UPDATE: Gerlach Expects Lawmakers Will Pass All Budget Bills Tuesday Night

Sen. Chris Gerlach (R-District 37), Apple Valley, said Tuesday night he anticipated that lawmakers would pass all 12 budget bills, sending them to Gov. Mark Dayton to sign into law. He also said lawmakers will look at a bonding measure Tuesday night, as well.

"I am pleasantly surprised at what we were able to accomplish in these bills," he said Tuesday night, and said he would vote in favor of all the bills.

For example, he said, while the Health and Human Services bill originally was slated to increase in cost by 22 percent over the previous biennium, that increase likely will sit at 4.8 percent—"the most cost control that we have had in that area in decades," he said.

He also said he thinks there will be an "enormous amount" of positive education reform, and "a lot of good things" in state government finance as well.

Gerlach said a downside of the budget agreement is the state aid shift for schools, which will give districts 60 percent of their aid during the current school year, rather than the 70 percent they have received for the past few years. The rest, then, is paid after the year is over.

"Nobody likes the shift," he said. "There’s no question about it.”

He said, however, that the $700 million impact of that measure is small in the grand scheme of the $5 billion deficit the state faced at the beginning of the budget process; it will have "very little impact" on most school districts, he said.

The K-12 Education bill that will contain details about the school shift was still being drafted Tuesday night, he said.

It took less than an hour for Minnesota lawmakers, who reconvened Tuesday afternoon for a special session, to pass five bills by the middle of Tuesday evening.

The state House and Senate members took their seats in the legislature around 3 p.m., opened the special session, observed a moment of silence for the late Sen. Linda Scheid (DFL-Brooklyn Park) and then recessed for more than three hours.

When they reconvened around 7 p.m., they got to work. Within an hour, the Senate had passed six bills and the House had passed five.

The Legislature then went into recess again, and lawmakers are expected back at their desks later Tuesday night.

Listed below are the bills and the votes that passed them Tuesday evening:   

Minnesota Senate
Judiciary/Public Safety bill: 57-7
Environment bill: 43-22
Jobs and Economic Growth bill: 42-23
Transportation bill: 38-27
Higher education bill: 35-30
Legacy bill: 65-0

Minnesota House of Representatives
Transportation bill: 71-56
Higher Education bill: 71-57
Judiciary/Public Safety bill: 77-51
Environment bill: 71-57
Jobs and Economic Growth bill: 76-50

The remaining bills include some of the most complex and contentious pieces of legislature faced this session. They are: the Legacy funding bill for recreation, arts and culture (House only), health and human services, taxes, K-12 education, pension and state government.

Lawmakers also will look at a bonding bill Tuesday night, which Gerlach said includes about $4 million for "asset preservation" at the Minnesota Zoo, or "behind-the-scenes" improvements to maintain the zoo.

There also are appropriations for road construction projects in the bonding bill, Gerlach said; he said the Cedar Avenue Bus Rapid Transit project is not mentioned by name, but he expects part of the transit funds will help fund that project.

The overall budget proposal contains some measures Gerlach and other lawmakers are "not overjoyed about," like school aid shifts or tobacco bond borrowing, "it's something we were forced to do."

"The No. 1 most important thing is ... to open up the state government again," he said.

Dayton has maintained that he will not sign any bills until all 12 have passed the House and Senate.