference committee bill.
• How it compares to governor's proposal: Much deeper cuts than Dayton's proposal, which had reductions of 2.3 percent
• University of Minnesota: 10.4 percent cut, but proposed tuition caps were stricken.
• Minnesota State Colleges and Universities: 10.6 percent cut.
• State Grant Funding/Financial Aid: 7.3 percent increase - unchanged from the conference committee report. No changes to the funding for any other financial aid programs, such as work study, Indian scholarships and child care assistance.
• Office of Higher Education: 5.4 percent cut to administration - just under half of the cut in conference committee bill. Various student support programs were cut about 12.5 percent.
• Tuition caps: Proposed maximum tuition increases were stricken for both the U of M and all state-run universities. MnSCU's two-year colleges (community and technical) can increase their tuition by no more than 4 percent for FY 2013.
• Performance benchmarks: Both MnSCU and the U of M must hit certain benchmarks - in areas such as diversity, graduation rates and financial aid - to receive one percent of their funding.
• Anti-cloning bill: Removed. A controversial measure to restrict human cloning was removed from the bill.
• Senior citizens: Eligibility age for discounted college classes lowered from 66 to 62.
• Tuition Guarantee Plan: Colleges and universities are encouraged to set up programs that offer stable tuition over four years to undergrads.
• Credit transfers: MnsCU would have to provide progress reports and numbers of transfers, as well study successful transfer systems in other states.
LEGACY AMENDMENT
• Total funding: About $450 million over the next two years for the outdoors, water, parks and the arts. About the same as what was proposed before the shutdown.
• Open Meetings Law: A provision that would have reduced open-meetings restrictions on the Lessard Sams Outdoor Heritage Council - thus decreasing the amount of public information available — has been removed.
• Competitive grants: Minnesota Public Radio and the Association of Minnnesota Public Educational Radio Stations will compete for $2.65 million in each of the next two years.
• Libraries: Regional library systems won't have to compete for grants, but will continue to receive money through a formula.
• Parks: Metro-area lawmakers had complained that Twin Cities area parks were left out of a grant program that receives about 20 percent of the Legacy parks money. The final version of the bill still excludes metro-area parks from the program for the next two years, but lawmakers could change that in the future.
STATE GOVERNMENT FINANCE
• Cuts: GOP-backed 15 percent across-the-board reduction in the state workforce over four years was dropped as a condition of framework agreement. State finance bill does not seem to specify a cut in the workforce, but reductions in department and agency budgets seem to indicate a 6 percent decrease — about 770 jobs.
• Many questions remain about what the budget means for state employees and various services.
• Sunset advisory commission. The budget establishes a 12-member panel to streamline state government by determining which state agencies are still needed and performing adequately.
• Pay-for-performance. A pilot program will use state appropriation bonds for pay for selected services based on employee performance and how good the outcomes are for the people served.
• Employee "gainshare" program. This program will reward state employees for coming up with money-saving ideas and ways to streamline operations. The maximum award is 10 percent of the money saved in the first year — up to $1,000 for an individual employee or $2,500 for a group.